Pride in the Name of Love: How Sotheby's and The Barbican Are Highlighting Queer Classical Composers this Summer

O liver Zeffman, one of the most accomplished and celebrated young conductors working today, noticed that European classical music institutions were behind the curve in celebrating Pride month. So he decided to do something about it. Zeffman, whose credits include work with the London Chamber Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre, and Apple’s gorgeous Live at the V&A, which was shot in the museum’s Raphael room, spoke to us from his home in the UK.

In conversation, he zigzagged, rapid-fire, through a range of ideas, theories and topics with infectious energy, outlining the planning process and programmes for two very special ‘Classical Pride’ concerts he has devised for Pride month. First, he will be conducting the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a programme of classical and modern classical at Sotheby’s New Bond Street on 30 June, before presenting an expanded selection of compositions, old and new, on 7 July, at the Barbican Centre.

These concerts will be the first classical Pride concerts by a major orchestra anywhere in Europe. And the Barbican edition will feature the world premiere of Julian Anderson’s Echoes, the centrepiece of a programme celebrating LGBTQ+ composers and artists through the ages, from Handel, to contemporary composer Caroline Shaw (who describes herself as 'a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed'), and Henriette Bosmans, a bisexual Dutch composer, active in the first half of the 20th century. Taken as a whole, these performances present thrilling musical journeys, that are also, historic moments in themselves.

How did the Classical Pride concerts come into being?
A huge number of important classical composers and performers, past and present, are from the LGBTQ+ community. But for whatever reason, classical music has never had a Pride concert in Europe before. There was one in America last year, but in the UK Europe, and I guess Asia, no major orchestral concert hall or opera house has held one, which is just a bit odd and well overdue. So, I thought, I should do one.

It is rather surprising that this will be Europe's first classical Pride performance.
I don't think it's any kind of generally-ingrained homophobia or whatever. It just takes a long time for people to think of doing things. For whatever reason, classical music is a relatively slow-moving industry, but it seems everybody's been very supportive of this project and very keen on the idea.

When I was looking over the artists you’ve picked, I saw Romeo and Juliet and noted you’d chosen Tchaikovsky and not Prokofiev. And this was, I assume, because Tchaikovsky was gay.
I used to live in St. Petersburg for a little bit and I studied history at the Conservatory there. And in Russia, classical music is a much more important part of national heritage. The year I first moved there, they introduced this, non-promotion of divergent lives, non-traditional lifestyles to minors or something silly like this. And you know, there's lots of talk, particularly about the West, about how it's terrible. But obviously, that is crazy, because Tchaikovsky was gay, and a great composer.

There is so much we don't know about the covert lives of so many queer composers in history.
Yeah, exactly. And we want to reflect that diversity of Pride—so, there is a piece by Bernstein, and a piece by Poulenc, being played by two fantastic Russian pianists who are partners in real life, Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy.

Then, we have a new commission from Julian Anderson, who's one of the most eminent classical composers around. He’s usually booked up years in advance, but he moved some things around his diary so that he could participate. Then, after the break, there will be a piece by Caroline Shaw, who’s a fantastic American composer. She won the Pulitzer Prize when she was 30 and here, she has a very beautiful piece called ‘Is a Rose’, composed for strings, with three different singers, three movements, one per singer. It’s about love and ultimately that's a big part of what Pride is; being able to love. And then we are ending with Romeo and Juliet. I mean obviously in some ways, Romeo and Juliet is the quintessential heterosexual love story, but obviously Shakespeare couldn't write about Romeo and Romeo. Partly because obviously it's a private concert you want to make sure that it's it reflects that the diversity of the LGBT community rather than being just all gay men, for example.

How have your interactions been with Julian Anderson, as you prepared for this show?
Julian and I have known each other for quite a few years now. And he's in many ways, been something of a mentor to me. He's got this incredibly encyclopedic knowledge of music and art, he’s incredibly clever, and we've been chatting about this project quite a bit. Commissioning music is one of the most exciting things. Because, apart from the original composer and maybe an editor who helps them, you're the first person to see something that didn't exist before, and now it's piece of music. Being the first person to have this new work of art, before anybody else in the world, before the audience, is quite a privilege.

How has it been working with the Barbican and with Sotheby’s?
Fantastic. The Barbican are very behind the concert. Exceptionally engaged by it. Very supportive. It's really great, particularly to attract audiences that cross the artistic spectrum, working with Sotheby’s. There’s a concert at Sotheby’s a few days before, kind of a smaller scale version. But some of the pieces will be in the concert at the Barbican and at Sotheby’s as well. I’m very pleased and grateful to both for their partnership on this.

Click here to attend Classical Pride at Sotheby's on 30 June