Musical events

To enquire about hosting a performance that is in keeping with our church mission and historic cathedral setting, please use the contact page and choose To host an event in the Cathedral. Commercial enquiries for events outwith the church mission should be directed to Historic Environment Scotland’s events team.

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Glasgow Cathedral Festival

18–21 September 2025
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Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns from 18–21 September 2025, with a bold and celebratory programme marking Glasgow 850. Inspired by the city’s reputation as a place of community and invention, this year’s festival draws together cultural and scientific influences across a range of art forms: from established classical music favourites to cutting-edge contemporary sounds, and intimate theatre to immersive, cult cinema.

Within the ancient walls of a building steeped in history, GCF once again fuses tradition with innovation to present new experiences for diverse audiences—reflecting both the legacy and the potential of a city shaped by its people. 

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Thursday 18th September

As part of a year-long series of lunchtime concerts exploring the links between medicine and music, our friends at FoGRI present this performance from their artists-in-residence, the Resol Quartet. Named as ‘Ones to Watch’ by Chamber Music Scotland, the quartet has won multiple prizes in the CAVATINA Competition at Wigmore Hall, and was also selected to spend a week at Snape Maltings as Britten Pears Young Artists.

This event features the first performances of two new works written for the quartet by emerging composers George Swann and Mingdu Li. Inspired by Glasgow Royal Infirmary, these pieces illustrate the hospital’s cultural and historic context, by drawing parallels between the GRI’s scientific innovations (such as aseptic technique), and the societal transformations taking place over the same period.

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Join Glasgow Cathedral’s master stonemason Johnnie Clark for a behind-the-scenes look at the ongoing conservation of the building’s magnificent steeple. This guided tour offers a unique opportunity to learn how traditional masonry techniques and modern technologies are being used to safeguard the structure of one of Scotland’s most important medieval buildings. Whether you’re visiting for the first time or returning for an update, this tour offers fresh insight into the preservation of a historic landmark.

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From forgotten princess to fabled mother of Glasgow—step into a poetic reimagining of the legend of Thaney in Maiden Mother Mage. Created and directed by poet and playwright Rebecca Sharp, this powerful tale of exile, resilience and transformation weaves dramatic verse with an evocative live score by composer Alex South.

Thaney – also known as St Enoch – was a 6th-century survivor of abuse who gave birth to the city’s founder and patron saint, Mungo. GCF brings her story to the awe-inspiring surroundings of St Mungo’s Cathedral: channeling her essence through three powerful female archetypes portrayed by Scottish actors Israëla Efomi, Taylor Dyson and Heather Cochrane. As the Lothian princess rises amidst the tumult of our contemporary world, her story asks: how do we reclaim the past to shape a different future?

In tandem with this performance, GCF hosts an exhibition of creative writing and visual art, crafted by community groups from key locations in Thaney’s life: P7 girls from North Berwick, Ukrainian women from Dalgety Bay and Kurdish women from Glasgow. Responding to new Thaney iconography created by artist Frances Law, their work explores the play’s themes of refuge and resilience, and was developed through sessions led by Rebecca Sharp and Historic Environment Scotland. Amplified by natural soundscapes, these works are brought to life in the voice of each participant—telling of the displacement, strength and survival in their own stories.

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As dusk permeates Glasgow Cathedral’s lower church, venture into a space where sound is alive, unpredictable and profoundly human. Violinist Emma Jane Lloyd presents an intimate programme of contemporary music, exploring the expressive depths of her instrument through extended techniques, electronics and open-ended interpretation.

Drawn from her newly released album, mue, each work Emma brings to GCF inspires a unique approach to the violin—spanning themes of transformation, solitude and collaboration. Rylan Gleave’s Small Haven entwines delicate violin lines with haunting electronics; Émilie Girard-Charest’s Mue navigates the fragility of change; Egidija Medekšaitė’s Mishra Pilu unfolds as a meditative tapestry of Indian raga-inspired textures; Matthew Whiteside’s freely, darkly, deeply loops and layers sonic fragments; while Emma’s own caprices esquisses push the instrument to its limits. Shaped by risk, discovery and the raw beauty of imperfection, this mesmerising twilight experience invites you to listen deeply and reflect quietly, opening space for your own meaning to emerge.

This concert is presented in collaboration with The Night With… and supported by PRS Foundation’s Beyond Borders scheme.

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Friday 19th September

Join Senior Curator Heather Robertson for a rare glimpse into Glasgow Museums’ collection of sacred musical instruments—fragile treasures which are seldom seen by the public. Her illustrated talk explores how these instruments have been used across cultures and time to celebrate, mourn and mark life’s biggest moments.

Now too delicate to be played, this collection is usually locked away in a special storage facility to preserve it for future generations. In a rare opportunity to encounter the instruments up close, Heather will guide you through their history, cultural significance and the roles they’ve played in ritual and ceremony—complete with visual close-ups and curated audio and video to evoke the unique soundworlds they once created.

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Experience the visionary brilliance of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) like never before in the vast, gothic surroundings of Glasgow Cathedral. Unfolding in a fever-dream of Art Deco cityscapes, mad scientists and futuristic robot creations, this sci-fi epic is a genre-defining work of cinematic expressionism—visually stunning, emotionally charged and terrifyingly prophetic in its prediction of 21st-century class divides.

Taking a year to shoot and involving 37,000 extras, the original version of the film was harshly redacted only 10 weeks after its premiere, by the ultra-nationalistic German authorities. Lang’s true version was then considered lost, until an Argentinian film archive’s miraculous discovery in 1988 began a twenty-year process which ultimately restored vast swathes of the missing footage. 

For our exclusive GCF screenings, this legendary 2008 restoration of the film is paired with the UK premiere of a live score composed by sisters Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley. Performed by ensemble Bangers & Crash and featuring over a dozen percussion instruments, the soundtrack brings exhilarating new dimensions to Lang’s beguiling cinematography—transporting you from the catacombs to the penthouses of his dystopian megacity. As pulsating, rhythmic energy surrounds you, enter the metropolis and submit to the machine.

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Saturday 20th September

Brace yourself for a sonic journey to the stars as Interstellar lands in Glasgow. International organist Roger Sayer – the original performer of Hans Zimmer’s iconic score – delivers a captivating performance of music from the 2014 blockbuster. Set within the celestial acoustics of our medieval cathedral, this event combines the might of its 140-year-old pipe organ with a cosmic light display, as Sayer shares unique insights into his extraordinary creative exchanges with Zimmer and director Christopher Nolan.

Opening with Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and selections from Holst’s The Planets, the programme builds towards Sayer’s exclusive arrangement of Zimmer’s score— reflecting the drama and intense emotions of the movie’s storyline and incorporating themes such as Cornfield Chase, Stay and No Time for Caution. A pre-concert talk, Q&A and behind-the-scenes film reveal how Sayer helped shape a Hollywood masterpiece.

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Continuing our late-night series in the cathedral’s atmospheric lower church, we invite you to enter a fragile ecosystem of pulsing tones and coalescing waves. This quietly enchanting performance for double bass and electronics is crafted by Ollie Hawker and Zoe Markle to hold you in breathless quiet. 

Unashamedly still, the duo’s music embraces a simplicity and fragility so delicate it feels as if it might vanish on a gust of wind. Within the sanctuary of the lower church, this gossamer soundworld finds a safe harbour. The pair explore unique sonic landscapes full of interference patterns, free improvisation and incredibly subtle electronic manipulations—all rooted in the emotional immediacy of contemporary classical music.

Alongside their own work, Ollie and Zoe present pieces by two composers who share their fascination with understated beauty. Benjamin Portzen’s You, the rain is heartbreakingly tender—a sigh of exhaustion and one of relief, a work for grieving and for laughter, in search of connection and solitude.

This hushed evening closes with a new edition of David Fennessy’s The Room is the Resonator, specially revised for GCF. Fennessy writes of the bassist’s part intertwining with ‘a long, held chord which I recorded on an old harmonium that resides in the garage of my girlfriend’s mother in Aberdeen. There’s something about that instrument, that garage, that day—there’s a stillness in that room, you can hear yourself…’

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Sunday 21st September

Witness musical history being made, as internationally acclaimed American organist Katelyn Emerson gives the world premiere of a major new work by celebrated British composer Roxanna Panufnik. Commissioned across three nations and nearly two decades in the making, the complete Cum Jubilo Organ Mass will now be heard for the first time at this landmark performance in Glasgow Cathedral.

The first and only British organ mass of this century, Panufnik’s radiant new work is a powerful celebration, and a prayer for global unity, inspired by the ancient cum jubilo (‘with joy’) plainsong. Brimming with colour and vitality, it embodies a message of hope and of cultures combining to work together—the perfect spirit in which to celebrate Glasgow 850, with our city beginning as a place of refuge and diverse community, and continuing to be so over the years. 

Known for her musical storytelling and recent commission for the Coronation of King Charles III, Panufnik has a unique voice, full of light and clarity. This music finds the perfect interpreter in Katelyn Emerson – a prizewinner on three continents and ‘a star of the first rank’ (Orgue Canada) – who brings the mass to life in its first full performance. Join us and be part of this joyful premiere!

Completion of the Cum Jubilo Organ Mass is the result of a joint initiative between GCF and the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition.

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Through the generous gift of Sir William Burrell and his wife Lady Constance in 1944, Glasgow is home to one of largest and most spectacular collections of medieval and Renaissance stained glass in the world. A fine selection of glass from the Burrell Collection can be found at St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, where this enlightening talk will commence.

Join Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Art, Edward Johnson, and explore the methods and innovative techniques used by skilled glaziers and painters throughout this era to create captivating and elaborate images in glass. The tour will continue to the cathedral itself, where we examine some of the fine Renaissance glass to be found amongst its own exceptional collection. Limited spaces available, so book now to avoid disappointment!

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Experience the visionary brilliance of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) like never before in the vast, gothic surroundings of Glasgow Cathedral. Unfolding in a fever-dream of Art Deco cityscapes, mad scientists and futuristic robot creations, this sci-fi epic is a genre-defining work of cinematic expressionism—visually stunning, emotionally charged and terrifyingly prophetic in its prediction of 21st-century class divides.

Taking a year to shoot and involving 37,000 extras, the original version of the film was harshly redacted only 10 weeks after its premiere, by the ultra-nationalistic German authorities. Lang’s true version was then considered lost, until an Argentinian film archive’s miraculous discovery in 1988 began a twenty-year process which ultimately restored vast swathes of the missing footage. 

For our exclusive GCF screenings, this legendary 2008 restoration of the film is paired with the UK premiere of a live score composed by sisters Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley. Performed by ensemble Bangers & Crash and featuring over a dozen percussion instruments, the soundtrack brings exhilarating new dimensions to Lang’s beguiling cinematography—transporting you from the catacombs to the penthouses of his dystopian megacity. As pulsating, rhythmic energy surrounds you, enter the metropolis and submit to the machine.

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