Season 2026

We’re excited to share with you more details about The Queen’s Closet’s Season 2026!

This promises to be another year full of entertainment and innovation, focusing as always on the social experience of live performance. Our musicking is full of the joy and colour of our many wonderful and characterful historical brass, woodwind, string, strummed and percussion instruments and voices; and of course rooted in cutting-edge scholarship. We’re also delighted, as our reputation and reach continue to grow and to stretch beyond the shores of Aotearoa, to be welcoming a number of specialist musicians from Australia into the ensemble for 2026.

On Saturday 4 April, we’re holding a special performance of music from the Habsburg empire, recovered from the archives of the Archbishopric of Olomouc in the Kroměříž castle, in the Czech Republic. This repertoire will highlight sacred repertoire, and in particular glorious clarino trumpet writing by composers such as the innovative Pavel Vejvanovský, which has been largely unknown for the last 350 years.

This will be followed on Saturday 6 June by a concert of music that takes The Queen’s Closet back to our roots in Restoration London. Expect to hear the distinctive sounds of composers such as John Blow, Pelham Humfrey, Matthew Locke, and—of course—Henry Purcell.

Our annual Gala Ball returns on Saturday 8 August…your chance to dress in your finest (historically inspired or modern!); eat, drink and socialise; and dance the night away to early music performed on historical instruments.  We’re planning a special evening with even more dance teaching and demonstrations, so polish your dancing shoes—or if dancing isn’t your thing, just come along and enjoy the atmosphere and the spectacle!

We’re also excited to be reviving Furioso over 10-11 October of this year, working once more with Stage Director Jacqueline Coats to create a semi-staged production. Furioso is our cycle of “mini-operas” that we created and premiered in 2023, including short condensations of three baroque operas based on Ludovico Ariosto’s 16th century epic poem, Orlando Furioso. Our mini-operas, based on Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Roland, and Antonio Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso, feature a revolving cast of characters from Ariosto’s epic poem, including knights, princesses, sorceresses and–of all things–a hippogriff!

Our final scheduled performance of 2026 will be in the Wellington Jazz Festival, working with our harpsichordist (and acclaimed jazz pianist) Duncan Haynes. What would happen if 17th century musicians met up in a bar with 21st century jazz musicians for a jam session? Come along and find out! (We’ll confirm the date of this performance soon…)

We would also like to recognise and thank our major supporters for our 2026 Season, who include Wellington City Council, the Kiwi Gaming Foundation, and Star Group hospitality operators.

Love The Queen’s Closet? Check out some of the ways you can support us!