A musical experience without boundaries: the Manchester Collective explores the encounter between jazz, folk and classical music, creating a surprising dialogue between distant musical worlds. With a repertoire ranging from the Scottish music of Fergus McCreadie and Donald Grant to the refined architecture of György Kurtág and Joseph Haydn, and the sonic innovation of Christian Mason and Anna Meredith, the programme reflects a plurality of voices and visions that find their expressive power in the radical audacity of the collective.

“We create radical human experiences, inspired by the music we love”: the Manchester Collective's concert programme starts from tradition and then explores increasingly fluid and open sound territories, where the boundary between writing and improvisation dissolves into an all-encompassing musical experience. It begins with Fergus McCreadie, a Scottish pianist who blends jazz and traditional music, followed by Donald Grant, who combines Scottish folk with classical music. Christian Mason takes the audience on a journey through folk tradition, reinterpreted in a contemporary language. The compositions of György Kurtág and Joseph Haydn are characterised by formal experimentation and expressive elegance respectively, while Anna Meredith brings together classical and electronic elements. The choice of pieces in the programme reflects not only a desire to explore new timbral and formal possibilities, but also the Manchester Collective's commitment to creating new connections between different musical worlds.