BBC New Generation Artists: Schubert Quintet

Opus13 and cellist Yibai Chen are playing at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities on Saturday 1 May 2027. The concert is part of the BBC New Generation Artists series, and the whole thing is being recorded for BBC Radio 3, so it's one of those nights that'll live on long after the hall has cleared.

Opus13 is a string quartet, and for this one they're bringing in Yibai Chen on cello to expand the sound to a quintet. The programme builds towards Schubert's String Quintet, a piece that needs that extra cello to work, and that's the big draw of the night. It's a recording session as much as a concert, so you'll be hearing it live in the room and then later on the radio.

The venue is the Sohmen Concert Hall, inside the Schwarzman Centre on Woodstock Road in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. The centre itself houses seven of the university's humanities faculties and the Bodleian Humanities Library, so it's right in the thick of the university's academic heart. This performance falls within the centre's second season, which runs from January to July 2027 and brings together music, dance, theatre, visual art, film and literature. A good deal of what they're putting on is commissioned and developed alongside Oxford University researchers, so there's a strong link between the stage and the research happening around it.

If you're planning to go, the date is 1 May 2027 at the Sohmen Concert Hall, within the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities on Woodstock Road, Oxford. It's Opus13 and Yibai Chen performing Schubert's String Quintet, recorded for BBC Radio 3.