Classically Black returns to Kings Place, London, on Saturday 10 October 2026, bringing together leading musicians, composers and emerging talent for a day of performance, conversation, education and live music during Black History Month. Presented by Black Lives in Music (BLiM), the third edition of the pioneering festival follows two sold-out years and continues its mission to celebrate and amplify Black and global majority voices within classical music.
More than a festival, Classically Black has become an important platform for rethinking who gets to shape the classical music canon and what the genre can look and sound like today. This year’s programme brings together established artists and rising talent, including Carol Leeming MBE, Rebeca Omordia, Yshani Perinpanayagam, Okiem, Braimah Kanneh-Mason, Pete Letanka and Oli Rose, alongside the Omnium Ensemble and emerging musicians featured in the ‘The Next Movement’ Rising Talent Showcase, presented in partnership with Warner Classics.
The one-day programme explores classical music through performance, debate, youth engagement and new perspectives. Highlights include the intersectional panel ‘Under the Skin, One People’, Pete Letanka’s Children & Young People’s Music Workshop Sharing Session, the piano-focused ‘Keyboard Warriors’, and a live recording of the ‘Down with the Patribachy’ podcast, which challenges traditional narratives around the Western classical canon.
With DECCA also supporting the festival, and Warner Classics continuing its partnership through The Next Movement, Classically Black provides a platform for musicians from Black and global majority backgrounds while opening up wider conversations about representation, access and the future of classical music.
As BLiM Chief Executive Charisse Beaumont puts it, the festival is about placing Black and global majority musicians “at the centre of the stage” — not simply performing within the classical tradition, but helping to reinvent it. At Kings Place this October, Classically Black offers audiences an opportunity to experience that evolving musical landscape first-hand.
The 2026 edition opens with ‘Under the Skin, One People’ a panel discussion moderated by British-Jamaican poet, playwright, singer and multidisciplinary artist from Leicester Carol Leeming MBE. Joined by neuro-divergent pianist Michael Howell, Nigerian born, London based soprano Victoria Oruwari and clarinetist Berginald Rash, the panel focuses on the challenges faced by those with intersectional identities, including race, taking part in classical music.
Next is the return of British composer Pete Letanka’s Children & Young People’s Music Workshop Sharing Session – this free, community-facing event features the results of a collaborative workshop series led by Letanka and the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST). The presentation offers an inspiring look at the culmination of workshops, highlighting the creativity and potential of young musicians involved in this vital educational partnership.
Dedicated to individuality and innovation, ‘Keyboard Warriors’ features a keynote address by Oli Rose of the Lang Lang Foundation, followed by a series of dynamic performances. The session showcases the artistry of pianists Rebeca Omordia, Yshani Perinpanayagam, and Okiem, providing a vibrant platform that celebrates the evolution of piano performance through three distinct twenty-minute sets.
In collaboration with Warner Classics, ‘The Next Movement Showcase’ spotlights the industry’s rising stars. Selected via a rigorous open call process, five talented performers. Ryan Morgan, Isaac Shieh, Nahuel Angius-Thomas, Yuma Angius-Thomas, and Simone Seales take the stage to demonstrate the bright future of classical music performance.
The ‘Down with the Patribachy’ podcast ends the day. A classical music podcast hosted by Ellie Ajao, the show re-examines the story of Western classical music through the lens of composers left out of the traditional canon, those, as the show puts it, without “pale skin, curly wigs or a Y chromosome.
For Classically Black, the podcast comes to the stage as a live recording, a fresh and thought-provoking journey through musical history. Ellie is joined on the panel by Joe McHardy, Emma Arthur and Braimah Kanneh-Mason. Plus, live performances from the eight-piece chamber choir Omnium Ensemble adding a musical dimension to the stories under discussion, inviting the audience to think differently about the canon and celebrate voices that have too often been left out.
Tickets available here.
