Music

In 1995, the London Review of Books ran the cover line ‘Was Jane Austen gay?’ Many people were horrified, including Terry Castle, the literary critic whose essay about Austen’s letters to her sister, Cassandra, led to the uproar. Castle hadn’t actually claimed this, but had examined ‘the primitive adhesiveness – and underlying eros – of the sister-sister bond’.

To mark Austen’s 250th birthday, the LRB returns to Castle’s essay in the latest of the magazine’s series of ‘live essays’. Actors will read from Castle’s piece and the texts it interrogates – Austen’s letters, novels, her nephew’s family memoir, her lesbian contemporary Anne Lister’s diaries – and consider the backlash.

A live musical counterpoint accompanies the readings, arranged by Isobel Waller-Bridge, whose works include the score for the 2020 film version of Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy.

One of Wales’ best-known musicians, Jamie Morrison, talks about turning his hand to fiction with his semi-autobiographical novel Wonderboy and The Life & Times of Drewford Alabama.

The book follows Andrew ‘Pop’ Morrison, who hits the big time with his band. But when his partying lifestyle takes a dramatic downward turn, the only thing he finds comfort in is the personal diary of Drewford Alabama. With only a name and mysterious messages on an empty page, will he ever find him?

Morrison is a musician, songwriter and producer, best known as the drummer in Welsh band Stereophonics. In his teens, he formed the band Noisettes and had worldwide success. Since 2017 he has been part of a new project called 86TVs, featuring The Maccabees siblings Hugo, Felix and Will White.

A chance to see an unprecedented collaboration between BBC Radio 3’s award-winning Delia Stevens and three-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year nominee Will Pound, as they follow the creative evolution of the classical composers inspired by folk.

The pair combine the traditional instruments of Pound’s melodeon and harmonica with the dizzying array of Stevens’ percussion, and then let their imaginations run riot while paying homage to their respective musical roots.

Stevens’ work ranges from reimagining Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with percussion for Sky Arts, presenting her own BBC Radio 3 series Music and Machines and performing Avner Dorman’s prolific 360° percussion concerto at Prague’s ‘Last Night of the Proms’ with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra.

Pound has created touring projects questioning Brexit, featuring a traditional tune from every EU state, and has explored the history of Morris Dance with Martin Simpson and storyteller Debs Newbold in ‘Through the Seasons’.

Expect roaring swing, sassy vocals, fabulous funk and delicious Latin flavours from one of the UK’s finest big bands, teeming with first-call players and appearing under the musical directorship of award-winning band leader Pete Long. The band’s exciting brew of virtuoso ensemble playing with killer solo contributions from across all sections has been delighting jazz fans right across the board.

Their shows have made national press for their ability to change style and genre while maintaining that big band power. Settle in for an evening of first-class arrangements of classic hits from the likes of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, the Rat Pack and Benny Goodman!

Jump up and get down with the turntable master at our Friday night party! DJ legend Vertigo’s seamless mixes create an irresistible energy on the dance floor. Influenced by house, acid house and rave culture, his own unique sound mixes infectious basslines, deep beats and soulful melodies. His sets are a tribute to the golden era of house music, blending classic tracks with fresh takes on the genre. Grab a drink and lose yourself in the original rave ethos of unity, freedom and joy.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. Got 2 Sing Choir perform uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter.

Following last year’s sell-out scratch choir session, Juliet Russell returns to create a beautiful sound with 200 strangers. She has led choirs for Paloma Faith, Alt-J, Greenpeace, the Olympic Torch project, Channel 4 and Glastonbury. As a singer, music creative and vocal coach on The Voice and Netflix new flagship music show Building the Band, Juliet will guide you to use your voice in a whole new way.

No experience is needed. This session is for singers, secret singers and ‘I’ve never sung in my lifers’. Uplifting, engaging and a perfect way to start your day.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. Got 2 Sing Choir perform uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter.

Hay Music presents an afternoon of music with one of the country’s leading contemporary classical and electric guitarists whose repertoire spans back to Milhaud and Bach. He performs regularly as soloist and ensemble player with the London Chamber Symphony, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the LSO, The New London Chamber Choir and many others. His programme will include works by JS Bach, Gavin Bryars and Stravinsky, plus the rarely performed The Blue Guitar by Michael Tippett.

Enjoy this twenty-minute open air performance between events. Come along and join Cantorion Y Gelli for some good old-fashioned Welsh hwyl! Cantorion Y Gelli is Hay’s mixed-voice, Welsh-language choir set up by musical director Gemma Woolford.

The majority of members are either learning Welsh or passionate about the language, with three first-language Welsh-speakers keeping a strict ear on pronunciation. They have a varied repertoire of traditional folk songs, hymns, male voice choir classics and even a football anthem.

Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood’s book How to Disappear has been two decades in the making. Taking us from the stage to the rehearsal room, it illuminates the creative process of one of the 21st century’s most influential bands.

In this event, Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood tells stories from his career and guides us through some of the candid photographs he’s taken. Greenwood has played bass in Radiohead since their formation in 1985. He has also recorded and toured with Tamino, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and has written for publications including the Guardian and the Spectator.

Radiohead has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Their many accolades include six Grammy and four Ivor Novello Awards. The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019 and their 1997 album OK Computer is archived in the US Library of Congress. He talks to scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford.

PG Wodehouse, best known for creating Jeeves and Wooster, once had a record-breaking five musicals playing simultaneously on Broadway. In Play on Words, devised and directed by Hugh Wooldridge, Wodehouse’s step-great grandson Hal Cazalet and pianist Simon Beck transport us back to the Golden Age of stage and screen through stories, anecdotes and songs.

Wodehouse’s lyrics informed the way he crafted his novels and shaped his inimitable characters, as well as helping define the American musical. Celebrate the birth of the musical, with theatrical writing highlights of the last 120 years from Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and more.

Cazalet is an opera singer who has created leading roles in world premieres for composers across the world. Beck has been music director and pianist for a number of artists, and for the London debut of the Broadway institution Sondheim Unplugged.

Musicians Cerys Matthews and Arun Ghosh present an extraordinary exploration of the worlds and words of the late, great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

Welsh singer-songwriter and Thomas fan Matthews – whose Sunday morning show is the biggest single show on Radio 6 – takes us on a tour of Llareggubb, the fictional seaside village of Under Milk Wood, with acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Ghosh accompanying on clarinet and harmonium. In this magical evening, the pair bring to life characters including Captain Cat and Nogood Boyo from Under Milk Wood, celebrating one of Thomas’ best known works through a mix of storytelling and music.

A love of Dylan Thomas has infused Matthews’ career; she composed music for A Child’s Christmas, and among her books are Out of Chaos Come Bliss, a compilation of Thomas’ poetry, and a retelling of Under Milk Wood. Ghosh is a British-Asian clarinettist, bandleader and composer who has twice been awarded Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

Mercury Prize-nominated singer Sam Lee has shaken up the music scene. His latest album Songdreaming (a Mojo Album of the Month) breaks boundaries between traditional and contemporary music. It’s rich in musicality and invention, building on the backbone of double bass, percussion and violin with a world of instrumentation including the Arabic Qanoon and Swedish Nyckelharpa.

His lyrical focus on the perilous state of the natural world informs all his work, and his arrangements relate to a modern audience, moving from identifiable acoustic songs to drone soundscapes, electric guitar and gospel choir. He is a co-founder of Music Declares Emergency.

Lee is also a film soundtrack composer and has provided songs for several major feature films, from Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

Comedian and musician Rob Deering presents Beat This, the live-music, stand-up comedy game show. Deering delivers mash-ups, megamixes and mayhem, as four great guests from across the Festival compete to win this pop quiz with a difference.

A twenty-first century one man band, Deering creates “a highly impressive one-man soundscape powered mainly by energy and excellent guitar skills” (The Scotsman) at the centre of this fun show. It’s a festival favourite from the Edinburgh Fringe, Green Man, Machynlleth Comedy Festival, Latitude and more, making its Hay Festival debut in 2025.

“As sharp and versatile as a Swiss Army knife” – The Independent.

Academic Simon Baron-Cohen and journalist John Harris discuss the science of neurodivergence, what it means in theory and in practice, and delve into their personal and professional experiences of autism. They look at the ongoing revolutions in our understanding of neurodivergence, and neurodivergence’s deep links to human creativity.

Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge. Baron-Cohen’s current research is testing the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism at the neural, endocrine and genetic levels.

Harris, a columnist at the Guardian, is author of Maybe I’m Amazed, a book about his autistic son James, and how music and songs became their most precious source of connection. Harris writes regularly for music magazine Mojo and has won awards including the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism and the UK Press Award for Political Commentator of the Year.

This is the story of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the two geniuses behind The Beatles, as you’ve never heard it before. Ian Leslie discusses John & Paul, his biography of the pair, which begins in 1957 when the two teenagers met in suburban Liverpool and ends 23 years later, when Lennon was murdered.

Leslie, author of two acclaimed books on human behaviour, looks at how Lennon and McCartney were not just friends, rivals or collaborators, but intimates who both had the fabric of their world ruptured at a young age, and who longed to make emotional connections. His refreshing take on two of the greatest icons in music history draws on recently released footage and recordings.

Internationally renowned lyricist Sir Tim Rice steps out from the wings and takes to the stage to reflect on his illustrious career at the heart of musical theatre.

This evening of music and anecdotes sees Rice sharing the stories behind some of the most-loved and best-known musicals of our time, from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar to Evita and the Disney productions The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.

A must for fans of musical theatre, there will be performances by some of the UK’s leading West End singers, including ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’, ‘Any Dream Will Do’ and ‘I Know Him So Well’.