Sinfonia Smith Square’s Easter Festival for 2025

Featuring an array of innovative performances, creative partnerships, and family events, the dynamic programme is underpinned by Sinfonia Smith Square’s mission to ignite community engagement and expand the historic venue’s reach to new audiences.

From 15th to 19th April, Sinfonia Smith Square’s renowned Easter Festival will delight audiences with a range of events, across an array of musical genres.

Mozart’s epic and poignant Requiem will be brought to life in an enthralling partnership between Sinfonia Smith Square and National Youth Voices on Thursday 17th April. From the sorrowful lamentations of the Lacrimosa to the intense Dies Irae, it is a piece that pulses with emotion and grips from start to finish.

Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment return to Smith Square for their annual performance of Bach’s St John Passion on Friday 18th April. This raw and more expressive piece offers explosive moments of operatic splendour. Guests will enjoy vocal, choral and instrumental virtuosity as Polyphony and the OAE join forces under the direction of Stephen Layton.

A further highlight of the Easter programme will be the London International Gospel Choir’s performance on Saturday 19th April, one of the capital’s largest community-based choirs whose diverse members sing a range of gospel, funk, soul, jazz and pop music.

Bringing music to ever-wider audiences, Sinfonia Smith Square will be holding a range of family concerts and workshops. On Saturday 15th March, families can experience works from composers that lived and worked in London, including George Frideric Handel, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Felix Mendelssohn and Errollyn Wallen, with interactive presentations from Sinfonia Smith Square’s Fellowship orchestra, games throughout and an opportunity to try out the musicians’ instruments.

On Saturday 19th April, Benjamin Collyer will lead a free interactive workshop for families to discover the inner workings of the organ.

Sinfonia Smith Square has recently appointed their brand-new Associate Artistic Director, Toby Chadd. Looking ahead to the 2025 programme, he comments,

“This is a pivotal moment for London’s musical scene, as two brilliant institutions combine. On the one hand, there’s the vitality and boundary-crossing approach of Southbank Sinfonia, now Sinfonia Smith Square. On the other, Smith Square Hall (formerly St John’s) has a formidable legacy of concert-giving and the finest acoustic in the capital. Bring them together, and there’s the opportunity to create an artistic beacon which incubates and presents transformative musical experiences. I’m thrilled to be collaborating with our partners, players and team to imagine and deliver ambitious creative horizons for Sinfonia Smith Square.”

More information can be found via the Sinfonia Smith Square website: www.sinfoniasmithsq.org.uk.