Aaron Azunda Akugbo curates a programme of rich storytelling and bold musical expression with the Manchester Camerata.

From the raw emotion of Joy Guidry’s They Know What They’ve Done to Us - a striking fusion of trumpet and electronics - to the sweeping beauty of Copland’s Appalachian Spring, this concert is a journey through resilience, nostalgia, and joy. Poulenc’s playful Banalités leads into the electrifying rhythms of Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite. A celebration of identity and artistry, this promises to be an afternoon of unforgettable music.

Joy Guidry They know what they’ve done to us

Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring

Francis Poulenc Banalités

Leonard Bernstein West Side Story Suite

Featuring the world-renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, an LGTBQ+ community chorus and top international soloists, this concert – presented by the broadcaster and DJ Nick Grimshaw – celebrated the profound contribution that the LGBTQ+ community makes to classical music.

Soloists Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy, Nicky Spence, Davóne Tines and Ella Taylor join the CBSO and Oliver Zeffman to explore music by LGBTQ+ composers, from Tchaikovsky to Poulenc and Bernstein, Caroline Shaw and a new commission from Julian Anderson. Celebrating these musicians not only for their artistic brilliance but also for their queerness, Classical Pride shows that LGBTQ+ people have always been at the heart of music at its highest level.

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Leonard Bernstein Overture to Candide

Francis Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

Julian Anderson ECHOES (world premiere)

Caroline Shaw Is A Rose

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet

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City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Oliver Zeffman conductor

Nick Grimshaw presenter

Pavel Kolesnikov piano

Samson Tsoy piano

Ella Taylor soprano

Nicky Spence tenor

Davóne Tines bass-baritone

LGBTQ+ Community Choir

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Oliver Zeffman’s Classical Pride series honours musicians “not only for their artistic brilliance but also for their queerness,” and now the celebrated event comes from London to the Hollywood Bowl. Bookended by the exuberant excess of Bernstein’s Candide overture and Tchaikovsky’s tragic and yearning ode to Dante’s Francesca—two composers who could not fully embrace their identity in their own time—the night is highlighted by a wide range of top musical talent in the LGBTQ+ community.  

Zeffman leads the LA Phil through the otherworldly and rich orchestral textures of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral. A trio of celebrated vocalists give the US premiere of a cycle of Pride Songs with music by Jake Heggie and lyrics by Taylor Mac, and after intermission, violinist and drag performance artist Thorgy Thor of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame takes the stage for her spirited blend of comedy and music.

Leonard Bernstein Overture to Candide‍

Jennifer Higdon blue cathedral‍

Jake Heggie Pride Songs (world premiere)‍

Thorgy Thor Drag Moment‍

Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini

Oliver Zeffman conductor

‍Pumeza Matshikiza soprano

‍Jamie Barton mezzo-soprano#

‍Anthony Roth Costanzo countertenor

‍Thorgy Thor violin

A triumphant finale to 2025’s Classical Pride, as the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Oliver Zeffman celebrate LGBTQ+ voices in classical music with a vibrant programme.

American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton (​​’Opera’s nose-studded rock star’ – New York Times) joins the LSO for a new Classical Pride commission by US composer Jake Heggie, before continuing the Pride celebrations with one of the most seductive arias in all of opera - from Saint-Saëns’ sumptuous Samson et Dalila. The first half finishes with the iconic gay anthem Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. 

Persian-Canadiancountertenor Cameron Shahbazi sings George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song, praised for its ‘shimmering seduction and ominous aggression’ by the New York Times.

The concert begins with Saint-Saëns’ rambunctious Bacchanale and Jennifer Higdon’s luminous, meditative memorial to her brother, blue cathedral. To conclude, Tchaikovsky’s heart-rending and much-loved Swan Lake Suite will be played by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Saint-Saëns Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila‍

Jennifer Higdon blue cathedral‍

Jake Heggie New Work‍

Saint-Saëns Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix from Samson et Dalila‍

Harold Arlen Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz‍

George Benjamin Dream of the Song‍

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Suite

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London Symphony Orchestra

Oliver Zeffman conductor‍

Jamie Barton mezzo-soprano‍

Cameron Shahbazi countertenor

‍Texts by queer poets and music by LGBTQ+ composers are brought together in this song recital that showcases some of today’s leading young classical music talent.

Pianist Edward Picton-Turbevill performs alongside soprano Harriet Burns and baritone Jonathan Eyers, presenting a selection of historical composers including Tchaikovsky and Bernstein, living composers Judith Weir and Jonathan Dove, and poets Tennessee Williams, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Mary Wortley Montagu.

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Ricky Ian Gordon Joy

Maude Valérie White The Throstle ‍

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Cuckoo‍

Martin Bussey We Two‍

Leonard Bernstein To What You Said‍

Edward Picton-Turbervill We Have Not Long‍

Judith Weir Lady Isobel and the Elf Knight

Jonathan Dove Between Your Sheets‍

Reynaldo Hahn A Chloris‍

Stephen Hough All Shall Be Well

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Harriet Burns soprano‍

Jonathan Eyers baritone‍

Edward Picton-Turbervill piano

The expressive capabilities of the human voice are pushed to their limits in this double-bill of Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices and Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King.‍

Caroline Shaw became the youngest ever winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Partita for 8 Voices, in which a kaleidoscopic array of vocal techniques – from humming, sighing and rhythmic effects to katajjaq (Inuit throat singing) – illuminate and decorate the structure of a Baroque suite.

Eight Songs for a Mad King is from Maxwell Davies’ maverick early years in which he sought to shock audiences and performers alike. This musical drama sees King George III imprisoned in an imaginary birdcage, in dialogue with his instrumental performers and his own demons, in one of the most daring explorations of the human voice ever created.

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Caroline Shaw Partita for 8 Voices

Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King

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London Voices

Ben Parry conductor

Oliver Zeffman conductor

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The ecstasy of mystical experience and its consummation in physical love, and the yearning desire for home, beauty and a world purged of hatred and greed, are among the themes of this concert. The Fourth Choir, London’s LGBTQ+ chamber choir, celebrates Pride with works that span nine centuries of human experience.

Meredith Monk Dawn‍

Dominique Phinot O sacrum convivium‍

Ethel Smyth Kom süsser Tod

Hildegard of Bingen O ignis spiritus (arr. Michael Genese)

Kit Grahame Though you have left me

Kerry Andrew Wild Nights - Wild Nights!

Caroline Shaw and the swallow

Mary Offer A New Eearth‍

Cooper Baldwin Libera Me (as embers singe the tide)

CN Lester Be a Choir

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The Fourth Choir

Jamie Powe conductor

CN Lester mezzo-soprano

‍The culmination of 2024’s Classical Pride, the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Oliver Zeffman celebrate LGBTQ+ classical music in this diverse programme presented by Nick Grimshaw.
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Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man precedes a world premiere by US composer Jake Heggie and librettist Taylor Mac featuring soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, a luminous meditation on gratitude and bliss in finding love in a time without fear.

Pavel Kolesnikov performs Saint-Saëns’ virtuosic and charming Piano Concerto No. 2 and an encore of Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale. This foreshadows Cassandra Miller’s Round, which takes Tchaikovksy’s theme as a starting point.

Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Song of the Night’, with tenor soloist Russell Thomas and our LGBTQ+ Community Choir concludes the programme, a nocturnal vision of profound peace within the universe mingled with passion.

Aaron Copland Fanfare for the Common Man

Jake Heggie Good Morning, Beauty (world premiere)

Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2

Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky Valse Sentimentale

Cassandra Miller Round

Szymanowski Symphony No. 3, 'Song of the Night'

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London Symphony Orchestra

Oliver Zeffman conductor

Nick Grimshaw presenter

Pavel Kolesnikov piano

Pumeza Matshikiza sopranos

Russell Thomas tenor

LGBTQ+ Community Choir

Heard here in an arrangement by US composer Jessie Montgomery, Gay Guerrilla is the last in Eastman’s deliberately provocative ‘N***** Series’ of pieces from the late 1970s, Gay Guerrilla is an improvisatory, minimalist take on Martin Luther’s 16th-century hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God’, recast as a manifesto about being a gay, black man. As Eastman wrote, ‘What I am trying to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest – Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, and a homosexual to the fullest. It is important that I learn how to be, by that I mean accept everything about me.’
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Julius Eastman Gay Guerilla

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Michael Jones violin

Blaize Henry violin

William Newell violin

Miles Brett viola

Stephen Upshaw viola

Stephanie Tress cello

Thea Sayer bass

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LGBTQ+ students from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance give a series of concerts of LGBTQ+ music that has personal meaning for them. Taking place in St. Giles Cripplegate, the mediaeval parish church that sits at the heart of the Barbican Centre.


Astral Quartet

Abigail Sinclair soprano

André Bertoncini piano

Lizzie Knatt recorder

Declan Hickey guitar

standard issue ensemble

Sehyouge Aulakh marimba/vibraphone

Kinna voice

Komuna Collective

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New commissions from:

Toby Anderson

Archie John

Kinna

Adam Possener

Tymon Zgorzelski

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The Fourth Choir explores the 39-year relationship between Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, featuring a new commission from Isobel Waller-Bridge, with text by a refugee relocated by Rainbow Railroad.

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The Fourth Choir

Nicholas Chalmers conductor

Petroc Trelawny presenter

Samuel Barnett presenter


Henry Purcell Thou knowest Lord the secrets of our hearts

‍Samuel Barber The Coolin’

Pérotin Beata Viscera III

Imogen Holst The Cobbler

Imogen Holst Sweet Country

Benjamin Britten The Ballad of Green Broom

Copland Help Us O Lord

Waller-Bridge New commission

Britten Time (Choral Dance 1 - Gloriana)

Britten Concord (Choral Dance 2 - Gloriana)

Morley Hard by a Crystal Fountain

Monteverdi Che dar più vi poss’io (5th Book of Madrigals)

Monteverdi Io mi son giovinetta (4th Book of Madrigals)

Imogen Holst A Hymne to Christ

Bernstein Somewhere (West Side Story)

Britten Hymn to the Virgin

Purcell Dido’s Lament (arr. Nicholas Chalmers)

Classical Drag blends the high camp, virtuosity and gender-fluid casting of opera with a series of dazzling drag performances.

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Framed as a competition stars of the London drag scene Snow White Trash, Barbs, Beau Jangles, Freddie Love and Vinegar Strokes go head-to-head in this outlandish contest.

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Backed by an orchestra of LGBTQ+ musicians and allies, conducted by Oliver Zeffman, and presided over by a star-studded judging panel (featuring Ru Paul’s Drag Race royalty Monét X Change and Thorgy Thor, plus queer operatic tenor megastar Nicky Spence) Classical Drag is a hilarious, colourful, divatastic affair.

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Expect big numbers from operas like Carmen, La bohème and Tosca. Prepare for a drag queen Philip Glass tribute, a “Violin For Your Life” and an exciting interval runway featuring rising stars of the capital’s raucous queer performance scene, hosted by living London legend Jonny Woo. Category is - a night at the opera!
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Barbs contestant

Beau Jangles contestant

Dinah Lux contestant

Freddie Love contestant

Snow White Trash contestant

Vinegar Strokes contestant

Monét X Change judge

Thorgy Thor judge

Nicky Spene judge

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Jonny Woo host

Sadie Sinner host

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Classical Drag Orchestra

Oliver Zeffman conductor

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