Candlelight: Best of Joe Hisaishi

Belford Strings are taking the music of Joe Hisaishi to St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral on Saturday 6 February 2027. It's a Candlelight concert, so the string quartet plays under the glow of candlelight rather than stage lights, and the set is built around Hisaishi's work for Studio Ghibli and beyond.

The programme runs through the anime scores that made his name. You'll hear themes from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ponyo, and Howl's Moving Castle. It's not all Ghibli, though — Kikujiro is on the list too, so the set covers a good stretch of his best-known work.

The venue is St Mary's in the West End, a Category A listed Gothic Revival building on Palmerston Place. It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, consecrated in 1879, and is well known for its three spires. It holds 1,500 people and these days hosts classical concerts, recitals and Candlelight events.

Practicalities: the concert starts at 6:30 pm and runs for an hour. Doors open 45 minutes before and close five minutes before the start. Tickets start from £15.75. It's for ages 8 and over, under-16s have to be accompanied by an adult, and seating is assigned on a first-come, first-served basis within each zone. The cathedral is wheelchair accessible.