Con Brio 2026 brings together music inspired by nature, storytelling, folklore and the human spirit across three days of performances, competitions and collaborations. From Beethoven’s countryside landscapes and Debussy’s impressionist soundscapes to playful operatic drama and vibrant chamber works, this year’s festival celebrates the many ways music reflects the world around us.

Friday, 24th: The opening day of Con Brio 2026 begins with the semi-final round of the piano competition, followed by Delibes’ beloved Flower Duet from Lakmé, set beside a picturesque riverbank in British India. After the strings competition semi-finals, the audience will hear Vaughan Williams’s ‘Linden Lea’, evoking the charm of the English countryside and Rachmaninoff’s exhilarating ‘Spring Waters’. Haydn’s vibrant “The Lark” Quartet brings birdsong and flight vividly to life, before the evening concludes with Ferdinand Ries’s Theme and Variations on ‘The Last Rose of Summer’—a graceful piano sextet blending Beethovenian intensity with Mozartian elegance.

Saturday, 25th: Saturday opens with Beethoven’s radiant “Spring” Sonata, followed by ‘A Green Lowland of Pianos’, a whimsical art song personifying the grand piano grazing like cattle in a meadow. The final round of the piano competition leads into Shostakovich’s lyrical Romance from The Gadfly Suite. The programme also features Jonathan Dove’s comic aria ‘It’s My Wedding!’, Brahms’s moonlit vocal quartet and Barber’s haunting ‘Dover Beach’. Rameau’s playful ‘La Poule’ follows, before the evening concludes with Mozart’s spirited ‘Zu Hilfe!’—a dramatic and comic ensemble scene accompanied by piano and strings.

Sunday, 26th: The festival’s final day begins with Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony in a special two-piano arrangement, perfectly capturing the spirit of nature and renewal at Con Brio 2026. Following the finals of the strings competition, the Paranjoti Academy Chorus presents nature-inspired works by Barber and Whitacre. Debussy’s impressionistic Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune appears in a unique chamber arrangement, followed by a Brahms trio for viola, violin and piano. The festival closes with Handel’s serene ‘Ombra Mai Fu’ and Saint-Saëns’s much-loved Carnival of the Animals in its grand original scoring for two pianos, winds, strings and percussion.