A World-Class Period Instrument Ensemble for Oxford
Instruments of Time & Truth joins the Oxford Bach Choir and conductor Benjamin Nicholas for Bach’s Mass in B minor in the Sheldonian Theatre.
The Choir of New College, Oxford, and Instruments of Time & Truth perform Parts IV to VI of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the University Church.
An evening of Mozart with Summertown Choral Society and conductor Duncan Saunderson: the Requiem and the Solemn Vespers, K. 339.
Handel’s Acis and Galatea is a tale concerning transient love, beauty and jealousy, and is told through music that encompasses the joyful and the melancholic. Handel’s first dramatic work in the English language, the story follows the nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, their love and adoration for each other, and the envious giant Polyphemus who threatens their happiness.
The opera was first performed in 1718, and was so popular that by the middle of the 18th century it had been staged seventy times.
Anastasia Bevan (soprano)
Dominic Bevan (tenor)
William Searle (tenor)
Ben Davies (bass)
Benson Choral Society
Instruments of Time and Truth
Thomas Neal (conductor)
To celebrate their ongoing 50th anniversary season, The Arcadian Singers look forward to presenting Handel's Opera Acis and Galatea with the Instruments of Time and Truth in the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Handel’s Acis and Galatea is a tale concerning transient love, beauty and jealousy, and is told through music that encompasses the joyful and the melancholic. Handel’s first dramatic work in the English language, the story follows the nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, their love and adoration for each other, and the envious giant Polyphemus who threatens their happiness.
J. S. Bach, Johannes-Passion, BWV 245
New College Choir
Instruments of Time and Truth
Edward Beswick, Evangelist
Robert Quinney, Conductor
Tickets will be available on TicketSource. Priority booking for members of New College from 9 February. General tickets released on 16 February.
The performance lasts approximately 2 hours with no interval. It is not suitable for small children. Please be aware there is no opportunity to leave except in an emergency.
Instruments of Time & Truth
Keble Chapel Choir
Gwilym Bowen (Evangelist)
In the final concert of the Keble Early Music Festival 2026, Keble Choir are joined by Instruments of Time & Truth, Gwilym Bowen (Evangelist) and a stellar lineup of soloists, in a performance of the Passion story as told in John’s Gospel. Entwining the theatrical and theological Bach provides some of the most dramatic and impassioned music ever composed in recounting the horrific events of Christ’s arrest and crucifixion.
We're delighted to be returning to the Keble Early Music Festival 2026 for our annual baroque strings workshop in partnership with Oxfordshire County Music Service. This is an open workshop for secondary-school aged students grades 6+, led by expert coaches from IT&T.
More information about KEMF 2026 available on their website, including about the performance of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion featuring IT&T.
Instruments of Time and Truth accompany Summertown Choral Society, conducted by Duncan Saunderson.
What better way to start the Christmas season than with Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, which he assembled from the series of six cantatas written in Leipzig for the Christmas feast-days in 1734/5. Together they make a compelling narrative, beginning with the dramatic chorus 'Christians be Joyful'. To bring out its baroque authenticity we have the renowned period orchestra Instruments of Time and Truth to play with us.
The Choir of New College Oxford is firmly established as one of the most acclaimed British choral ensembles. Celebrated for its distinctive sound, it embodies the splendour of the English choral tradition. Founded in 1379, the choir frequently performs in prestigious venues worldwide, and its versatility is reflected in its diverse core repertoire, with a particular scholarly focus on renaissance and baroque music.
Featuring hand-picked student singers from across the university, coached by soprano Miriam Allan and IT&T’s Christopher Bucknall, this programme explores the astonishing laboratory of Monteverdi’s mind and explores the evolution of vocal music from renaissance polyphony to the dramatic music which evolved into opera as we know it today.
The St John Passion, a glorious choral work by Johann Sebastian Bach, was composed just over 300 years ago and first performed in St Nicholas Church, Leipzig, at the Vespers service on Good Friday in 1724. This was during Bach’s first year as director of music in Leipzig, where he remained for the next 27 years.
One of the greatest and most powerful musical works ever written, it was described by Robert Schumann as ‘more daring, forceful and dramatic’ than Bach’s St Matthew Passion, written three years later. Two magnificent extended choruses at the beginning and end frame the four elements of the work: speech rhythm narration, the ferocious and taut ‘crowd’ choruses, operatic-style arias, and Lutheran chorale melodies exquisitely harmonised by Bach.
Under the baton of our conductor, Duncan Saunderson, we shall be singing the excellent and very accessible English version of the text, in the New Novello edition. The orchestral accompaniment for the concert will be, as for several of the choir’s previous performances, by Instruments of Time and Truth. It will be a great experience for audience and singers alike.
Instruments of Time and Truth
New College School Choral Society
New College School Chamber Choir
Thomas Neal Conductor
IT&T join the combined choirs of New College School for a Henry Purcell’s masque adaption of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Robert Quinney directs the choir of New College with Sebastian Hill as the evangelist.
Tickets, free - but must be booked in advacne
Instruments of Time and Truth
Oxford Bach Choir
Benjamin Nicholas Conductor
300 years after its first performance, the Oxford Bach Choir performs the St John Passion.
The shorter of Bach’s great settings of the Passion story, this is arguably the more dramatic, engulfing listeners and performers alike from first to last. The days leading up to the crucifixion of Christ are dramatically narrated by the Evangelist, beginning with his arrest following the Last Supper and following him through his trials, death, and burial. This narrative is interspersed with vivid evocations of various moments in the action, in which the chorus features prominently, at one moment portraying a bloodthirsty mob, next anguished believers, then with moving meditations on various aspects of the story.
In Bach’s masterpiece, recitatives, arias, and chorales are woven into an extraordinary whole, evoking by turns terror, joy, longing, and hope.
The St John Passion has been in the repertoire of the Oxford Bach Choir for over a century, and this latest performance promises to be another memorable occasion.
Handel’s pastoral in a semi-staged production by Nicholas Heath, featuring The Choir of Keble College, Instruments of Time & Truth and soloists Anna Dennis (soprano), Nicholas Mulroy (tenor) and Neal Davies (bass-baritone), directed from the harpsichord by Christian Wilson
Keble College Chapel
Summertown Choral Society
Instruments of Time and Truth
Duncan Saunderson Conductor
Mozart “Great” Mass in C Minor
H. Purcell Funeral Music for Queen Mary
H. Purcell They that go down to the sea in ships
Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor was composed in Vienna in 1782/3 and is regarded as one of his finest works. Scored for large orchestra and double choir, it shows the influence of Bach and Handel, whom Mozart had been enthusiastically studying. The soprano solos, written for his wife Constanze, are some of the most ravishing soprano solos he ever wrote. She too adored the work of Bach and Handel and the Mass has been described as a love offering to her.
Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary was first performed in 1695 in Westminster Abbey. The music, showing Purcell at his absolute best, completely transcends the sombre words, and the hauntingly beautiful instrumental interludes played by brass and drum are unforgettable.
They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships is an extraordinary anthem featuring an extended bass solo originally written for the Reverend John Gostling, a ‘basso profondo’ well known to Purcell. These voices, plumbing the depths of the bass clef, are a rarity, but SCS think they have the man!
Instruments of Time & Truth
New College Choir
Robert Quinney Director
Join New College Choir and IT&T for a performance of parts I, II, and III of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the beautiful surroundings of Oxford’s University Church
Instruments of Time and Truth
New College School Choral Society
New College School Chamber Choir
Thomas Neal Conductor
IT&T join the combined choirs of New College School for a festive feast of music, including J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 140 Wachet Auf! along with Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai and Symphony No. 11 in E flat.
Instruments of Time and Truth
Benson Choral Society
Steven Grahl Conductor
IT&T returns to Dorchester Abbey for the second time this year to join Benson Choral Society in a grand performance of J.S. Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass
Tickets not yet available.
Instruments of Time and Truth
Choir of Merton College, Oxford
Benjamin Nicholas Conductor
Merton College Chapel is the magnificent setting for this performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s dramatic and thrilling Vespero della Beata Vergine given by the Choir of Merton College, the Girl Choristers of Merton College and Instruments of Time and Truth under the direction of Benjamin Nicholas.
Soloists will include Sophie Bevan and Ruairi Bowen
Oxford Pro Musica Singers
Instruments of Time and Truth
Mark Jordan Conductor
IT&T joins the Oxford Pro Musica Singers perform Handel's sparkling early work Dixit Dominus in the spectacular Sheldonian Theatre, together with Vivaldi's popular setting of the Gloria. The programme is completed with Buxtehude's Der Herr ist mit mir.
Civil war, political upheaval, plague: Hay Castle’s rebirth in the mid-17th Century came at a time of great drama in British history - most memorably observed through the eyes of that great diarist, Samuel Pepys. Instruments of Time and Truth present a concert exploring the sounds and colours Pepys himself would have been familiar with: music he would have experienced at the theatre in works by Purcell, chamber music by the likes of Matthew Locke that he himself would have played, and finally the diverse range of music that he owned, brought to life from the many books and scores of his famous library.
Bojan Cicic: Violin
Ian Wilson: Recorder
Susanne Heinrich: Viola da Gamba
Linda Sayce: Theorbo
Christopher Bucknall: Harpsichord
This special concert in the atmospheric surroundings of Trinity College’s Wren modified Chapel offers a musical glimpse of London in the later years of the architect’s extraordinary life. It showcases composers who were active around 1723 and who represent the musical styles prevalent in London in the first three decades of the 18th century as Wren stepped back to survey his astonishing lifetime’s work. The programme features trio sonatas by William Croft (1678-1727), sacred songs of John Weldon (1676-1736) and secular songs and theatre music by John Eccles (1668-1735)
Join IT&T for a unique evening celebrating music in the Historic House and new galleries dedicated to Thomas Gainsborough in Sudbury - a man known for his passion for music, musicians and music-making.
Enjoy a musical tour of the Historic House with performances in the David Pike Drawings Gallery, the Gainsborough Gallery and, within the Music and Early Gainsborough Rooms. After drinks in the interval in the Landscape Studio, enjoy a concert in the Gainsborough Gallery featuring music by Gainsborough’s friends: Karl Friederich Abel, Johann Christian Bach, Ignatius Sancho, and John Christian Fischer.
With grateful thanks to John Osborn for supporting this performance.
IT&T joins the choir of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin to celebrate Easter Day with music by Padilla and Bird.
This is a church service; attendance is free and unticketed.
Choir of Merton College, Oxford
Instruments of Time and Truth
Ruairi Bowen Evangelist
Áine Smith Soprano
Hugh Cutting Alto
Benjamin Nicholas Director
As part of Passiontide at Merton 2023, experience this gripping and vividly human masterpiece performed in the magnificent Merton College Chapel.
New College School Chamber Choir
New College School Choral Society
Instruments of Time and Truth
Lizi Vineall Soprano
Louise Ashdown Contralto
Colin Danskin Tenor
Charlie Epps Bass
Thomas Neal Director
Malcolm Bruno's new (2019) reconstruction of J. S. Bach's lost Markus-Passion, BWV 247, performed by the Chamber Choir and Choral Society of New College School and IT&T.
New College Choir
Soloists from the choir
Robert Quinney Director
IT&T joins New College Choir for a liturgical performance of J.S. Bach’s passiontide masterwork.
Tickets to this event are free but must be reserved in advance.
Schola Cantorum of Oxford
Instruments of Time and Truth
Steven Grahl Director
IT&T joins Oxford University’s premier chamber choir Schola Cantorum of Oxford to present Vivaldi’s ever-popular Gloria and Handel’s exuberant Dixit Dominus together with Bach's motet Lobet den Herrn at Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday 11th March.
Soloists include Sofia Kirwan-Baez, Lucy Gibbs, Jack Harberd and Patrick Keefe.
Choir of Keble College, Oxford
Instruments of Time and Truth
Christopher Bucknall Director
G.F. Handel: Concerto Grosso in B flat Op 3 No 10 HWV 313
G.F. Handel: Ode on the Birthday of Queen Anne HWV 74
J.S. Bach: Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten! BWV 214
The 2023 Keble Early Music Festival comes to a close with a celebratory trio of Baroque birthday works by Bach and Handel.
