On 28 October Antoine Tamestit returns to the Barbican stage as part of his LSO Artist Portrait. The star viola player performs William Walton’s Viola Concerto and Robin Ticciati conducts Brahms Symphony No 4. During his lifetime William Walton had a long and close relationship with the LSO. Read on to discover more about the composer, his history with the LSO and his majestic Viola Concerto.

In our forthcoming concert on 10 October with Nicola Benedetti and Daniel Harding bring together a kaleidoscopic musical travelogue, across Europe and the ocean beyond. The opening number of the concert will be Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps. Read on to discover more about the journey behind Lili Boulanger’s composition.

This October the LSO showcases the wistful Romanticism of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Daniel Harding and the LSO bring Dvořák’s sounds of nature to life across two concerts at the Barbican on Sunday 10 October and Sunday 31 October. 

Harding conducts a selection of the composer's Symphonic Poems, music inspired by Karel Jaromir’s 'Kytice' ballads. On Sunday 10 October the LSO performed The Wild Dove, and on on Sunday 31 October Harding is joined by Antoine Tamestit for the finale of his Artist Portrait  in a programme featuring Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto and two more Symphonic Poems In der Natur and The Golden Spinning Wheel. 

This October French viola virtuoso Antoine Tamestit is the star of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait series, performing music for viola and orchestra across three concerts at the Barbican. Alongside this, Tamestit appears in Antoine Tamestit & Friends a complementary BBC Radio 3 chamber music series where he is joined by a cast of his closest musical friends.

We caught up with Antoine to ask the burning questions about his journey to becoming a classical musician and why he chose the viola, his favourite repertoire and how he approaches introducing young people to classical music!