Tickets go on sale for inaugural London Soundtrack Festival 2025 as new details are unveiled
Neil Tennant and Jake Shears headline Movie Songs Concert at the Roundhouse
BFI IMAX screenings revealed – including a Lord of the Rings marathon introduced by Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore
16 September 2024, London: The first tickets go on sale tomorrow for the London Soundtrack Festival (LSF), London’s first dedicated annual Festival celebrating the music of film, TV and games.
Today guest vocalists for Great Movie Songs with Anne Dudley & Friends are revealed, including Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) and Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters). Omar and Monica Mancini are also performing, with more artists to be announced. The Festival has also announced a special set of screenings at BFI IMAX introduced by featured headline composers including Howard Shore and Hildur Guðnadóttir.
This week, tickets go on sale for some of the Festival’s highlight events, including:
- London Soundtrack Festival Gala Concert at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
- Anne Dudley and Friends: Great Movie Songs
- Games Music Day at The Roundhouse, featuring a masterclass and a panel session with award-winning composers, and a concert of favourite game soundtracks
- Q&A with Howard Shore and David Cronenberg about their long-term collaboration
- BBC Radio 3’s Friday Night is Music Night live at Alexandra Palace
- Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Tár) in concert, introduced by Guðnadóttir herself
- Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times with live score, introduced by Chaplin’s grandson, Spencer Chaplin
Next week, tickets go on sale for a series of special screenings at BFI IMAX – including a marathon of the beloved The Lord of the Rings trilogy introduced by composer Howard Shore, and Crash and Dead Ringers introduced by Shore and director David Cronenberg.
Tickets for further events will go on sale in due course.
In association with the BFI, the London Soundtrack Festival will be hosted by some of the capital’s greatest cultural venues, including the Southbank Centre, Alexandra Palace and BFI IMAX, and feature several of London’s leading orchestras and the biggest names in film, TV and games music. Founded by concert producer, broadcaster and musician Tommy Pearson, the Festival reflects London’s status as one of the most important cultural centres for soundtracks worldwide, with its legendary studios, musicians, facilities and leading creative artists across all music disciplines.
Subscribers to the London Soundtrack Festival’s newsletter will get priority access to tickets from 10:00am tomorrow [17th September]. The general sale opens at 10:00am on Wednesday 18th September.
Priority access for BFI IMAX screenings opens at 12:00pm on 26th September for BFI Members and LSF subscribers, with general sale opening at 4:00pm.
To sign up for pre-sale access, purchase tickets and find out more, visit https://londonsoundtrackfestival.com/.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
CONTACT DETAILS
Press email: chris.boyd@premiercomms.com or Charlotte.Connal@premiercomms.com
Festival Website: londonsoundtrackfestival.com
Festival Social handles: @LDNSoundtrack (Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook)
PROGRAMME DETAILS
Wednesday 19 March 2025
Concert: Richard Harwood & Friends
Wigmore Hall | 1:00pm
Cellist Richard Harwood is joined by star chamber musicians for a lunchtime recital of music by Film composers written for the concert hall – including a new commission by LSF Featured Artist Hildur Guðnadóttir.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 30th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 1st October 2024
Film in Concert: Modern Times – with live score
Cadogan Hall | 6:15pm (pre-show talk) | 7:30pm (concert)
Covent Garden Sinfonia | Conductor: Ben Palmer
Chaplin’s award-winning masterpiece, Modern Times, will be screened with the original score played live by the Covent Garden Sinfonia and conducted by Ben Palmer. The event will also include a pre-concert talk by Chaplin’s grandson, Spencer Chaplin.
Modern Times, released in 1936 starring Charlie Chaplin, centres on a luckless factory worker who finds himself so unnerved by trying to cope with modern technology that he ends up institutionalised. From there more mishaps and adventures ensue. It is regarded as one of Chaplin’s most comedic films and one of the last great silent films. Most notably, the film introduced Chaplin’s trademark song “Smile.”
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Thursday 20 March 2025
Film in Concert: Eighth Grade – with live score
BFI IMAX | 7:30pm
Bo Burnham’s dazzling coming-of-age feature film debut with its mesmerising score by Anna Meredith played live.
Kayla Day, an eighth grade student in an American middle school in New York State struggles to fit in with her contemporaries during her last week of classes before graduating to high school.
The screening will be introduced by composer Anna Meredith as part of the London Soundtrack Festival.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
Friday 21 March 2025
Concert: Friday Night is Music Night
Alexandra Palace | 7:30pm
BBC Concert Orchestra
A live broadcast of the long-running popular strand, now on BBC Radio 3. Featuring popular hits from film and television.
In a special edition of Friday Night Is Music Night as part of the inaugural London Soundtrack Festival, the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Richard Balcombe present some of the best-known themes ever written for screens big and small, including James Bond, ET, Poirot, Out of Africa, Pride and Prejudice and a special tribute to composers and lyricists who would’ve been 100 in 2025 – Ron Goodwin (633 Squadron), Alan Bergman (Windmills of Your Mind) and Richard Sherman (Mary Poppins). Also featuring composers attending the London Soundtrack Festival: Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings) and Anne Dudley (Bright Young Things). Plus, the world premiere of a special suite of the greatest TV Quiz Show themes, arranged by Iain Farrington.
Programme includes:
- Ron Goodwin: 633 Squadron
- James Bond Medley (arr. Stanley Black – in the BBC library)
- John Barry: Out of Africa
- Laura Karpman: Theme from The Marvels
- Christopher Gunning: Theme from Poirot (feat. solo sax)
- TV Quiz Show Suite (premiere, an LSF commission arr. Iain Farrington)
- John Williams: ET Adventures on Earth
- John Williams: Fiddler on the Roof Highlights (feat. solo violin)
- Anne Dudley: Waltz from Bright Young Things
- Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman: Windmills of Your Mind (instrumental)
- Howard Shore: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
- Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 (2nd movement) (feat. solo piano)
- Carl Davis: Pride and Prejudice (feat. piano)
- Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman: Mary Poppins Overture
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Saturday 22 March 2025
Q&A: Howard Shore and David Cronenberg in Conversation
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall | 3:00pm
Director David Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore have worked together for over 45 years, creating some of the most memorable, startling, moving and controversial moments in film. They have one of the longest and most admired director/composer relationships in the industry.
In this very special event, Director David Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore, in conversation with Jon Burlingame, discuss their extraordinary 45-year collaboration, featuring Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Crash, M Butterfly, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, Naked Lunch and their 17th and most recent film together, The Shrouds.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Screenings: Crash introduced by David Cronenberg and Howard Shore
BFI IMAX| 11:00am
Technology and sexuality meet in head-on collision in David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard’s transgressive 1973 novel.
James Spader stars as James Ballard, a film producer whose deviant sexual desires are awakened by a near fatal automobile accident with Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter). Soon the pair, alongside Ballard’s wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), are drawn into an underground world of car crash fetishism presided over by renegade scientist Vaughan (Elias Koteas).
Danger, sex and death become entwined as eroticism and technology join together in a disturbing, deadly union. Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for originality, daring and audacity, Crash remains a subversive and confrontational piece of cinema.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
Screenings: Dead Ringers introduced by David Cronenberg and Howard Shore
BFI IMAX | 1:30pm
David Cronenberg’s multi award-winning psychological thriller exploring the bizarre lives of identical twins Elliot and Beverly, both played by Jeremy Irons.
Brilliant twin gynaecologists, Beverly and Elliot Mantle, specialise in fertility and share everything, often pretending to be each other. When Claire (Geneviève Bujold), an actress, arrives for treatment, Elliot pretends to be Beverly and seduces Claire – the start of a haunting and disturbing story of passion, addiction and a time-bomb of confusion and despair.
Featuring a towering performance by Jeremy Irons as both twins, Dead Ringers is a bleak but exhilarating masterpiece.
This screening will be introduced by Director David Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore, as part of the London Soundtrack Festival.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall | 7:30pm
London Philharmonic Orchestra | Conductor: Ben Palmer
The London Soundtrack Festival Gala Concert celebrates the career of Howard Shore, featuring music from his Oscar-winning scores for The Lord of the Rings together with music from his more than 45-year collaboration with director David Cronenberg and other highlights from Shore’s incredible career.
The gala concert will be a special night of music by this year’s Featured Artists, including Harry Gregson-Williams, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Anne Dudley, Natalie Holt and a specially-commissioned suite of the best known TV Quiz themes, arranged by Iain Farrington, all brought to the stage by some very special guest presenters.
Programme includes:
- Anna Meredith: Nautilus (from Eighth Grade)
- Natalie Holt: Music from Loki
- Stephen Barton: Picard Suite
- Anne Dudley: American History X
- Harry Gregson-Williams: Suite from Shrek
- Hildur Guðnadóttir: Tár, excerpts
- Arr Iain Farrington: TV Quiz Theme Suite
There will be a special focus on the music of Howard Shore, including his Oscar-winning music for The Lord of the Rings and his 45-year collaboration with director David Cronenberg. Also featuring the presentation of the LSF Gunning Inspiration Award to Howard Shore.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Southbank Centre | TBC
Paul Farrer, who has written some of the most recognisable themes on TV, including The Chase, Weakest Link, The Wheel and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, reveals his composing and production process.
Southbank Centre | TBC
Multi-award-winning composer Natalie Holt reveals her process behind creating scores for TV hits Loki and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Sunday 23 March 2025
Screening: The Lord of the Rings trilogy introduced by Howard Shore
BFI IMAX | 12:30pm
Peter Jackson’s original Tolkien trilogy back-to-back-to-back on the UK’s largest screen, introduced by composer Howard Shore.
Celebrate the storytelling wonder with us and see this epic vision of Middle Earth as never before. Jackson’s extraordinary undertaking, bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s world-building classic to the screen, is a testament to the strength of the author’s world and a tribute to fans all over in these three legendary films.
This screening will be introduced by composer Howard Shore, as part of the London Soundtrack Festival.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
State of the Art: Games Music Day
The Roundhouse – 2:00pm
A unique celebration of Video Games Music
An unmissable celebration of Video Games Music with masterclasses by award-winning composers Stephen Barton (Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Apex Legends, Call of Duty) and Stephanie Economou (Assassin’s Creed), signing sessions, exclusive merchandise and demos, plus an incredible panel session with a stellar line-up of composers: Harry Gregson-Williams, Gordy Haab, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stephanie Economou, Ludvig Forssell, Stephen Barton and Borislav Slavov, moderated by Worldwide Executive and President of Music for Electronic Arts, Steve Schnur.
Masterclass: Stephen Barton
Stephen Barton, one of the busiest composers of Games Music in the business, gives an exclusive masterclass – a whistle-stop tour of how games are scored in 2024, plus some special guests, live demonstrations and music both released and unreleased, including Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Titanfall 2, Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and more.
Masterclass: Stephanie Economou
Stephanie Economou is a major force in Games Music, who, like many of the composers featured in the Day, has also worked extensively in film and television. In this masterclass, Stephanie discusses her work on the Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla games The Siege of Paris and her Grammy award-winning score for Dawn of Ragnarök.
Panel:
What goes into writing a score for a video game? What are the challenges? As technology has advanced, how has it changed the way games are scored and consumed? And what does the future hold? These questions – and many more – will be discussed by a stellar line-up of composers who have written music for some of the most popular Games ever produced (and whose music will be heard in the State of the Art: Games Concert later in the evening). Moderating will be legendary music executive, Steve Schnur, from Electronic Arts.
Composers: Harry Gregson-Williams, Gordy Haab, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stephanie Economou, Ludwig Forssell, Stephen Barton and Borislav Slavov.
More events to be announced
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Concert: Games Music: State of the Art
The Roundhouse | 7:30pm
Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
The Games Music: State of the Art day concludes in spectacular style with a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra playing music from some of the most iconic and popular Games available, including Assassin’s Creed, Baldur’s Gate 3, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Indiana Jones, Metal Gear Solid and Battlefield 2042, introduced by the composers themselves.
Programme includes:
- Gordy Haab: Indiana Jones
- Stephanie Economou: Music from Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
- Borislav Slavov: Baldur’s Gate 3
- Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab: Star Wars Jedi Survivor
- Stephen Barton: 1943 The Rise of Hydra
- Harry Gregson-Williams: Metal Gear Solid
- Hildur Guðnadóttir: Battlefield 2042
- Ludwig Forsell: Death Stranding
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Monday 24 March 2025
Screening: Gladiator II introduced by Harry Gregson-Williams
BFI IMAX| 2:30pm
Harry Gregson Williams, in conversation with Jon Burlingame, introduces a special screening of the film directed by Ridley Scott.
Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.
There will be a pre-screening masterclass from composer Harry Gregson-Williams, free to all ticket holders as a part of the London Soundtrack Festival.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
Talk: Music in Prime Time – A History of TV Themes and Scoring
Venue TBC | 3:30pm
LSF host Jon Burlingame, one of the most respected writers on film and TV music in the world, discusses his book ‘Music in Prime Time’ with LSF Artistic Director, Tommy Pearson.
Tuesday 25 March 2025
Concert: Great Movie Songs with Anne Dudley & Friends
The Roundhouse | 8:00pm
Anne Dudley | Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley presents an exclusive night of great movie songs and music, backed by an orchestra and featuring very special guest vocalists.
Anne has composed many scores for film and TV, including The Crying Game, American History X, Elle, Mamma Mia Here We Go Again and the long-running TV series Poldark. She won an Oscar for her score to The Full Monty.
Her work spans the classical and pop genres and she has collaborated with many leading artists over the years. She was a founding member of the 1980s electronic music group Art of Noise, whose pioneering experiments in sound remain influential to this day. Artists who have sampled Art of Noise include The Prodigy, Drake and Dua Lipa.
The stellar line-up of guest singers includes Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Omar and Monica Mancini, with more still to be announced.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
Screening: Joker introduced by Hildur Guðnadóttir
BFI IMAX | 5:45pm
LSF Featured Artist Hildur Guðnadóttir introduces the film that won her an Oscar for Best Original Score.
Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian Arthur Fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham City. Arthur wears two masks — the one he paints for his day job as a clown, and the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he’s part of the world around him. Isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the Joker.
This screening will be introduced by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, as part of the London Soundtrack Festival.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
Screening: Joker: Folie à Deux introduced by Hildur Guðnadóttir
BFI IMAX | 8:30pm
Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir introduces the much anticipated 2024 film.
The last time we saw him, Arthur Fleck had transformed himself into Joker and helped bring Gotham City almost to its knees. Now a guest of Arkham State Hospital, Fleck encounters Harley Quinn and with her encouragement begins his rise up Gotham’s criminal food chain. With Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga heading an impressive cast, it’s no surprise that Todd Philips’ sequel is one of the year’s most talked-about releases.
This screening will be introduced by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, as part of the London Soundtrack Festival.
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers and BFI Members: 12:00pm 26th September 2024
General Sale: 4:00pm 26th September 2024
Wednesday 26 March
Concert: Hildur Guðnadóttir In Concert
Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall | 6:15pm (pre-concert talk) | 7:30pm (concert)
Hildur Guðnadóttir | London Contemporary Orchestra | Conductor: Robert Ames
Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker) presents a concert of her film and TV music alongside her influences and inspirations.
Pre-concert talk: Hildur Guðnadóttir discusses her varied and award-winning career and the music being performed in the concert. Free to all concert ticket holders.
Programme includes:
- Tar
- Joker
- Joker: Folie a Deux
- A Haunting in Venice
- Women Talking
- Chernobyl
- Journey’s End
- + music from Hildur’s solo album ‘Fact of the Matter’
- Mica Levi: Under The Skin
- Anna Porvaldsdóttir: Ró (from Tar)
- David Lang: Just (from Youth)
Priority Booking for LSF subscribers: 10:00am 17th September 2024
General Sale: 10:00am 18th September 2024
About London Soundtrack Festival
The London Soundtrack Festival has been created to reflect the ever-increasing interest and enthusiasm for film, TV and games music and to acknowledge that London is one of the most important centres for soundtracks in the world, with its legendary studios, musicians, facilities and leading creative artists from across all music disciplines.
The annual festival will feature major names in the film, TV and Games music industry, the best orchestras and iconic venues across the capital. The festival is set to be an unmissable date in the diary for all fans and concert-goers young and old, bringing the best music and performers to a wide audience with a packed programme of concerts, screenings, masterclasses and Q&As.
To keep up to-date with the latest news on ticket releases, subscribe to the LSF newsletter.
To read more about the 2025 festival programme, visit our website, and search @LDNSoundtrack on social media.
The London Soundtrack Festival is proud to collaborate with the BFI.
About BFI
We are a cultural charity, a National Lottery distributor, and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image.
Our mission is:
- To support creativity and actively seek out the next generation of UK storytellers
- To grow and care for the BFI National Archive, the world’s largest film and television archive
- To offer the widest range of UK and international moving image culture through our programmes and festivals – delivered online and in venue
- To use our knowledge to educate and deepen public appreciation and understanding of film and the moving image
- To work with Government and industry to ensure the continued growth of the UK’s screen industries
Founded in 1933, the BFI is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter.
The BFI Board of Governors is chaired by Jay Hunt OBE.
About Tommy Pearson
Broadcaster, producer, director and musician, Tommy Pearson has been a familiar figure in the UK music world for nearly 30 years. After an early career as a percussionist and composer, Tommy became one of the busiest voices on BBC Radio, presenting most of Radio 3’s main strands, regularly appearing on Radio 4 and as a host of the BBC4 TV classical music coverage.
Film music has dominated his career, as concert producer, host and broadcaster. Tommy has produced and hosted concerts around the world and worked with most of the UK’s major orchestras. Highlights include “A Night Out With Sir Michael Caine” at the Royal Albert Hall with the LSO and special guests including Quincy Jones; and “Interstellar Live”, a ground-breaking screening of the film at the RAH with composer Hans Zimmer and orchestra playing the score live, plus a pre-concert talk introduced by Prof Stephen Hawking.
As onstage host, Tommy presented the RPO’s Film Music Gala at the RAH for 15 years and regularly appears with the RPO, CBSO, RLPO and LSO introducing film music. He has been a regular host of Classic FM’s ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ and was creator/host of BBC Radio 3’s ‘Stage and Screen’. Tommy has hosted countless talks and events on film music, including BAFTA’s highly-regarded “Conversations with Screen Composers”, and is host of the annual World Soundtrack Awards in Belgium. In 2023 he started work as Artistic Director of the London Soundtrack Festival, a brand new annual event celebrating the art of film, TV and Games music which starts in March 2025.
Tommy’s production company Big Screen Live is one of the world’s leading producers of live film events. Tommy has produced ‘Independence Day Live’ and ‘Brassed Off’ (Royal Albert Hall), ‘North By Northwest’ (London Coliseum), ’Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Great Escape’ (Royal Festival Hall) and ‘Touching the Void’ (Barbican), featuring the scores played live. Recent projects include the official ‘Downton Abbey – Live in Concert’, and ’The Piano – Live in Concert’. ’Scott of the Antarctic – Live’ with the Vaughan Williams score heard live and ‘The Death of Stalin’ featuring Christopher Willis’s score were both premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Tommy is proud of his long association with John Williams, who he has interviewed many times across 3 decades including for a special 80th birthday feature on Classic FM in 2012. Tommy has probably hosted more concerts of Williams’s music than anyone else in the world – nearly 100 and counting!
Tommy used to have spare time in which he would play timpani in various orchestras and ride his bike. But now he has twin boys aged 4.