NONCLASSICAL X London Symphony Orchestra // Sat 26 Oct

Nonclassical is celebrating its 20th Birthday on 26th October with its biggest event yet…

For one night only, nonclassical will transform Hackney Empire into a club, with the London Symphony Orchestra performing music from 24 of the UK’s top living composers conducted by Darren Bloom. This will be a night of cutting edge orchestral performance, including the UK premier of my techno-inspired piece for Elecronics & Orchestra ‘Black Lights’ , and DJ sets from polymath composer/producer Matthew Herbert.

Sound artist and musician Beatrice Dillon will present her first commission for orchestra. Following on from her 2020 album Workaround (‘Album of the Year’ The Wire Magazine), Dillon translates her distinct vocabulary of synthetic sound and generative systems into the acoustic realm of the orchestra.

LSO collaborators Sasha Scott (Panufnik Composers Scheme) and Tonia Ko (Soundhub) bring electronics and bubble wrap respectively, whilst leading composer Tansy Davies presents a twisty modernist funk. Bringing more contrasting moods and styles: Mica Levi’s epic Love (from Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin), Christian Mason’s  Tuvan folk inspired Ezir Kara, and Emily Abdy’s punky Not Getting Any.

The first ever Concerto for Drum Machine and Orchestra celebrates the Roland 808 drum machine – probably the most influential drum machine in electronic music history – and fuses it with classical techniques, with music by composers Josephine Stephenson, Laurence Osborn, Max de Wardener and Beni Giles.

Find more info and tickets here.