Southbank Centre Will Host Live 'Classical Mixtape' With Six Orchestras

The Southbank Centre has announced Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover (Thu 5 Feb 2026), a multi-venue event bringing together more than 200 musicians from six orchestras for a night of classical music's greatest hits. Presented as a series of live, looping performances, the evening allows audiences to shuffle and repeat their experience of the evening's music, mixing their own mixtape, while encountering some of classical music's most well-known works across the Southbank Centre site.

In an unprecedented first, the event will see all of the Southbank Centre's Resident Orchestras – Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Philharmonia Orchestra – perform across a single night at the multi-arts centre in its 75th anniversary year for a first-of-its-kind event curated for Under 30s audiences. Chineke! Orchestra will perform with players from Chineke! Junior Orchestra, while the London Sinfonietta will be joined by students from the Royal Academy of Music.

Classical Mixtape offers a flexible way for audiences to experience classical music on their own terms as they roam across the site, discovering repertoire spanning 600 years of music, including Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the symphonic score of The Lord of the Rings and a historically-informed ‘oompah band' performance. With 20-minute programmes running on repeat, the event operates like a live classical mixtape, enabling audiences to mix “tracks” by choosing the order and number of times to enjoy each performance or individual piece of music.

The night kicks off with a full symphony orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall, as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Principal Conductor Ed Gardner, opens the evening with the instantly recognisable four-note motif from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The London Philharmonic Orchestra then performs Howard Shore's well-loved symphonic score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Having featured as the orchestra on the original recording of the film's score, the London Philharmonic Orchestra offers an opportunity to hear their performance of the music in a live context. The finale movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 brings their set to a triumphant and jubilant conclusion.

From there, audiences can begin to mix their experience of the evening's music of wide-ranging moods and styles, with each orchestra performing its 20-minute set on a loop, allowing listeners to stay for a second run-through, move on to another stage or pause for a break. 

• The London Sinfonietta will perform music by American minimalist composer Steve Reich, whose rhythmic repetition and phased patterns have influenced contemporary classical, ambient and electronic music, in the Queen Elizabeth Hall's underground, industrial Undercroft space.

• Chineke! Orchestra presents a spatially arranged programme that surrounds listeners with instrumental sound in the Royal Festival Hall's Clore Ballroom. They will perform Margaret Bonds' Montgomery Variations – a powerful orchestral response to the 1950s' Montgomery Bus Boycott and an evocation of Black resistance, endurance and dignity in the American South.

• The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs a brass- and percussion-led programme inspired by Bavarian oompah traditions, presented in a reconstructed alehouse-style setting in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer.

• Aurora Orchestra leads a musical adventure in the Purcell Room inspired by Gustav and Alma Mahler's time in the Austrian Alps, exploring the musical landscapes and imagery associated with their mountain environments.

Following the site-wide performances, audiences return to the Royal Festival Hall for a grand finale led by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. As the largest ensemble of the evening, the 111-strong orchestra propels audiences into space with selections from John Williams' Star Wars Suite, and Holst's The Planets, two works that have immeasurably shaped both film and concert music.

Following the live orchestral performances, audiences can stick around to hear more contemporary-classical music favourites from a DJ set, while socialising at the bars of the Royal Festival Hall. 

Toks Dada, the Southbank Centre's Head of Classical Music, said: “Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover continues our commitment to explore the breadth of ways in which classical music can be presented and experienced, welcoming new audiences to the artform. The evening brings together the outstanding work of our six Resident Orchestras in a format that celebrates classical music at its most experimental and lets audiences shape their own journey through the music.

Sharing classical music with the widest possible audience sits at the core of our vision, and, throughout our year-round programme we are proud to offer a range of experiences that speak to different people – from concerts featuring the most eminent keyboard and chamber musicians of today, to theatrically-staged performances. Earlier this year, Multitudes, our new multi-arts festival powered by orchestral music, brought in 59% new bookers to the classical music programme during its 2025 debut. Classical Mixtape continues this spirit by inviting audiences to encounter world-class music across our site in ways that feel open, social, and entirely their own.”

Mark Ball, the Southbank Centre's Artistic Director, said: “Throughout the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary in 2026, we're committed to exploring how we look to the future of the orchestral experience. Site-wide takeovers like Classical Mixtape allow us to rethink the familiar presentation of classical music, making full use of our site as a hub of cultural discovery, and inviting audiences to engage with classical music in new ways.”

Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover takes place on Thursday 5 February 2026. The event goes on sale to Southbank Centre Members on Wednesday 17 December 2025, 10am and general sale on Thursday 18 December 2025, 10am.