Let's Build a Town!

St Francis CofE Primary School, Oxford Spires Academy, University of Oxford

Image
button book here

Free entry, reservation required.

Image
Let's Build a Town children singing

Photo credit: Simon Vail

In Let's Build a Town (1930) by the German composer Paul Hindemith, children are invited to imagine a city where there are no adults and they are in charge. In 1931, this short experiment in music theatre was performed by schoolchildren in Oxford's Holywell Music Room. In March 2025, young people from Oxford will restage scenes from the same piece, interspersed with new co-created music and theatre exploring what they think it means to build a town today.

Join us for this performance; a new town will be imagined and built before your very eyes and ears!

The performance will be followed by a post-concert talk with participants and members of the artistic team.

Produced by Music at Oxford and the Cultural Programme at the University of Oxford, with support from the Faculty of Music, Magdalen College and the Marchus Trust.

Image
Music at Oxford logo
Image
250314  picture4

<speaks> | Tomomi Adachi

Adachi will talk about his wide-ranging practice spanning music, poetry and visual art. Topics will include human voice, composition, improvisation, performance technique (and its absence), site-specific work, technology and artificial intelligence. The talk may also include a short performance designed for the online format.

Brother Tree Sound

A journey through British folk music.

The Chamber Concerts: Beethoven with the Neruda Quartet I

2026 Tillett Debut Artists the Neruda Quartet perform string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven.

Phantom Melodies and Tangerine Trees: A voyage through the psychedelic musical experience

Using musical illusions, perceptual experiments and examples from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Tchaikovsky, Steve Reich and beyond, Prof. Milton Mermikides explores how music can evoke altered perceptions of time and self, the blending of senses and moments of transcendence, and why music relies on the very same perceptual mechanisms for its extraordinary power.

Migration, Performance & Policy seminar

From Photos to Forensics: Borders and Fatalities in Calais, Italy, and the Mediterranean Sea

Book launch - ‘The Networked Court: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Late Medieval Court Cultures’

Presentations by editor Karl Kügle and authors Jane Gilbert, Christophe Masson, and Helen Swift