Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, given by Britten and his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, on 23 September 1942, alongside a lineup of additional singers in further Britten works. Later in the season, Wigmore Hall will commemorate both Britten's birthday and the anniversary of his death. Lieder and song Since its inception, the Hall has been a major hub for Lieder and art song performance. The British première of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin took place at Wigmore Hall in 1903 as well as the first UK performance of Janáček's song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared in 1922. Peter Schreier, Janet Baker and Margaret Price performed regularly at the Hall, and in recent years Wigmore has produced recitals featuring Thomas Quasthoff, Ian Bostridge, Susan Graham, Mark Padmore, Sir Thomas Allen, Matthias Goerne, Dame Felicity Lott, Angelika Kirchschlager, Simon Keenlyside, Anne Sofie von Otter, Wolfgang Holzmair, Christopher Maltman, Andreas Scholl, and Soile Isokoski. More recent performers include Christian Gerhaher, Florian Boesch, Roderick Williams, Iestyn Davies, Sandrine Piau, Lucy Crowe and Henk Neven. Piano and chamber music Instrumentalists and chamber groups performing at the hall include Leslie Howard, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charlie Siem, Stephen Kovacevich, András Schiff, Joshua Bell, Maxim Vengerov, Angela Hewitt, Steven Isserlis, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Steven Osborne, Stephen Hough, Bruce Brubaker, the Nash Ensemble, the Beaux Arts and Florestan Trios and the Artemis, Aviv, Belcea, Emerson, Endellion, Hagen, Jerusalem, Takács and Zehetmair Quartets. In recent years, artists and ensembles such as Igor Levit, Iestyn Davies, the Doric String Quartet, The Elias String Quartet, Ning Feng, Francesco Piemontesi, Alina Ibragimova, Mahan Esfahni, Arcangelo, Hilary Hahn, Thomas Ades, Sir George Benjamin, Julia Fisher, Nicola Benedetti, Isabele Faust, Bretton Brown, and Christian Gerharher have all become associated with and connected to Wigmore Hall through concert series and artistic residencies. The Hall is noted for helping young artists launch and develop their international careers. The following chamber works had their UK premières at the Hall: Janáček's Sonata for violin and piano; Bartók's six string quartets; Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2; Debussy's Violin Sonata; Copland's Contrasts; and Richard Strauss's Sextet from Capriccio. Director Wigmore Hall's current director is Limerick-born John Gilhooly, OBE, a classical singer. He joined Wigmore Hall as CEO in 2000 and became artistic director in addition in 2005 at the age of 32. Gilhooly has maintained and expanded the Hall's core repertoire of classical song, chamber and early music, as well as introducing