Barbican Presents
Barbican Presents brings some of the greatest international classical artists, orchestras and ensembles to London, in a stimulating and eclectic mix of classical, contemporary, and Baroque music.
Barbican Members enjoy 20% off tickets and pay no booking fees across the Barbican Presents season. Find out more.
Events
Lodestar Trio
By inclination one of music’s most intrepid cross-pollinators the Lodestar Trio breezes through the baroque on an exhilarating genre-bending journey into Nordic folk music and beyond.
Piotr Anderszewski
Beethoven and Bartók both insist that there’s no such thing as a ‘mere bagatelle’ when Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski pairs two compelling sets of inventive miniatures.
Spinifex Gum
An all-indigenous female youth choir from North East Australia with dance, visuals, plus a visceral song cycle about ancestry and stewardship. The result? The dazzling phenomenon that is Spinifex Gum.
The Golden Stool, or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa
Interweaving singing, dance, and cutting-edge theatre, Gorges Ocloo’s ground-breaking AfrOpera re-examines Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s defiant stance against colonialism and cultural appropriation.
Sinfonia of London/John Wilson with Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Embedding the intricacies of the patter song, Kenneth Hesketh’s orchestral show-stopper prefaces two compelling master works as John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London return.
Dudok Quartet: Abandoned Voices
Alongside something hot off the press, death, despair, and eternity stalk the Dudoks’ typically ear-opening programme in which Messiaen tempers the anguished ardour of Gesualdo and Schubert.
Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly
A smash-hit Broadway play turned movie, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly metamorphoses into music theatre as the UK premiere of Huang Ruo’s operatic reworking takes wing.
Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma reunites with long-time duo partner Kathryn Stott in two masterly sonatas and sublimely unruffled Arvo Pärt.
Orchestre symphonique de Montreal/Rafael Payare
Conducted by Rafael Payare, the Montréal orchestra’s Barbican concert launches a European tour. Preceding symphonic Berlioz, Javier Perianes is the soloist in Beethoven’s playful Piano Concerto No 1.
Her Stories with Samantha Ege
‘Bold, brilliant, and daring women’ nourish Samantha Ege’s recital of 20th and 21st century piano music, including a work by Havanan ‘fusionista’ Camila Cortina Bello.
Stephen Hough: Sonatina Nostalgica
Appearing as both pianist and composer, Stephen Hough wraps fiery Schumann and Chopin around his own sonatina trip down memory lane.
Christmas with Connaught Brass
For its Barbican debut, multi-prize-winning Connaught Brass despatches season’s greetings in a cracker of a programme that gift wraps festive joy with interludes of serene reflection.
Khatia Buniatishvili and Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Following last year’s solo recital, accompanied by the perennially stylish Academy of St Martin in the Fields, pianist Khatia Bhuniatishvili returns for two strongly contrasted Mozart concertos.
SANSARA Choir with United Strings of Europe
SANSARA and United Strings of Europe join forces to explore the themes of sanctuary and solidarity in a programme built around Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands.
The National Youth Orchestra
Starting the year off with extraordinary skill and an exuberant sound, The National Youth Orchestra make their annual appearance in our Hall.
Simón Bolívar Orchestra/Dudamel: Mahler 3
Gustavo Dudamel returns to the hall at the head of his ‘other’ orchestra: the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. There’s just one work, but Mahler’s mighty Symphony No 3 is a stand-alone masterpiece.
Simón Bolívar Orchestra/Dudamel: Odisea
For the 2nd concert of their Barbican stopover, Gustavo Dudamel and his orchestra are remembering home as the vibrant Latino vibes of Riccardo Lorenz and Gonzalo Grau encounter fate-full Tchaikovsky.
Shostakovich Quartets: Intimate Portraits, Part 1
Marking 50 years since the composer’s death, the Carduccis inaugurate a five-concert odyssey through the complete string quartets – works that enshrine his inner life, loves and closest friendships.
Shostakovich Quartets: Intimate Portraits, Part 2
Sofia Gubaidulina contemplates unfinished J S Bach as the Carduccis survey Shostakovich in triplicate across some two decades.
Roopa Panesar
One of the UK’s finest sitar players, Roopa Panesar returns for a concert of Indian classical music, collaborating with trailblazing Indian classical and contemporary musicians.
Hildegard Transfigured: Medieval Trance for the 21st Century
The soaring, timeless 12th century arabesques of Hildegard of Bingen meet 21st century transfiguration in Voice Trio’s intimate and illuminating portrait.
Rolf Hind: Sky in a Small Cage
Direct from the Copenhagen Opera Festival, Mahogany Opera opens our season with the UK premiere of Rolf Hind’s much-anticipated new work inspired by the influential Sufi mystic and poet, Rumi.
Philip Glass: Cocteau Trilogy
Legendary sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque present their recent collaboration with American minimalist composer Philip Glass: arrangements for two pianos of his Cocteau Trilogy.
Collegium Vocale Gent/Philippe Herreweghe: Bach B Minor Mass
Philippe Herreweghe directs Collegium Vocale Gent in Bach’s glorious Mass in B minor, joined by outstanding soloists Dorothee Mields, Hana Blažíková, Alex Potter, Guy Cutting and Johannes Kammler.
Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel: Fidelio
Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil give a landmark performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Deaf West Theatre, in which the drama is played out between Deaf actors, with signed recitatives and arias (IS).
Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel: Dvořák 9
Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a concert of bold themes and dazzling orchestral colours, including the UK premiere of the Violin Concerto Altar de cuerda by Gabriela Ortiz.
Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason
Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason team up for a recital of cello sonatas by Felix Mendelssohn, Fauré, Chopin and Beethoven, who pioneered the form.
Fatma Said and Joseph Middleton
Soprano Fatma Said and pianist Joseph Middleton give a recital that contrasts songs on nocturnal theme by Mozart, Schubert and Robert Schumann with sunnier Spanish repertoire.
Kavakos Plays Bach: Part 2
Leonidas Kavakos gives the second of his two recitals devoted to the Six Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas by J S Bach, including the extraordinary Chaconne.
Kavakos Plays Bach: Part 1
In the first of two concerts, Leonidas Kavakos performs three works from J S Bach’s Six Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas, each one an intimate, intricate masterpiece.
Anthony McGill: Gran Partita
Clarinettist Anthony McGill collaborates with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective and stars of the next generation from Guildhall School, as he closes his Milton Court residency.
Anthony McGill and Kaleidoscope Collective
Delve into the depths of the human experience with deeply personal chamber music by Brahms and Messiaen, performed by clarinettist Anthony McGill and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.
Aidan O'Rourke, Alice Zawadzki and Héloïse Werner
Celebrated singers Alice Zawadzki and Héloïse Werner are joined by fiddle player Aidan O'Rourke, pianist Kit Downes and cellist Colin Alexander in a programme of new works by each of the artists.
Reformations: Concerto with Dunedin Consort and Sean Shibe
Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe and the Dunedin Consort, Scotland’s foremost Baroque ensemble, join forces for a feast of early and recent repertoire, including Cassandra Miller’s new concerto.
ECHO Rising Stars: Mathis Stier
With pianist Rie Akamatsu, ECHO artist Mathis Stier showcases the versatility of the bassoon in a programme that takes us from the 19th century through to the present day.
Discover
Barbican Sessions: Isata Kenneh-Mason
Isata Kanneh-Mason plays Brahms's Op 118, No 3 'Ballade' in our Fountain Room
Listen: Classical Music on Spotify
Follow our regularly updated Classical Music playlist for a sample of the music you'll hear across our programme.
Barbican Sessions: Satu Vänskä
In an empty Theatre, Satu Vänskä, Principal Violinist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performs JS Bach's ‘Allemande’ from Partita II in D minor.
Listen: Contemporary Classical on Spotify
Discover music from across the Contemporary Classical spectrum – from Judith Weir and George Benjamin to Nils Frahm and Max Richter.
Barbican Sessions: Jess Gillam
In an empty Level G foyer, Jess Gillam performs her ECHO Rising Stars commission: Edmund Finnis's A Spiral Ascending, Kurt Weill's Je ne t'aime pas and Astor Piazzolla's 'Nightclub 1960' from Histoire du Tango with Leif Kaner-Lidström and Sam Becker.