Music x Museums presented by Viking

Known for his pioneering spirit and inspiring vision for creative ways to engage with live and digital audiences, conductor Oliver Zeffman directs a new series of filmed concerts at major London museums, including Cutty Sark.

For the first time ever, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Dame Sarah Connolly will be performing in the iconic Dry Berth of Cutty Sark. 

Music x Museums combines carefully chosen masterpieces of classical music – performed by leading orchestras, choirs and soloists - with art and architecture, for spectacular events to be experienced digitally by audiences worldwide through films and audio recordings.

Building on the success of Live at the V&A last year, Oliver Zeffman is extending the series further to create four new visual albums of the concerts in the series. The full-length films will be available to stream on Apple Music and Viking TV, and the audio albums will be streaming on all music platforms.

Zeffman says:

“After more than two years of such precarious cultural activity, it's more important than ever for different art forms and different arts institutions to be working together to bring exciting cultural events to the public, in this case pairing great music with great art and architecture. I'm delighted - and hugely grateful - that these London museums, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Philharmonia Orchestra, and not least Viking, all seem to share in that vision. Although, crucially, this is a live music series for a live audience, I believe that classical music can (and should) be doing better to reach digital audiences around the world. After our shared success with Live at the V&A last year, I'm thrilled to be working again with Platoon towards this goal.”

The concert at Royal Museums Greenwich’s Cutty Sark, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Dame Sarah Connolly on 12th July, focuses on the sea, with turbulent and tranquil pieces reflecting its nature by composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Grace Williams.

It also features Elgar’s Sea Pictures for singer and orchestra. The text for the first of these five songs, The Swimmer, was published in 1870 - the same year as the Cutty Sark embarked on her maiden voyage. The last of her kind, Cutty Sark is an iconic record-breaking tea clipper.

The ship is the gateway to ‘Maritime Greenwich’, sharing tales of adventure, global trade and speed at sea. Cutty Sark was placed in Greenwich as a memorial to the Merchant Navy, particularly those who lost their lives in the two world wars.

Don't miss this opportunity and book your tickets now. Please note this performance will be filmed for broadcast.