Organisation
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Theme
Biodiversity & environmental quality
Start Date
Sept 2025
End Date
Oct 2026
Goals
Nature, Biodiversity
The London Philharmonic Orchestra's (opens in a new window) 2025/26 London season aspired to combine music and nature, going beyond the performance to invite new audiences to learn about the inspiration behind the music through talks by Kate Humble, Liz Bonnin and Tony Juniper.
The Challenge
Known for its world-class performance and thought-provoking programming, the London Philharmonic Orchestra went even further this last year, listening to the world in which it exists and seeking to open up debate and conversation through the universal language of music.
The Orchestra had long identified environmental issues and the climate crisis as topics that have polarised public debate, but where the unique convening power of music and the arts could be employed to bring people together in a collaborative and non-adversarial way.
Next came the questions of how to listen to where the debate is. How to involve new voices? And how to take the climate conversation beyond classical music’s regular attendees to engage with new audiences who would gain different insights through the juxtaposition of art and debate?
All this led to the programming of a dynamic season of nature-related music, talks and events at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Action Taken
To encourage new attendees through the doors alongside its existing audiences, the LPO worked with Jo Sermon, a television producer and director whose credits include Blue Planet, Wild China and Earth. Together they curated a series of pre-concert talks featuring names from across the media, academia and the environmental movement, which would take the music as a starting point to surface important issues about our planet, its future and its place in the cosmos.
Six talks across the Orchestra’s 2025/26 Harmony in Nature season included the likes of broadcaster Kate Humble, biologist Liz Bonnin, astronomer David Kipping, Tony Juniper of Natural England and superstar angler Jeremy Wade.
Each talk was introduced by a musician from the Orchestra, making a personal and artistic connection to the evening’s programme.
In some talks, an explicit connection to the upcoming performances was made, notably in David Kipping’s discussion with Composer Robert Laidlaw about his new work Exoplanets.
In others, the connection was made in more general terms but was no less impactful. Gail Whiteman’s discussion with jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard about the fate of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina touched not only on climate change but also on a wide range of connected social, ethical, and political issues explored in his performance that evening.
Music across the season included established works inspired by the beauty and wonder of the earth (e.g. Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals) and a range of new commissions and contemporary works in which artists responded to the growing realities of the climate crisis.
In addition to The Nature Dialogues, the LPO also took the climate message outside of its main season programming, forging a partnership with Zoological Society London in celebration of the organisation’s 200th anniversary, and appearing at an event hosted by the World Economic Forum in which the tempo and dynamics of the music controlled simulations of glacier retreat, showing the pace of the melt under different scenarios of climate action.
The Results
In total, the Orchestra attracted over 3,600 people to The Nature Dialogues, 70% of whom were new attendees who had never booked an LPO event before.
This showed the Orchestra could deploy its leadership and track record in concert performances to attract new audiences, whilst also holding conversations that would place them at the centre of important issues.
Thirty-one per cent of the audience for the talks (which were free of charge) also purchased tickets for the evening’s concert, suggesting interest in a package that would encourage deeper engagement with the issues.
This success has inspired the Orchestra to continue seeking greater sustainability across the different areas of its operations.
The Harmony with Nature and The Nature Dialogues programmes showed that one of the biggest impacts the Orchestra can make is to provide space to open up and listen to thorny issues through music, and to use its artistic voice and profile to approach them from a non-confrontational angle.
