Southbank Centre unveils Multitudes line-up with landmark Alexander McQueen music concert

The Southbank Centre has announced the full line-up for the return of Multitudes, its ambitious multi-arts festival powered by orchestral music, running from 16–30 April 2026 as part of the centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations. Launched in 2025 to critical and audience acclaim, Multitudes reimagines the orchestral experience by fusing music with fashion, dance, film, circus and visual art. The 2026 edition brings together all six of the Southbank Centre’s Resident Orchestras alongside world-class artists from across disciplines, continuing the festival’s mission to expand how classical music is experienced today.

Alexander McQueen Spring-Summer 2010: Plato's Atlantis Giovanni Giannoni

A defining highlight of the programme is Un-natural Harmony: The Sound of Alexander McQueen(29–30 April), a major new collaboration between the London Contemporary Orchestra, conductor and arranger Robert Ames, and John Gosling, McQueen’s longtime music director. The multi-arts concert reimagines the music that shaped McQueen’s most iconic runway shows, transforming it into a live orchestral performance that captures the designer’s theatrical, subversive and emotionally charged aesthetic. Directed by Elayce Ismail, the production also features a new film by Douglas Hart and Eddie Whelan, with live choreography by acclaimed artist Holly Blakey.

Drawing on centuries of music, the concert weaves together classical works by Purcell, Handel and Mozart with contemporary tracks that defined McQueen’s fashion legacy, including The Rolling Stones’ Paint It, Black and Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, the final track of his last runway show, Plato Atlantis. This fearless musical journey reflects McQueen and Gosling’s shared belief in music as a powerful narrative force, moving fluidly between beauty and brutality, restraint and excess.

Rite of Spring Aurora. Image credit Maarit Kytöharju/Helsinki Festival.

Alongside this landmark tribute, the 2026 Multitudes programme includes orchestras and artists pushing boundaries across genres and forms: from Aurora Orchestra performing Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring entirely from memory, to heavy metal colliding with symphonic power, immersive visual theatre interpretations of Messiaen, and collaborations with poets, dancers and circus artists. Having attracted 59% new bookers to the Southbank Centre’s classical music programme in its debut year, Multitudes continues to look boldly towards the future of orchestral music while celebrating its scale, emotional depth and relevance within contemporary culture.

Multitudes takes place at the Southbank Centre from 16–30 April 2026; full programme details can be found at southbankcentre.co.uk.