Sheffield Chamber Music Festival's outgoing artistic director Edwin Paul asked Claire Booth a blunt question when he invited her to curate this year's programme: why can't you sell a song recital? Across a week of concerts that pull Scheherazade into the orbit of folk tales, set Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga against Gavin Higgins's Speak of the North, and premiere Julian Philipps's multilingual children's opera Henny Penny, her festival is the answer — or rather, the argument.

Recorded in the Royal Opera House café after a day of rehearsals, we talk about the Festival, a planned collaboration with Rufus Norris on Beckett, her 2025 RPS Singer Award, and — briefly, and with more disappointment than heat — Timothy Chalamet.

More information on Sheffield Chamber Festival: https://musicintheround.co.uk/explore-at-home/in-the-round/sheffield-chamber-music-festival-2026/