BBC New Generation Artists: Gugg Piano Duo

Gugg Piano Duo play the Sohmen Concert Hall on Friday 30 April, part of the first full season at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities on Woodstock Road. They're BBC New Generation Artists, and the evening is built around a single, wide-reaching theme: planetary health. It's not a lecture or a talk, but a programme that explores the idea through music, with the two pianos doing the heavy lifting.

If you haven't been to the Schwarzman Centre yet, it's worth knowing what it actually is. It's a new hub in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter that brings together seven of the university's humanities faculties and the Bodleian Humanities Library. The 2027 season runs from January to July and covers music, dance, theatre, visual art, film and literature, with many of the projects commissioned and developed alongside Oxford University researchers. Gugg Piano Duo fits right into that mix—a performance that sits somewhere between a concert and a conversation about the world we're living in.

They aren't the only names on the bill this year. The season brings in Cultural Fellows who've spent time in residence there, including choreographer Wayne McGregor, sitarist Anoushka Shankar and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, all presenting the work that came out of their time at the centre. Gugg Piano Duo's slot is one of the musical nights in that broader calendar, and the planetary health theme gives you a good sense of where their heads are at: it's music that looks outward.

The concert starts at 7pm at the Sohmen Concert Hall, inside the Schwarzman Centre on Woodstock Road. If you're heading in from the city centre, it's a short walk or bus ride over to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.