Living Music with Nadia Sirota is a live event and podcast series that presents classical music as a vital, living art form

Hosted by Nadia Sirota

Nadia Sirota is a violist, conductor, and Peabody Award-winning producer and broadcaster. Known for her “tenaciously good ear and her ability to throw herself bodily into the landscapes that composers bring to her,” (Pitchfork) she serves as Creative Partner with the New York Philharmonic, Artist-in-Residence at CAP-UCLA, and Creative Associate at the Juilliard School.

Through engaging and down-to-earth chat and contextualized musical performances, Living Music shines a light on the brilliant and charismatic characters who create New Classical Music

Each1-hour presentation consists of approximately 45 minutes of music interspersed with 15 minutes of interview

Each show features a main guest “curator” in conversation with Nadia Sirota, and live performances of music that they wrote, perform, or that inspires them

The featured artists could both highlight the Southbank Centre’s existing programming and pull in bright talents from around the world

  • An Established Brand

    Over the past 5 years, Nadia Sirota has tightened and honed this format; she has presented Living Music events in Los Angeles at Theater at ACE Hotel and in New York at Le Poisson Rouge; a composer-focused iteration, Nightcap, was presented as part of her Creative Partnership at the New York Philharmonic, (2018-2021, and, due to COVID rescheduling, currently extending to the 2022-23 season), and a performer-focused version was part of her ongoing Creative Associateship with the Juilliard School.

    Watch Nightcap with Nico Muhly

  • The COVID-19 Lockdown

    During the COVID-19 lockdown, Nadia hosted Living Music with Nadia Sirota: Pirate Radio Edition, a 26-episode quarantine-era variety show that featured some of the brightest artists from around the globe, performing and chatting from their homes. Streamed on Facebook Live, this show created performance opportunities and a place to interact for a community of artists hit extremely hard by pandemic restrictions. It featured over 100 guests, and was live-streamed between March 19th and July 14th, 2020.

    Watch Living Music: Pirate Radio Edition

  • Growth

    While Living Music is an established brand, we are looking for a home for this vital and creative format, as well as a broadcast platform to help these artists reach international audiences. With its curious and diverse patrons and history of eclectic programming, we believe with Southbank Centre is an ideal partner for this project. We imagine Living Music with Nadia Sirota as a live event in the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room which is recorded for broadcast on BBC 3 as well as America’s WQXR (New York) and KUSC (Los Angeles). Living Music has an excellent history of working with music publishers (such as Wise Music, Boosey and Hawkes, and Schott) to secure broadcast rights for live performances.