The Southbank Centre announces the line-up for Multitudes, featuring a landmark concert of the music at the heart of Lee Alexander McQueen’s fashion legacy

The Southbank Centre today announces the full line-up for the return of Multitudes, its multi-arts festival powered by orchestral music, running from 16-30 April 2026 as part of the centre’s 75th anniversary year.

A centrepiece of the festival’s programme is Un-natural Harmony: Sounds of Lee Alexander McQueen (29–30 April), a major new collaboration between the London Contemporary Orchestra, Robert Ames, and John Gosling, McQueen’s longtime music director and collaborator. The multi-arts concert is a reimagining of the music which inspired Lee Alexander McQueen’s most iconic fashion runways in a live orchestral setting.

Bringing to life the soundworld that defined McQueen’s theatrical, subversive runway shows, the performance reworks their rich, textural music through a live score, by co-creative directors John Gosling and Robert Ames. Under the direction of Elayce Ismail, the concert features a new film by Douglas Hart and Eddie Whelan, and a live performance choreographed by the critically acclaimed Holly Blakey.

The concert draws together an eclectic and emotionally charged repertoire spanning centuries and genres, reflecting Gosling and McQueen’s collaboratively bold and fearless approach to music as a narrative force. From Purcell’s lyrical Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s Sarabande to the stillness of Mozart’s II. Adagio: Piano Concerto No.23, Un-natural Harmony: Sounds of Lee Alexander McQueen weaves together an evening of music that moves between beauty and brutality, restraint and excess. These canonical works are set against contemporary popular music that featured prominently in McQueen’s runways, including The Rolling Stones’ Paint It, Black and the last track of the designer’s final runway, Plato Atlantis – Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.

Launched in 2025 to critical and audience acclaim, Multitudes reimagines the orchestral music experience by fusing it with fashion, dance, film, circus and visual art. The multi-arts festival features all six of the Southbank Centre’s six Resident Orchestras – Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Philharmonia Orchestra – alongside a stellar lineup of world-class musicians, musical ensembles, dancers, visual artists and filmmakers.