The Audience Friend

18/05/2026

Our next event happens on 11th June, Sally Beamish's 70th Birthday concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Sally was the first ever composer in residence for the Academy here and also used to play viola in their orchestra. Her 70th birthday includes a new commission she has created called, IZAKHI written following an inspirational trip to South Africa in 2024.

Register at subscribepage.io/ipWMux to access our money saving ticket deal.

Image credit © Sarah Hickson

25/04/2026

What a gift - these incredible dutch brothers were playing professionally from age 10 and 13. You can watch them with us on Sat 2nd May for just £15 subscribepage.io/rvWWJB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFuIR295ByU

1.3K likes, 62 comments. "Lucas and Arthur Jussen - Night | Fazil Say (2017)"

04/04/2026

She’s so lovely! Do you know her? ⛪️📍🗺️

St Martin-in-the-Fields is a huge landmark next to Trafalgar Square. But have you ever been inside?

It hosts an incredible music programme, a cavernous underground cafe and a lot more besides 🎻

You’re invited to join us there on Thursday 9th April 7.30 for Bridging Worlds, celebrating 5 extraordinary female musicians.

It cannot fail to be one awe-inspiring night because we have,

1.Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga giving her world premier of her new music, her Second Symphony.

2 & 3. Elena Urioste will performs Florence Price’s Violin Concerto.

Now let’s just unpick this a little...

Florence was born on 9th April 1887 (so this concert is on her birthday!) and was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. I mean, can you even imagine, how hard she must have committed and created to do that? It gives me goosebumps it really does.

Elena is American, just turning 40 and was 2 years old when she first saw the violin on Sesame Street. As well as being a musician is a yogi, writer and entrepreneur.

4. Then we also have Caroline Shaw, a New York-based musician also in her 40’s, whose music Entr’acte will be performed. Caroline is known for her versatility, as a composer, violinist, vocalist, and producer, who has won a Pulitzer Prize in Music and four Grammys. She’s remixed a song for Kanye West and last year formed an electronic pop duo Ringdown.

5. And then there’s also a performance of Grażyna Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra. Grażyna was born in 1909 and has gained a reputation in the 21st century as the “First Lady” of Polish music.

It should be quite a night; a wonderful joining together of forces in a gem of a venue, intimate, unique and very very central.

I only have 30 tickets for this so book up if you want to be there!

Subscribe in my bio to access my £15 tickets

03/04/2026

We are so lucky, our event this month features the work of count-em 5 incredible female musicians, and takes place at the cultural and well-hidden Central London gem that is St Martin-in-the-Fields. Expect a cosy, unique and awe-filled evening. You should come! subscribepage.io/uurTjE

16/07/2025

Lydia Idakula, Artistic Director for Lagos Theatre Festival Lydia is a theatre, film and tv producer.

Tomorrow Lydia and her team bring the inspiring and rarely told story of Nigerian Queen Idia to Covent Garden, bringing this work to London for the first time and for one night only. In a piece that draws on her own Nigerian heritage, fusing music, poetry, dance, and storytelling to breathe life into the legendary Queen Idia of the Benin Kingdom; warrior, strategist, mother, icon.

Her iconic bronze mask, looted during the 1897 British invasion and now housed in the British Museum, is known around the world and etched into every Nigerian passport and immortalised as the emblem of FESTAC ’77. But often people know little else about her.

This musical brings her voice to life through stirring Afrobeats, poetic storytelling, and the vibrant spirit of Nigerian culture. Come and watch it’s first sharing in London...

I was drawn to Queen Idia’s story because it felt both personal and powerful. She’s a reminder of the legacy of strong, strategic African women that often gets erased from mainstream history. As a Nigerian woman and storyteller, I felt a deep need to reclaim and reimagine that narrative.

This London debut has already had a powerful creative journey, shaped in collaboration with the University of Cambridge’s Public Engagement team, the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, the Centre of African Studies - University of Cambridge, the University of
Cambridge Library, the Key Theatre Peterborough, and the National Theatre of Nigeria. Next Thursday will be the first sharing of this work-in-progress musical in London. Audiences will get an early look at a musical that holds real potential for spectacle and scale.

Raw, alive, and evolving.

11/07/2025

Queen Idia comes to London for one night only next Thursday at the Actor's Theatre, Covent Garden.

The work of Lydia Idakula, who is also the Artistic Director for Lagos Theatre Festival, expect a piece that draws on her own Nigerian heritage, fusing music, poetry, dance, and storytelling to breathe life into the legendary Queen Idia of the Benin Kingdom; warrior, strategist, mother, icon.

Her iconic bronze mask, looted during the 1897 British invasion and now housed in the British Museum, is known around the world and etched into every Nigerian passport and immortalised as the emblem of FESTAC ’77. But often people know little else about her.

This musical brings her voice to life through stirring Afrobeats, poetic storytelling, and the vibrant spirit of Nigerian culture. Come and watch it's first sharing in London...

https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTiX6DnlkeR

25/06/2025

Grateful beyond words that Botis Seva and Far From The Norm are here in london sharing their latest work. You can catch ‘Until We Sleep’ in Stratford at Sadlers Wells East every night including Saturday.

Unmissable 🔥

DM us for our ticket deal 😉

24/06/2025

Everyone who knows us knows how much we LOVE Botis Seva's work. Opening tonight at Sadlers Wells East. If you want to be there you can save money with us at subscribepage.io/UrZ9qR
Image: UNTIL WE SLEEP, Camilla Greenwell.

04/03/2025

Really happy to be sharing this show with our members this week. Not on our mailing list? Sign up at https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/123851/63622475877975383/share

25/01/2025

We are feeling incredibly happy to have a handful of tickets for our members for the opening show 'Our Mighty Groove' at Sadlers Wells East in Feb https://vimeo.com/1005926917. Created by the incredible Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu of Uchenna Dance.

This is "Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu’s Our Mighty Groove - Trailer" by Sadler's Wells on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who…