By Inge Kjemtrup | From the May/June 2026 issue of Strings
Wigmore Hall, the jewel in London’s musical crown, is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2026, its reputation for pleasing both audiences and performers still well deserved. “There is something about Wigmore that steadies and uplifts you at the same time,” says Ryan Meehan, violinist with the Calidore String Quartet. “Its golden acoustic is among the most generous and truthful in the world, allowing a string quartet to explore its full expressive range with extraordinary clarity and warmth. The challenge, if there is one, is simply to rise to the standard the hall itself seems to demand.”
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Violist Dana Zemtsov, who recently performed Dvořák’s viola quintet with the Pavel Haas Quartet at Wigmore, describes her initial experience: “I remember very distinctly the first note that I played, trying out the hall before the concert, was one of the most peaceful moments I have known. I remember it because it was like no other first note in any other hall—the sound seemed pure, and my instrument seemed to breathe easily, which brought a very powerful momentum and stillness to that instant.”
As an audience member waits for a concert to begin, she might gaze up at the decorated half dome above the stage. Julia Boyd, in her forthcoming book, There Is Sweet Music Here: The World of Wigmore Hall, describes the bewitching artwork one sees: “A figure representing the Soul of Music is crowned by the Genius of Harmony which, in the form of a golden sphere of light, lets fall its glittering rays on two musicians: one a performer supported by the female figure of Love; the other a composer inspired by the goddess Psyche, holding a lantern over his head.”
Inside the hall, it seems little has changed since 1901. The seats are red plush. The floor is carpeted; the walls are covered in mahogany, marble, and stone. Elegant turn-of-the-century lighting fixtures illuminate the walls. Two large vases on either side of the stage are filled with seasonal floral arrangements. Music stands, chairs, and, possibly, a piano are onstage. The fidgety concertgoer focuses their attention on the door, stage left, from which the performers will emerge once the lights have dimmed.
For the performers, the past is ever present. “Walking backstage and seeing the historic photographs and handwritten messages from generations of musical heroes in the green room was profoundly moving—both humbling and slightly overwhelming. You feel immediately aware of the lineage you are stepping into,” recalls Meehan. “The moment we walked on stage, any sense of trepidation dissolved and was replaced by inspiration.”
A selection of performers from Wigmore’s first 100 years: Joseph Szigeti, William Primrose, Pablo Casals, Arthur Rubinstein, Jessye Norman, the Beaux Arts and Florestan trios, and the Budapest, Busch, Amadeus, and Endellion string quartets. Composers, too: Gabriel Fauré, Benjamin Britten, Rebecca Clarke, and Samuel Barber. A more recent sampling might include Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Lawrence Power, András Schiff, Ian Bostridge, Igor Levit, Steven Isserlis, Rhiannon Giddens, and the Takács, Belcea, and Pavel Haas string quartets.
John Gilhooly, the hall’s director, is acutely aware of Wigmore’s lineage. To open this May’s 125th Anniversary Festival, Gilhooly harkened back to some of the repertoire played at the first concert on May 31, 1901, including Beethoven’s Romance in G major, Op. 40, and a selection of Bach partitas—performed by violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni in 1901 and by violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist-composer Thomas Adès in 2026.
Thumbing through brochures for the anniversary festival and indeed for the entire anniversary year, certain strands emerge: chamber ensembles, solo recitals, singers, early music, and new works. The Limerick-born Gilhooly estimates that since he became the hall’s artistic director in 2005, over 1,000 pieces, most co-commissions, have been premiered.
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A noticeable change from 25 years ago is the increase in the number of events, from 350 a year in 2000 to 600 now. Even better, the hall is now on a firmer financial footing. “At one point in the mid-2000s, the place was almost bankrupt,” Gilhooly says. “We wouldn’t have the current artistic success without balancing books and getting the donor base up.”
Over the course of 125 years, Wigmore has had to grapple with more than just unsteady finances: Its very existence has been thrown into doubt more than once.
When you step into the hall’s foyer from bustling Wigmore Street, you are transported into a gracious late-Victorian-era space. Designed by the architect Thomas Collcutt, it began its life as Bechstein Hall—a showroom for the German piano manufacturer that owned it was just next door, on a street full of piano dealers. That has changed: Today the most lavish shops on the street are selling high-end kitchen design.
Its first decades saw the likes of Joseph Joachim and his quartet grace the stage. With the advent of the First World War, Bechstein Hall, with its German ownership, was shuttered. In 1916, all of the showroom’s pianos were auctioned at bargain prices. But the hall soon had a new owner, the nearby Debenham’s department store, and a new name, drawn from its location on Wigmore Street.
Wigmore Hall was spared the bombs of the Blitz—unlike nearby Queen’s Hall, which was completely destroyed. But in the fresh dawn of the post-war era, developers and the hall’s then-owner, the Prudential Assurance Company, laid plans to redevelop the block and tear down this old-fashioned musical venue. Luckily, public opposition stayed the execution. Yet as the hall was consistently running at a loss, the future was uncertain. Concert quality suffered too.
The appointment of Australian-born William Lyne as hall director in the mid-1960s transformed this dire state of affairs. Lyne rationalized the programming, brought in new performers, and, most importantly, reminded London and the world of the treasure in their midst. He even dared to close the place for a year in 1991 for a much-needed upgrade, sure the audiences would return—and they did.
John Gilhooly was at the helm for the next major refurbishment, one that brought in the blessed relief of air conditioning, updated the seating, and expanded the restaurant and downstairs area. A key priority was to retain that perfect acoustic, that slightly mysterious product of the interaction of all the hall’s varied materials, from carpet and fabric seats to wood and stone.
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“The major intervention was in the ceiling,” recalls Gilhooly. “There’s a glass area in the roof where natural daylight comes through. That was the biggest intervention and the biggest acoustic risk. The feeling was that if we destroy the acoustic, we destroy a hall.” It was, happily, a success.
Space for staff, storage, and performers has always been at a premium. “The building’s bursting at the seams,” says Gilhooly. “Fitting in rehearsals is hard enough, as well as learning events. The staff has expanded, but we can’t physically accommodate anybody else.”
The owners of buildings adjacent to the hall have, unfortunately, not been amenable to selling. However, the acquisition of two nearby townhouses has provided much-needed office space. Before then, “all of our offices were being used as dressing rooms at one point,” Gilhooly says. The main building also accommodates a BBC studio, a streaming studio, offices, storage space, and dressing rooms.
Gilhooly made national news recently for turning down funding from the Arts Council. Concerted fundraising made this independence possible and, among other benefits, has allowed Wigmore to focus its energies on the community projects at which it excels: programs for children (toddler music events sell out quickly) and concerts for people living with dementia and their caregivers. “Music is the last thing to leave us, even when you’re in that condition. I find that very moving,” says Gilhooly, adding, “Outreach is nothing new: There were concerts here for people with what they called ‘shell shock’ after the First World War—we’d call it PTSD now.”
Fundraising has also helped keep ticket prices affordable, with a special £5 price for people 35 and under. “The notion that because we are located in a prime postcode that every member of the audience is rolling in cash is totally misguided. If you look at the audience here, they’re not the best dressed. Nobody puts jewelry on. It’s not like an opening night at the opera house.” (At a concert, Gilhooly himself cuts a sartorially impeccable figure, with immaculate suits and elegant ties.)
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One relatively recent addition to the hall’s calendar is the triennial Wigmore International String Quartet Competition, which began as the London String Quartet Competition in 1979. Past winners include the Takács, Alexander, and Hagen quartets. “This competition has an incredible history of getting it right,” says Gilhooly proudly.
The Berlin-based Leonkoro Quartet won first prize in 2022 and returns regularly to the hall. Like other performers I contacted, the Leonkoro finds Wigmore’s atmosphere to be “extremely welcoming and very gently encouraging. The audience plays a major role in this: They are knowledgeable, curious, excited to hear something new, open for different interpretations, and always attentive.”
Regular Wigmore concertgoer Caroline Poon drives two hours to attend a Wigmore performance. She has even played her violin on that stage as a young Suzuki student. “I seem to recall that we received a stern lecture about not going too close to the front of the stage in case we all fell off like lemmings,” she says. Her mother remains very proud of this, 40 years later, and “whenever I go to watch a concert there, she manages to shoehorn ‘You’ve played there’ into the conversation. My mum is an immigrant to the UK, and I think it shows how much the hall is held in high regard that she knew how prestigious it was and remains inordinately proud that her children performed there.”
Having attended many concerts at Wigmore since I moved to London, I can only agree with Poon’s observation that “it feels like the audience at the hall is very knowledgeable and appreciates the musicianship and skill on display on a deeper level than at an orchestral concert. The intimacy of the hall is another wonderful thing, and I feel like I am in the music rather than observing from afar.”
John Gilhooly attends many of the hall’s concerts and agrees with my observation that Wigmore audiences don’t easily dispense standing ovations or even sustained applause. But the savvy performer is listening out for something else, he says: “The silence tells you a lot, the silence before the applause at the very end of a concert.”
Like in music, sometimes the magic is found in a pause. Long may this extraordinary hall continue to delight performers and listeners.
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