Queer Song Fest

Thursday 29 June 2023, 1pm – Kunal Lahiry & Ruby Hughes
In this special lunchtime concert recorded by BBC Radio 3, collaborative pianist Kunal Lahiry joins forces with critically acclaimed soprano Ruby Hughes for a gorgeous, mixed programme of song which includes Ades, Debussy, Schubert, Ives, Kurt Weill and a new commissioned work by singer Lyra Pramuk.

“Ruby Hughes is increasingly proving to be a key singer of the early 21^st century.” (Klassic Music Magazine)

Kunal Lahiry is a BBC New Generation Artist and this concert kicks off his two-day Queer Song Festival, part of Bristol Pride, which aims to bring together the LGBTQ+ creative community and classical music listeners, introducing each to the familiar in unfamiliar guise and finding common connections between the two.

Friday 30 June 2023, 7.30pm – Our People: A Celebration of Black and LGBTQ Voices Through Song and Vogue
In this very special collaboration, American concert pianist Kunal Lahiry teams up with Grammy-award winning tenor Frederick Ballentine and the ballroom community of Bristol to pay homage to and explore Black and LGBTQ experiences through song and dance.

The event – broadcast by BBC Radio 3 – is a highly original coming together of two distinct art forms not often witnessed together: classical art song stretching back to composers such as Schubert, and the stylized dance of voguing that developed out of the Black and Latino gay ballroom scene of 1960s Harlem, and that was propelled into mainstream consciousness through Madonna’s 1990s hit Vogue.