Music of Today: Gabriela Ortiz Curates
Broaden your listening horizons with new music from Mexico in this free early-evening concert from the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Gabriela Ortiz, the orchestra’s Featured Composer for the 2025/26 season, presents her own work alongside pieces by other Mexican composers.
Ortiz’s Corpórea contrasts our rational, material selves with the spiritual, intuitive side of our being (listen out for the Afro-Peruvian quijada, an instrument made from a donkey’s jawbone, in the percussion section).
Ortiz has made it her mission to introduce the fresh, diverse music of Latin America to a wider audience.
She’s chosen Hebert Vázquez’s Son Crepuscular for clarinet and string quartet and Francisco Cortés-Álvarez’s Transcending Walls, inspired by the work of muralists on the Mexican side of the Mexico–US border, to broaden our listening horizons.
Performers
Players from the Philharmonia Orchestra
Repertoire
Francisco Cortés-Álvarez: Transcendiendo muros
Hebert Vázquez: Son crepuscular
Gabriela Ortiz: Corpórea
Need to know
For your visit
This event is held at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre
The Royal Festival Hall is open six days a week.
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.
Plan your visit
The Royal Festival Hall is home to our largest auditorium as well as The Clore Ballroom, National Poetry Library, Members’ Lounge, Festival Bar & Kitchen, Ballroom Cafe and Skylon restaurant.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
On Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall you can grab a slice of life by the Thames with drinks and freshly made pizza at our Festival Bar & Kitchen which opens out onto our Riverside Terrace. You can grab a coffee and a slice of freshly made cake from our Ballroom Cafe. Or alternatively enjoy destination dining in the restaurant at Skylon.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.