Surrey Hills International Music Festival 2026

Each spring, SHIMF brings world-class musicians to perform in stunning venues across the Surrey Hills.

• Highlights include a romantic song recital by our Patron, Dame Sarah Connolly

• The Julian Bliss Quintet at RHS Garden Wisley in a programme of jazz classics

• Award-winning vocal group Tenebrae with choral music from across the centuries

• SHIMF continues to support young artists with two Lunchtime Young Artist Concerts: Frets and Flutes in West Horsley Place alongside a talk by historian and TV presenter Kate Williams. The second, in the beautiful medieval church of St Michael’s Betchworth, features gifted young students from The Yehudi Menuhin School.

The Festival combines world-class music with the natural beauty of the Surrey Hills, offering guided walks through the picturesque countryside of West Horsley Place and Betchworth.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Tuesday 5 May
Flutes and Frets: Concert with talk by Kate Williams and guided walk

West Horsley Place, 10.30am walk, 12.30pm talk and concert

Thursday 7 May
Julian Bliss Quintet: Pioneers of Jazz
The music of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Herbie Hancock and others

RHS Garden Wisley, 7.30pm

Saturday 9 May
Tenebrae: A Celestial Gift
Sacred choral music including Allegri’s Miserere, Rachmaninov, Holst and Gibbons

Holy Trinity Guildford, 7.30pm

Monday 11 May
Menuhin Students’ Concert with guided walk

St Michael’s Church Betchworth, 10.30am walk, 12.30pm concert

Thursday 14 May
A Fairytale in Paris
Music for two pianos, including Prokofiev Cinderella and works by Ravel and Mozart
Katya Apekisheva, Charles Owen, Juho Pohjonen, Wu Qian

The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d’Abernon, 7.30pm

Friday 15 May
Songs of Love and Longing:
Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) and Julius Drake (piano)
Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, Duparc, Mahler and Mozart

Holy Trinity Guildford, 7.30pm

Saturday 16 May
Vienna
Chamber music to include Schubert ‘Trout’ Quintet, and works by Mozart and Mahler
Sitkovetsky Trio with musicians from the Yehudi Menuhin School

The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d’Abernon,
6.15pm Young Composers Competition concert and presentation;
7.30pm concert

General booking opens Wednesday 7 January 2026