Louise Alder is one of today’s most exciting sopranos. The Times wrote that ‘she has such a glorious bloom on her soprano voice that you’d think she could simply sing open the gates of heaven’. With pianist Joseph Middleton, she returns to the Festival with a programme that explores the passing of the year, including Helen Grime’s Seasons, written for Louise and Joseph in 2025, Margaret Bonds’ beautiful cycle The Seasons, and songs of spring, summer, autumn and winter by Schubert, Sibelius, Chaminade, Puccini and others.