Nicola Lisle chats to violinist Jack Liebeck about the Oxford May Music Festival, which is back for its eighth year

Did you know that Borodin was not just a composer but also a respected chemist who made a number of important discoveries?

This is just one of many fascinating facts to emerge from this year’s Oxford May Music Festival, which remains one of the few festivals in the world to combine science and the arts.

The six-day event, which starts on April 29, is the traditional mix of concerts by world-class musicians, interwoven with lectures by some of the biggest names from the world of science.

For violinist Jack Liebeck, who founded the festival with physicist and Balliol Fellow Brian Foster in 2008, it’s the joy of discovering new things that makes the festival so special.

“It’s very easy just to go to things you know you’re going to like, so I think it’s really good to push people a little bit,” he says. “It’s an easy to way to find out about loads of things you never knew existed. Oxford is such an intellectual city – you come here to broaden your horizons, so this fits in very nicely with that.”

The biggest draw this year is television star Professor Brian Cox, who will give a repeat of his popular talk The Physics of Time. This will be followed by a performance of Messiaen’s epic chamber work, Quartet for the End of Time. Brian’s last appearance in Oxford was an instant sell-out, so this year he will be giving his lecture twice.

“We’re really excited having him back,” says Jack. “He‘s such a wonderful speaker and so charismatic.”

Another fascinating lecture will be Music, MS and the Brain by MS patient and pianist Olga Bobrovnikova, whose condition has inspired her to explore the way the brain responds to rhythm, pitch and tone. In the evening, Jack’s own ensemble, Trio Dali, will be joined by other musicians to perform music by Mendelssohn, Boccherini, Hummel and Mozart.

Borodin’s duel existence as both chemist and musician is the subject of another lecture and concert pairing, with Professor Maria José Lourenço from the University of Lisbon highlighting his often overlooked scientific achievements, followed by a performance of some of his music alongside that of his compatriots Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Stravinsky.

Other treats include the Heath Quartet in a programme of music by Haydn, Dvorak and Brahms, an evening of Bach with renowned baroque musicians Rachel Podger and Maggie Cole, and the traditional festival finale, which this year features Schubert’s glorious Trout Quintet and Mozart’s Gran Partita arranged for piano quartet and clarinet.

Despite having to juggle the festival with the demands of their separate careers, Jack and Brian are as enthusiastic about it now as when they started eight years ago.

“We love it,” Jack says. “For me, it’s wonderful to be able to work with all these musicians. They’re all people I work with around the world, so to be able to bring them to such a great city is a real pleasure. Also, I think the audience likes the fact that they get to chat to the musicians. It’s all very informal, which is the way I like a concert to be. So it’s all very exciting.”

Oxford May Music Festival
Holywell Music Room and St John the Evangelist, Oxford
April 29-May 4
Info and tickets: oxfordmay-music.co.uk/ticketsoxford.com