Press room

Today (16 April 2026) the Barbican unveils its forthcoming season of classical music, from September 2026 to July 2027. Across the 2026-2027 season - through curated concert series, composer spotlights, major anniversaries and a continued commitment to championing new music - the Barbican and its resident and associate orchestras and ensembles will present some of the very best that classical music has to offer, welcoming new and returning audiences to the artform.

Highlights from the forthcoming season will include a number of major celebrations, starting with the work of Caroline Shaw as the Barbican showcases her work and artistry in a Composer in Focus series. The 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death is commemorated across two landmark residencies with pianist Lang Lang and conductor Andris Nelsons with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with all five piano concertos performed across the two three-night runs. The Barbican also marks Steve Reich’s 90th birthday, with multiple performances by percussionist Colin Currie and Barbican Resident Orchestra the London Symphony Orchestra. 

The Barbican expands its programme of artistic residencies this year, inviting artists to present new projects and curate programmes close to their hearts as Artists in Residence. The forthcoming season will welcome sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun, violinist Isabelle Faust, violist Lawrence Power and the Scottish Ensemble for residencies in 2026 and 2027.

Across its entire season, the Barbican will present over fifty world, UK and London premieres, including seven major Barbican commissions and co-commissions. The commitment to new music is crystallised in the LIMINAL series, which returns for its second year, showcasing music from new voices hovering between the scored, acoustic and electronic. The Barbican is also proud to present a full weekend festival of performances and workshops with Always, Already There, the inaugural London edition of the Afrodiasporic incubator project curated by vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener, in partnership with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD). Premieres and daring staged work are also showcased in the Concert Theatre series of opera, dance and music theatre, which, this season, includes work by Renell Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Hannah Peel, Circa and more.

Alongside series and weekenders, the Barbican continues to place the very best in international artistry centre-stage. Beyond the major orchestras in the Beethoven 200 programme, the season will also include performances by the Czech Philharmonic, Bach Collegium Japan, Apollo’s Fire, Les Talens Lyriques, Il Pomo d’Oro and Pygmalion Ensemble. Soloists and recitalists across the season will include Seong-Jin Cho with the Czech Philharmonic, Benjamin Grosvenor and Sheku Kanneh-Mason who both separately join the Sinfonia of London as it returns twice across the season, plus Evgeny Kissin, Hélène Grimaud, Beatrice Rana and more.

For highlights from the Barbican’s Associates, the Barbican’s Resident Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, presents a season led by Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano shaped by new commissions and large-scale works featuring Víkingur Ólafsson, Yuja Wang, Janine Jansen with Sir Simon Rattle, Klaus Mäkelä, Barbara Hannigan and many more. Meanwhile, the BBC Symphony Orchestra presents a season led by Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo joined across the season by Semyon Bychkov, Anu Komsi, Fleur Barron among many others as well as collaborating with the Barbican in a performance of Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners. Across their season, Academy of Ancient Music and Music Director Laurence Cummings join with Anna Dennis and Ed Lyon for Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, as well as with contemporary circus company Circa to present a reimagining of Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus through a fusion of music and physical theatre. Darbar Festival also returns, now in its 21st year, bringing Indian Classical artists such as Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali and Barbican resident artist Jasdeep Singh Degun.

Helen Wallace, Head of Music says: 

“Our perspective at the Barbican is always international and always artist led. With new and younger audiences taking more interest in classical music, it’s on us to present a dazzling, diverse array of musical experiences to show the range and breadth of what is possible. This is why we have invited a host of resident artists this season. These musicians have each been invited to curate and to dream - bringing projects across ballet, film, opera, orchestral and solo formats. In an age of homogenisation, artists have a unique power to reimagine and break new ground, whether through the theatrical stagings in our Concert Theatre series, or the extraordinary music featured in Always, Already There, the UK’s first ever Afro-diasporic incubator. I remain very grateful to our inspiring Resident Orchestra and Artistic Associates, who have all collaborated with us on this bold programme, and to our partners at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, whose talented students will be performing and creating across a number of major projects too.”

Full information about all the performances in the forthcoming season can be found below.

A selection of images can be found here. 

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on 24 April 2026. Advance tickets go on sale to Barbican Premier Patrons on 17 April, Barbican Patrons on 20 April, Barbican Members Plus on 22 April and Barbican Members on 23 April.

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MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE 2026-27 PROGRAMME FOLLOWS BELOW:

BEETHOVEN 200

Two major three-night orchestra visits mark the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, helmed by globally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang and conductor Andris Nelsons who will together perform all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos, beginning with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (11-13 Mar 2027) followed by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (1-3 Jun 2027). Together with the Boston Symphony, Lang Lang and Nelsons will perform Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 in programmes also including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and three of Stravinsky’s key ballets: Petrushka, The Firebird, and The Rite of Spring, while, with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, they will perform Beethoven’s piano concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 5 alongside Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 3, 6 & 7.

Two additional performances marking the impact and legacy of Beethoven are given by Quatour Diotima and Barbican Associate Ensemble Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) with circus company Circa. Quatuor Diotima give a recital of two Beethoven string quartets, including his final quartet counterpointed against Ligeti’s String Quartet No 2. With an unrivalled reputation for performing the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, here Quatuor Diotima shine a revelatory light on work by Beethoven that was just as original and avant-garde in its own time (27 Feb 2027). Finally, the AAM joins with the phenomenal circus performers of Circa in a thrillingly physical reinvention of Beethoven’s only ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, in the Barbican Hall (24 Jun 2027).

CAROLINE SHAW IN FOCUS

The Barbican is pleased to present a Composer in Focus series with Caroline Shaw, showcasing the far-reaching breadth of work by the Pulitzer Prize and multi-Grammy award-winning composer and performer. Across the season, in multiple venues and with a variety of collaborators, interpreters and Caroline Shaw herself, the Barbican will celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of this groundbreaking artist. Visit the series page here.

• Caroline Shaw & Pam Tanowitz: Pastoral (1-3 Oct 2026) - A major new collaboration between Caroline Shaw and celebrated choreographer Pam Tanowitz receives its UK premiere in the Barbican Theatre. This Barbican co-commissioned reimagining of Beethoven's Symphony No 6 "Pastoral” will go on sale at a later date as part of the Barbican's Theatre & Dance autumn season announcement.
   
• Attacca Quartet with Caroline Shaw (8 Oct 2026) - Revealing all facets of her dynamic musicianship, Caroline Shaw joins forces with the Grammy Award-winning New York-based Attacca Quartet. Shaw will sing a selection of her songs with the ensemble, before joining them on viola to perform Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No 2 in B-flat major. The quartet will also give the UK premiere of John Adam’s Iron Jig – written for them by the composer.
   
• Ringdown: Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan (29 Oct 2026) - Shaw and Parpan’s electronic duo Ringdown returns to the Barbican with songs from their 2025 debut record Lady on the Bike, performed in the church of St Giles. With much of their work written while the duo themselves fell in love, they’ve said: ‘We joke and say that our greatest wish is that this music might make two people fall in love. So please make the first move and send our songs to your crush.’
   
• The Listeners with BBC Symphony Orchestra (30 Oct 2026) - The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dalia Stasevska present Shaw’s shimmering oratorio The Listeners in which her intensely communicative music carries the words of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Carl Sagan into a future bounded only by our imagination, and our courage.  
   
• Sam Green x Caroline Shaw: Trees with the LSO (14 Dec 2026) - Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Green unites with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw and award-winning author and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit to present the world premiere of Trees: a live orchestral film with an original score composed by Shaw performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
   
• Scottish Ensemble & Caroline Shaw (15 Jun 2026) - Caroline Shaw joins Company in Residence Scottish Ensemble – a string ensemble renowned for their ambitious cross-genre collaborations and the Barbican’s Company in Residence this season - as composer in a programme to include music by Shaw including her Harpsichord Concerto and Is A Rose, alongside works by John Adams, Philip Glass, and JS Bach.

STEVE REICH AT 90 WITH COLIN CURRIE

In the 90th year of ur-minimalist Steve Reich, the Barbican presents a series of concerts celebrating the remarkable talent of the pioneering 20th century composer. Percussionist Colin Currie has had a long and creative relationship with Steve Reich and leads three major events at the Barbican with the Colin Currie Group and the Colin Currie Quartet as well as leading the next generation of performers in Music for 18 Musicians. The Barbican is also pleased to present a co-commissioned new work by Reich (with Carnegie Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, Paris Philharmonie and others) as well as a performance of Reich’s work by Barbican Resident Orchestra the London Symphony Orchestra. Across four concerts, audiences are invited to discover, rediscover and revisit Reich’s rigorously crafted, long-form masterworks. Visit the series page here.

• Colin Currie Group: Steve Reich Celebration (28 Oct 2026) - A major new co-commission for double sextet receives its London premiere performed by the Colin Currie Group  
   
• London Symphony Orchestra/Susanna Mälkki (12 Nov 2026) - The Barbican’s Resident Orchestra and conductor Susanna Mälkki performs Three Movements, Music for Large Ensemble, Variations, and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra.
   
• Colin Currie & GSMD: Music for 18 Musicians (2 Dec 2026) - One of Steve Reich’s seminal works, performed by Colin Currie side by side with Guildhall School of Music and Drama musicians, joined by Richard Benjafield (percussion) and Robin Michaels (cello), with supporting live visuals from the GSMD Production Arts department.
   
• Colin Currie Quartet: Steve Reich & company (9 May 2027) - Colin Currie continues the celebrations for Steve Reich’s 90th year at the Barbican as the Colin Currie Quartet perform a programme of work by living composers Andy Akiho, Ben Nobuto, Robert Honstein (world premiere), Camille Pépin (UK premiere), culminating in Steve Reich’s Drumming Pt. 1.  
  
   

CONCERT THEATRE: OPERA, DANCE & MUSIC THEATRE

Continuing its commitment to new work, emerging talent and daring performances in opera, dance and music theatre, the Barbican presents Concert Theatre - a selection of newly staged work throughout its 2026-27 season. Visit the series page here.

• our eyes looking for god (9-13 Sep 2026, 10 Sep 2026 Press Night) - Ivor Novello award-winning composer Renell Shaw collaborates with writer and director TD Moyo and librettist April Koyejo-Audiger to present our eyes looking for god. Born from a 2020 Headlong commission the opera, based on Moyo’s play Caspers, explores Black British experiences, telling an urgent national story of state violence through joy, love, laughter and pain.
   
• An Anatomy of Melancholy (16-20 Sep 2026) - An Anatomy of Melancholy returns to the Barbican following its world premiere in 2022. Created by ground-breaking director Netia Jones, the work features Iestyn Davies’s crystalline voice, Jones’s haunting visuals, lutenist Mónica Pustilnik and John Dowland’s ravishingly bittersweet music in an intimate theatrical meditation on the consolations of sorrow, directed here by Emma Doherty.
   
• Caroline Shaw & Pam Tanowitz: Pastoral (1-3 Oct 2026) - A major new collaboration between Caroline Shaw and celebrated choreographer Pam Tanowitz receives its UK premiere in the Barbican Theatre. This Barbican co-commissioned reimagining of Beethoven's Symphony No 6 "Pastoral" will go on sale at a later date as part of the Barbican's Theatre & Dance autumn season announcement.
   
• Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine (20 Oct 2026) - Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tyshawn Sorey, poet Claudia Rankine, director Peter Sellars and soprano Julia Bullock reimagine the songs of legendary artist, activist and icon, Joséphine Baker in the 120th year since her birth. The performance traces Baker’s journey from the segregated United States to international stardom in Paris through opera, jazz, spirituals and elegance.
  
  
• PIA by Katya Bourvis in collaboration with Tala Lee-Turton and Hannah Peel (23 Oct 2026) -PIA is a brand-new live music and dance production by choreographer Katya Bourvis in collaboration with creative producer Tala Lee-Turton and set to award‑winning composer and multi‑instrumentalist Hannah Peel’s 7-movement odyssey: Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia (2017), performed live by a 17-piece brass band.
   
• Obsession / Compagnie La Tempête (3 Mar 2027) - Derived from the Latin ‘obsessio’, meaning ‘to besiege’, obsession is defined by its enveloping nature – a notion explored by vocal and instrumental company La Tempête. Under the direction of founder Simon-Pierre Bestion the company presents a towering, ever-changing performance of light, movement and texture that brings together the work of three great contemporary figures - Arvo Pärt, Jehan Alain and Philip Glass. The performance will envelop audiences visually and musically as artists perform amid and inside teetering towers of light and fabric in this all-encompassing examination of the physical and immediate experience of sound. 
   
• Jasdeep Singh Degun and Opera North: Orpheus (22 Apr 2027) - Degun’s multi award-winning and critically acclaimed reimagining of Monteverdi’s baroque masterpiece receives its London premiere in a thrilling new production of Orpheus, co-directed by Degun and Ashok Gupta and performed with Opera North as part of the sitarist’s Barbican residency. The work focuses on the musical spectacle of a union of uniquely talented singers and musicians from both the South Asian and western classical traditions. 
   
• AAM & Circa: The Creatures of Prometheus (24 Jun 2027) - Barbican Associate Ensemble Academy of Ancient Music joins the phenomenal Circa in a thrillingly physical reinvention of Beethoven’s only ballet in the Barbican Hall.

LIMINAL

The Barbican’s long-term programming commitment to the future of music returns for its second year. This contemporary classical series explores music hovering on the borderline between scored, acoustic and electronic music, bringing new music, new voices and bold commissions to the Barbican. Visit the series page here.

• Morton Feldman: Unsettled Memory with Eliza McCarthy & Friends (19 Sep 2026) - Pianist Eliza McCarthy presents an intimate evening spanning three decades of composer Morton Feldman’s work in LSO St Luke’s, joined by soprano Juliet Fraser, Apartment House and more. Audiences will be invited into a world where time softens and memory shifts across the hypnotic soundscapes of Projection 2, Three Voices, and Triadic Memories, each blurring the line between what we hear and what we think we remember.
   
• Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang: The Endless Dance (24 Oct 2026) - Award‑winning composer and multi‑instrumentalist Hannah Peel appears in the Barbican Hall with internationally acclaimed percussionist Beibei Wang for a performance of their forthcoming album: The Endless Dance, a new work that traces the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar through electronics and percussion.  
   
• Jlin + Third Coast Percussion: Vernacular (31 Oct 2026) - Grammy Award-winning percussion ensemble Third Coast Percussion and Pulitzer Prize-finalist composer, performer and electronic musician Jlin join forces in a programme that explores the evolution of their decade-long partnership. The programme includes a new work commissioned by 92Y that will bring all five musicians together live, conjuring an entirely new sonic universe.
   
• Tristan Perich & James McVinnie: Infinity Gradient (6 & 7 Nov 2026) - Organist James McVinnie performs Tristan Perich’s Infinity Gradient. In the church of St Giles Cripplegate, across the Barbican Lakeside, pipe organ will join forces with 4 subs, 24 medium and 72 small speakers splayed across the performance space in this piece for organ and 100 speakers in 1-bit audio.
   
• Explore Ensemble with Beatrice Dillon (1 Dec 2026) - New music group Explore Ensemble present the world premiere of Where Never a new Barbican-commissioned work for sextet by artist and composer Beatrice Dillon alongside Dillon’s Seven Reorganisations and works by Helmut Lachenmann, and Pascale Criton.
   
• GBSR Duo: Blue Hours (20 Feb 2027) - Pianist Siwan Rhys and percussionist George Barton’s GBSR Duo present James Week’s Blue Hours – a three and a half hour long immersive work and meditation on rich sonic textures in the church of St Giles Cripplegate. The blue hour is the period just before sunrise, or just after sunset, when blue wavelengths from the sun’s light dominate the visible spectrum. This sacred and ‘thin’ time will be explored as both vigil and meditation, as the boundary between spiritual and physical becomes particularly delicate.   

ALWAYS, ALREADY THERE 

Always, Already There (23-25 Oct 2026) is the inaugural London edition of the Afrodiasporic incubator project, initiated by composer George Lewis and here curated by vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener, presented by the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.   

For the first time in the UK, through performances, premieres, talks and installations across an entire weekend festival, the spotlight will be turned on a rich, radical, diverse and resonant body of experimental music from composers who have been tightly policed as to which genres they could occupy, and excluded, both imaginatively and literally, from the contemporary music space.

Artists from past and present will disrupt and expand the scope of this avant garde arena, including pioneering figures from Olly Wilson, Ahmed Essyad, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Alvin Singleton to Fluxus maestro Ben Patterson and leading lights of today. The weekend will feature music from legendary vocalist Pamela Z, and composers and electronic artists making waves such as Hannah Kendall, (who presents the UK premiere of Building a Burning House), Jessie Cox, Cedrik Fermont, Yara Mekawei to Corie Rose Soumah and Charles Uzor. Performances in Milton Court Concert Hall, Silk Street Music Hall and St Giles church will feature a host of gifted Afrodiasporic musicians, some well-known, others being introduced to London for the first time. Performers include Aaron Akugbo, Pamela Z, Gweneth-Ann Rand, Tom Randle, Yannis Francois, Xhosa Cole, Chris Clarke, Chiron Choir, Apartment House and many more. 

BARBICAN ARTIST RESIDENCIES 2026-2027

Across the 2026-2027 classical season, the Barbican will host four residencies, giving artists the opportunity to present works, projects and visions especially close to their hearts. Barbican residencies this season will welcome violinist Isabelle Faust, sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun, violist Lawrence Power and Scottish Ensemble to the programme. 

ISABELLE FAUST – ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

German artist Isabelle Faust is revered world-wide for approaching each piece she performs with the utmost respect and sensitivity towards its musical historical context and the historic use of instruments. By combining greatest possible authenticity with a contemporary perspective, she continuously manages to create meaningful encounters with a wide variety of works for a diverse audience. In her Barbican residency, she spans the range of her interests, bringing a marathon performance of all of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas, Brahms and Schumann with long-time partner Alexander Melnikov, Berg’s violin concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and joins the London Symphony Orchestra on two occasions - to perform Brett Dean’s The Lost Art of Letter Writing for violin and orchestra as well as a new concerto by Czech composer Ondrej Adamek (10 Oct 2026 - 19 Mar 2027).

 

JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN – ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Composer, arranger and improviser; soloist and collaborator; multi-award winning sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun is a custodian of tradition and a restless innovator. Unconstrained by genre, the Leeds-born virtuoso’s skill and creativity are reshaping the musical landscape now and for the future. The first British Asian musician to win the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist award, Degun will appear three times in his Barbican residency. The residency commences with Degun joining forces with charismatic tabla virtuoso Sukhvinder Singh ‘Pinky’ in a lively collaboration to open the 21st edition of the Darbar Festival. The residency continues with the world premiere of Degun’s Sitar Concerto No 2, commissioned by the Barbican, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kirill Karabits before concluding with a new production of his critically acclaimed reworking of Claudio Monteverdi’s Orpheus (28 Oct 2026 – 22 April 2027). 

LAWRENCE POWER – ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Internationally acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power has been praised for both his richness of sound and technical mastery. He is also celebrated for his passionate advocacy for new music – especially for the viola through the creation of the Viola Commissioning Circle - which has led to a substantial body of fresh repertoire for the instrument by some of today’s finest composers. His Barbican artistic residency will give him the platform to present a wide variety of work both new and existing but all close to his heart. Performances include the London premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto performed alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo, an audiovisual recital weaving music and storytelling with frequent collaborators violinist Vilde Frang and director and filmmaker Jessie Rodger. The residency continues with Power joined by the hand-picked Collegium Orchestra to give the UK premiere of Garth Knox’s Viola Concerto and a final performance with EXAUDI and other friends in a programme of work including the UK premiere of Barbican co-commissioned The Years by Cassandra Miller (4 Dec 2026 – 5 May 2027).

SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE – COMPANY IN RESIDENCE

One of the most exciting chamber collectives in the UK, the pioneering Scottish Ensemble is shaped by the changing times in which we live and by the collaborations they seek across boundaries. Their residency will see them premiere landmark new work, collaborate with one of Scotland’s most beguiling creative musicians, as well as with the Barbican's Composer in Focus Caroline Shaw. Their residency opens with the London premiere of David Fennessy’s new violin concerto Blood in a programme also featuring the Chamber Choir of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, before, in 2027, presenting a concert with friend and collaborator, Scottish smallpipes player and folk trailblazer Brìghde Chaimbeul. The residency concludes, crossing over with the Barbican’s Composer in Focus series, as they join forces with celebrated composer and performer Caroline Shaw in a programme that includes her Harpsichord Concerto and Is A Rose, alongside works by John Adams, Philip Glass, and JS Bach (2 Oct 2026 – 15 Jun 2027).

INTERNATIONAL ENSEMBLES

• Ensemble Pygmalion: Mozart's Great Mass in C minor (9 Nov 2026) - Ensemble Pygmalion and conductor Raphaël Pichon celebrate 20 years of impactful music-making and period performance with Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor as well as music by Schubert and Bruckner.
   
• Apollo’s Fire with Jeanette Sorrell & Jeanine De Bique: Echos Across the Atlantic (28 Nov 2026) - Grammy award-winning ensemble Apollo's Fire and founder-director Jeannette Sorrell join with legendary Trinidadian soprano, Jeanine De Bique, exploring the connections between Europe and the colonies of the Caribbean during the 18th century. Tales of love, despair, and resilience emerge from the palaces of Europe and the plantations of the Caribbean through music by Handel, Purcell, Rameau and Vivaldi and the voices of Caribbean poets – with surprising resonances for today.   
   
• Bach Collegium Japan - Handel’s Messiah (15 Dec 2026) - One of the world’s foremost period performance ensembles, Bach Collegium Japan and Principal Conductor Masato Suzuki, return to the Barbican to perform Handel’s Messiah. Using instruments and techniques that, as close as possible, reflect those Handel himself would have known, this performance of the universally appealing oratorio is a Christmas season favourite.
   
• Czech Philharmonic/Bychkov/Cho (5& 6 Apr 2027) - The Czech Philharmonic returns for a two-night visit highlighting two composers that reflect the musical DNA of the Orchestra and its Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov - Smetana and Rachmaninoff. Piano sensation, Seong-Jin Cho joins the Orchestra on both evenings with Rachmaninoff’s beloved Piano Concerto No. 2 at the centre of the first concert and, the fiendish Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the centre of the second. Opening with selections from Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances - his final composition - concludes the first evening. Smetana’s iconic Vltava from Má vlast, for which the Orchestra’s recording with Bychkov won 2025’s BBC Music Magazine’s coveted Orchestral Recording of the Year, is the opening work in the second concert which ends with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s sweeping Symphony No 2.
   
• Les Talens Lyriques: Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (19 Apr 2027) - With conductor Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques perform a Greek tragedy via the world of French baroque opera. Tenor Reinoud van Mechelen and soprano Marie Lys take on the title roles of Hippolyte and Aricie in the 1757 revision of this bold and rare work. 
   
• Academy of Ancient Music & EPCC/Kaljuste (8 May 2027) - In a Barbican co-promotion, the Academy of Ancient Music is joined by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and conductor Tõnu Kaljuste for a programme pairing J. S. Bach with Arvo Pärt.
   
• Il Pomo D'Oro & Jakub Józef Orliński: San Giovanni Battista (17 May 2027) - Il Pomo D’Oro and conductor Francesco Corti return to the Barbican following a long history of performances in the Hall with Stradella’s pacy, character-driven oratorio San Giovanni Battista or John the Baptist, and featuring star countertenor, Jakub Josef Orlinksi. 
  
   

GUEST ENSEMBLES

• Sinfonia of London: Benjamin Grosvenor and Scheherezade (6 Nov 2026) - In the first of two concerts at the Barbican this season, the Sinfonia of London are joined by British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor to perform one of the most popular pieces of classical music: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The orchestra start the evening with Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’ 1948 Concerto for String Orchestra and conclude with another fan favourite: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
   
• Messiah: Re-Imagined (10 Dec 2026) - A bold new interpretation of Handel's Messiah, reimagined for the 21st century. For the first time, the traditional arias and choruses from the Messiah take on a striking new resonance, interspersed with newly created music inspired by Quincy Jones’ groundbreaking album: Messiah - A Soulful Celebration. Performed by the BBC Singers and Serafine Sinfonia, conducted by Tom Randle.
   
• The National Youth Orchestra (8 Jan 2027) - 160 young musicians from across the UK explore the expanse of the universe and the hidden secrets of the human heart in early 2027, at the Barbican with a performance of Zimmer’s Interstellar Suite and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5.
   
• James McVinnie Ensemble - Philip Glass: Dance Nos 1-5 (3 Feb 2027) - The James McVinnie Ensemble present a rare chance to experience seldom-heard music from Philip Glass’s early career: Dance, a work that emerged from a landmark collaboration between choreographer Lucinda Childs and artist Sol LeWitt, blending music, movement and striking visuals into a singular artistic vision.
   
• The VOCES8 Foundation Choir: Hear My Prayer (16 Mar 2027) - VOCES8 combines with its Foundation Choir to share a concert of music exploring prayer. The concert traces a path of devotion from the Renaissance to the present day with Bach’s vividly expressive motet Jesu meine Freude at its centre accompanied by work by Palestrina, Rheinberger, Pärt, Briggs and more.
   
• Sinfonia of London/Sheku Kanneh-Mason (16 Jun 2027) - With two separate visits in one season, the Sinfonia of London super-orchestra, under the meticulous baton of conductor John Wilson, return with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performing Elgar’s ever-moving Cello Concerto. The orchestra will surround this celebrated work of English repertoire fittingly with Delius’ A Song of Summer and Vaughan Williams Symphony No 2 ‘London’.

SOLOISTS AND RECITALS

• Beatrice Rana in Recital (15 Jan 2027) - Combining emotion, imagination and technique, Italian pianist Beatrice Rana gives a varied recital of Bach’s Italian Concerto, Clementi’s Piano Sonata in G minor, Op 50 No 3, and Robert Schumann’s Carnaval Op 9. 
   
• Hélène Grimaud: The Last Testament (16 Mar 2027) - French pianist Hélène Grimaud’s The Last Testament pays tribute to Schubert and to Beethoven – both trailblazing masters of the piano sonata – as she performs the final piano sonatas composed by each: Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in C minor, Op 111 No 32 and Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D 960 No 21.
   
• Evgeny Kissin in Recital (1 Jul 2027) - An audience favourite at the Barbican, superstar pianist Evgeny Kissin returns to perform another recital of characteristic magnitude, precision and power (programme to be announced).

ECHO RISING STARS - CHAMBER MUSIC DAY AT ST GILES

A full day of chamber music from some of Europe’s best and brightest classical musicians takes places in the City of London church of St Giles Cripplegate. 

As a proud member of ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation), the Barbican collaborates each year with its Rising Stars talent development programme, giving Europe’s most talented young musical stars a truly international platform. Alumni of the scheme include Igor Levit, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Khatia Buniatishvili, Sean Shibe, Janine Jansen and the Belcea Quartet.

This year’s ECHO Rising Stars performers are the Amelio Trio, cellist Petar Pejčić, soprano Camila Mandillo and the Javus Quarttet who will each perform across the course of the day in the striking church of St Giles Cripplegate situated across from the Barbican’s Lakeside Terrace (5 Jun 2027).

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE PROGRAMMES FOLLOWS BELOW:

LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (RESIDENT ORCHESTRA) 

The London Symphony Orchestra’s 2026/27 Barbican Season places contemporary music at the centre of its programming alongside major symphonic repertoire, composer anniversaries and returning collaborations with leading artists of our time.

Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano leads a season shaped by new commissions and large-scale works, while celebrations of the 80th birthday of John Adams and the 90th birthday of Steve Reich form twin pillars of the year. LSO Conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Barbara Hannigan, André J Thomas and Gianandrea Noseda return to the Barbican, joined by an international roster of further guest conductors and soloists.

Four special projects — spanning jazz, film and gospel — punctuate a season reflecting the Orchestra’s ambition to present orchestral music as both an enduring and living art form.Pappano opens the Barbican season in October 2026 with Dai Fujikura’s new LSO commission Amber Alchemy paired with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, setting the tone for a year where premieres sit alongside core repertoire (18 Oct).           

New music runs throughout his programmes. British composer Edmund Finnis’s new Cello Concerto is unveiled by Sheku Kanneh-Mason (25 Oct), while Hannah Kendall’s major new work for voice and orchestra forms the centrepiece of Pappano’s third programme (29 Oct). In November, Pappano concludes his acclaimed exploration of Vaughan Williams’ symphonies with Nos. 3, 8 and 7 (26 Nov). A further commission by Belgian composer Bernard Foccroulle, setting texts by Innu poet Josephine Bacon, appears in spring 2027, framed by works by Chausson and Scriabin. The season closes with concert performances of Verdi’s La traviata, continuing the Orchestra’s developing summer operatic tradition (6 May).

The LSO marks John Adams’ 80th birthday with concerts reflecting a relationship spanning more than four decades. Sir Simon Rattle conducts Harmonielehre in his New Year concerts alongside Frenzy and music from The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Adams later leads a portrait programme ranging from Shaker Loops to After the Fall and his Piano Concerto No. 4, performed by Víkingur Ólafsson (13 Jan).

Adams’ music returns in an LSO Futures concert conducted by Elim Chan, alongside premieres by emerging composers and a new Trumpet Concerto by Joel Järventausta (17 Jun). Steve Reich’s 90th birthday is celebrated in October 2026 with Susanna Mälkki conducting works from Music for a Large Ensemble to Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (12 Nov).

Barbara Hannigan curates a programme exploring an American musical voice, from Ives and Ruth Crawford Seeger to Rodgers and Gershwin (8 Apr). In April 2027, Sir Simon Rattle also leads concerts featuring Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony (15 Apr) and Mahler’s Third Symphony (18 – 20 Apr). Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda focuses on Prokofiev’s theatrical music across two visits, pairing suites and operatic excerpts with Shostakovich and Sibelius (13 May), and featuring LSO Principal Cello David Cohen performing a rare showing of Schnittke’s First Cello Concerto (16 May). The season welcomes guest conductors Thomas Adès, Alain Altinoglu, Klaus Mäkelä, Nathalie Stutzmann, Gustavo Gimeno, and Elim Chan. Highlights include Adès conducting Sibelius and Saariaho, Mäkelä Rachmaninoff and Mahler (5 Nov), with pianist Yuja Wang playing the Christmas concerts (17 & 20 Dec), and Janine Jansen in a three-concert Artist Portrait (29 Nov, 3 Dec & 20 May).

Three one-off events broaden the season’s scope: Soweto Kinch presents highlights from his trilogy The Black Peril, White Juju and Soundtrack to the Apocalypse (19 Nov); Symphonic Cinema knits Holst’s The Planets with a live film featuring Emma Thompson and Greg Wise (31 Jan); and André J Thomas curates a festive Symphonic Gospel concert for the December holiday (6 Dec).

Across the season, premieres by Finnis, Kendall, Foccroulle, Richard Dubugnon and Järventausta sit alongside Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius and Verdi, reaffirming the LSO’s commitment to expanding and re-examining the orchestral repertoire.

BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (ASSOCIATE ORCHESTRA)

The BBC SO’s 2026/27 season features a wealth of musical highlights – including 10 territory premieres, three BBC co‑commissions, and performances by renowned soloists and conductors – all broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds, in a programme that is Faustian, French and fiery. The season also includes three works by former BBC Associate Artist John Adams, whose 80th birthday in 2027 will be marked by the orchestra and the wider Barbican programme. 

Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo opens the season with Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, the UK premiere of Francisco Coll’s Elyisan, Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto featuring Senja Rummukainen, and Debussy’s La mer (23 Oct). Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska then pairs Lyatoshinsky’s Grazhyna with Barber’s Violin Concerto, performed by Randall Goosby, followed by the UK premiere of Caroline Shaw’s oratorio The Listeners with the BBC Symphony Chorus as part of Shaw’s Composer in Focus Barbican series (30 Oct). 

In November, Oramo returns with violinist Inmo Yang for Bartók’s First Violin Concerto, framed by works by Enescu and Brahms (10 Nov). Semyon Bychkov, the BBC SO Günter Wand Conducting Chair, follows on with Mahler’s Seventh Symphony (27 Nov). December highlights include Oramo conducting Mendelssohn’s The First Walpurgisnacht, the London premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Viola Concerto with Lawrence Power, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (4 Dec). Nil Venditti then conducts works by Falla, Gabriela Ortiz, and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Alena Baeva (11 Dec). 

2027 begins with a Total Immersion: Music for Wellbeing (16 Jan), featuring sessions on music and meditation, performances with the BBC Singers, and the atmospheric Night Tracks Live. Later in January, Jasdeep Singh Degun performs the world premiere of his sitar concerto as part of his Barbican residency (22 Jan) and Dinis Sousa conducts Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust (29 Jan) with a stellar cast including Julien Dran and Gaelle Arquez. 

February opens with Marta Gardolińska conducting the UK premiere of Grażyna Bacewicz’s Rhapsody alongside Szymanowski’s Second Violin Concerto with Bomsori Kim (5 Feb). A special concert then explores the ballet strand of the Key Changes series (12 Feb), Adam Hickox conducts Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 alongside pieces by Liadov, Gubaidulina and Bartók (19 Feb), while Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Shostakovich and John Adams (26 Feb). In March, Oramo pairs Berg’s Lulu Suite with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (5 Mar). Kazuki Yamada leads Ravel and Boulanger (14 Mar), and Tabita Berglund conducts Brahms’s First Piano Concerto with Francesco Piemontesi (18 Mar). 

April focuses on British voices as Oramo champions Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, and Helen Grime’s Percussion Concerto with Colin Currie (9 Apr). This is followed by "Total Immersion: The Music of Rebecca Saunders" (24 Apr), which concludes with the UK premiere of her opera Lash in a concert staging. 

In May, Joshua Weilerstein conducts Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto with Yeol Eum Son and the UK premiere of Schulhoff’s Five Pieces by Manfred Honeck and Tomás Ille (7 May). Dalia Stasevska leads Isabelle Faust in Berg’s Violin Concerto (14 May), and Oramo conducts the world premiere of Britta Byström’s Horn Concerto with Ben Goldscheider (21 May). The season’s penultimate finale features the world premiere of Charlotte Bray’s Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz and Liszt’s Faust Symphony (28 May). 

The season comes to a close with "Total Immersion: The World of Tove Jansson" (3 Jul). This day-long celebration of the creator of the Moomins includes documentaries screenings, jazz, and culminates in a concert where Dalia Stasevska conducts Sibelius’s Oceanides, the world premiere of a new work by Outi Tarkiainen, and a live orchestral performance accompanying the film Seasons in Moominvalley. 

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC (ASSOCIATE ENSEMBLE)

In its 2026–27 season, Promethean, Barbican Associate Ensemble Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) explores the daring ideas and artists who pushed beyond the limits of their time.

AAM opens the season with a programme exploring the turbulent musical landscape of the 1760s (1 Oct), featuring early works by Mozart and symphonies by Haydn and Telemann. In November, Laurence Cummings directs a concert performance of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (17 Nov), with Anna Dennis as Poppea and Ed Lyon as Nerone, joined by Katie Bray and Christopher Lowery.

The festive period shines a spotlight on the harpsichord (3 Dec), led by longtime AAM musician Alastair Ross. In the new year, chamber forces come to the fore with Beethoven’s Septet paired with Hummel’s Piano Septet (11 Feb). April sees AAM journey to the court of Charles I (22 Apr), with instrumental works by William Lawes and his contemporaries.

AAM’s Good Friday performance of Handel’s Brockes Passion (26 Mar) marks the return of a work closely associated with the ensemble, following its landmark 300th anniversary revival. In May, AAM is joined by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and conductor Tõnu Kaljuste for a programme pairing J. S. Bach with Arvo Pärt (8 May). The season culminates in a striking collaboration with contemporary circus company Circa (24 Jun), reimagining Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus through a fusion of music and physical theatre, directed by Yaron Lifschitz.

DARBAR FESTIVAL 2026 (ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE)

Now in its 21st edition, the five-day festival of Indian classical music returns, bringing together leading artists, late-night performances and a programme of talks and participatory events across the Barbican. Organised and programmed by the Darbar Arts, Culture & Heritage Organisation, Darbar honours the rich traditions of Indian classical music and the enduring legacy of Bhai Gurmit Singh Ji Virdee

Across two weekends, the long-running festival offers a wide variety of experiences for aficionados of Indian classical music and those new to the artform. Audiences can explore the beauty and delicacy of ragas and talas, seek mindful experiences across multiple wellbeing sessions and the meditative power of the music. Whether through performances from celebrated maestros or rising stars, the depth and diversity of the revered artform will be on full display.

This year’s festival brings a host of extraordinary artists, from the Barbican’s Artist-in-Residence, Jasdeep Singh Degun, to the likes of Debanjan Bhattacharjee and Spoorthi Rao, Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar, Sunanda Sharma and Ustad Shahbaz Hussain, Jason Kalisad and Eartha Love, Ustad Irshad Khan and Pandit Prasad Khaparde. The ever-popular Midnight Ragas return with Kala Ramnath and Jayanthi Kumaresh, Sandeep Narayan brings his Carnatic genius to the Barbican Hall, and the festival draws to a close with a cross-tradition rhythmic finale with Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali. (Sat 24 Oct – Sun 1 Nov)

WITH THANKS

The Barbican classical music programme receives major support from Marcus Margulies and additional support In Memory of John Murray.

The Barbican is grateful to the following supporters for their help supporting a number of projects in the forthcoming season.

• PIA by Katya Bourvis with Hannah Peel and Tala Lee-Turton and our eyes looking for god by Renell Shaw with TD Moyo and April Koyejo-Audiger have been generously supported by Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley
• Always, Already There has received generous support from SHM Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and Trevor Fenwick & Jane Hindley.
• Sitar Concerto No. 2 by Jasdeep Singh Degun with BBC Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Karabits has been generously supported by SHM Foundation
• The Creatures of Prometheus with AAM and Circa is supported by the Polonsky Foundation as part of the Barbican's Beethoven 200 programme

ENDS