SOUND WITHIN SOUND Launches at Southbank Centre This July

The Southbank Centre is launching a bold new festival Sound Within Sound, shining a light on composers from the 20th century whose pioneering work has been overlooked from inclusion in the classical music canon. 

One of our guiding principles, born out of the legacy of the Festival of Britain in 1951, is that art-making should be inclusive and accessible to everyone. In that spirit, this four-day festival is part of the Southbank Centre’s wider summer programme, You Belong Here, which explores themes of inclusivity and a collective sense of belonging.

Inspired by the book Sound Within Sound by journalist and broadcaster Kate Molleson, this festival features pioneering composers from Mexico to New Zealand who have pushed the boundaries of music. These visionaries spearheaded microtonal revolutions, incorporated indigenous sounds into their composition, and animated entire cities with music. Their bold, unconventional, world-awakening music changes how we think about classical music and the musicians who create it.

Join us this July on a journey of discovery across the globe through sensational works that have been neglected. With performances taking place in spaces across the Southbank Centre site from experimental songs to nature-inspired immersive sound installations, audiences are invited to experience the music of these pioneering composers like never before. 

Southbank Centre Head of Classical Music Toks Dada said: “With this festival, we are asking important questions about who is, and who isn’t, included in the classical music story. During Sound Within Sound, we are making space for those voices who have been lost and providing a platform for groundbreaking work that defied the conventions of the time. We are delighted to welcome some of the most forward-thinking and boundary-pushing artists of today to bring these remarkable works to audiences.”

Sound Within Sound author Kate Molleson added: “Sound Within Sound was always a call to listening. My hope, my hunch, was that telling the stories of these ten extraordinary composers would ignite a passion to hear their work and open our concert halls to new repertoire. So it’s somewhat of an understatement to say I’m thrilled that the Southbank Centre has picked up the idea and run with it with such commitment. The music being brought out of the shadows, the notes being worked into the fingers of some of the finest musicians on the planet, audiences having the chance to experience the impact of these live sounds – this is the dream outcome! And, I hope, just the beginning of the next stage in the conversation.”

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