A shared musical world: Martin Randall Travel and Wigmore Hall

Martin Randall Travel is delighted to announce a new partnership with Wigmore Hall, becoming the exclusive cultural tour company sponsoring one of the world’s great chamber music venues over the coming year.

For us, this is much more than a new association. Wigmore Hall has been part of our musical world for a very long time.

Our founder, Martin Randall, has been a regular supporter and concertgoer over many years, drawn – like generations of music lovers – to a hall that combines international artistic stature with an unusual intimacy. There are musical connections, too: many of the artists we work with are regular performers at Wigmore Hall. In 2026 and 2027 alone, Wigmore Hall Associate Artists appearing on our own Martin Randall Festivals include The Gesualdo Six, Boris Giltburg, the Leonkoro Quartet, Solomon’s Knot and the Nash Ensemble.

These links are personal as well as musical. John Gilhooly, Wigmore Hall’s Director, curated our Music Along the Danube festivals in both 2012 and 2015, bringing his musical expertise to a festival built around one of MRT’s founding ideas: that music can be experienced more deeply when heard in places to which it belongs. Following the Danube through Vienna and the Austrian countryside provided a particularly fitting setting for programmes rooted in the great Viennese chamber music tradition.

There is, in other words, a good deal of shared history.

Since opening in 1901, Wigmore Hall has occupied a distinctive place in London’s musical life. Its celebrated acoustics and relatively small scale bring performers and audiences unusually close together, and its programme – encompassing chamber music, song, early music and solo recitals – has made it a home to many of the world’s finest musicians.

Those qualities have a particular resonance for MRT. Music has been at the heart of the company almost from its beginnings, whether through our own festivals or through tours built around performances in the great concert halls and opera houses of Europe and beyond. We have always believed that the circumstances in which music is heard matter: the building, the acoustic, the history of a place and, not least, the quality of the musicians.

There is another affinity, too. Wigmore Hall has long combined the presence of celebrated international performers with a serious commitment to musicians at earlier stages of their careers. MRT’s own festivals have similarly given us the privilege of working with exceptional musicians over many years, often developing relationships that continue from one festival or tour to another.

Lizzie Watson, Artistic Director of Martin Randall Travel, says:

“I’ve been going to Wigmore Hall since I was a child – I turned pages for my father’s concerts there – and I’ve always thought of it as the world’s benchmark for showcasing exceptional musicians. I’m not alone in that at MRT, which is why making the relationship official is such a pleasure.

“We care about the same things: outstanding artists, programming that’s been properly thought through, and the conditions in which an audience can actually listen. Many of the musicians we work with on our festivals and tours are regulars on the Wigmore stage, and many of our clients are often there too. This isn’t a new relationship – it’s one we’re finally putting a name to.”

For a company whose cultural tours are founded on specialist knowledge and access to outstanding art, architecture and music, supporting organisations that sustain cultural life is important to us. Our partnerships range from the Royal Philharmonic Society to the Chalke History Festival, and take different forms according to the organisation and our relationship with it.

The partnership with Wigmore Hall is especially pleasing because so much is already shared: musicians, audiences, colleagues and many years of musical connections. We are delighted now to put a name to that relationship, and to support Wigmore Hall over the coming year.