The London Soundtrack Festival (LSF), London’s first dedicated annual Festival celebrating the music of film, TV and games, has revealed elements of its spectacular inaugural programme that will take place across the capital in March 2025.
In association with BFI, the Festival will be hosted by some of the capital’s greatest cultural venues, including Royal Festival Hall, Alexandra Palace and BFI IMAX, and feature several of London’s leading orchestras and the biggest names in film, TV and games music. 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.
Founded by concert producer, broadcaster and musician Tommy Pearson, the London Soundtrack Festival is inspired by the life and music of Christopher Gunning, the multi-award-winning composer who wrote the iconic theme to ITV’s Poirot (starring David Suchet), the BAFTA-winning score to the movie La Vie En Rose, and the jingles for famous ad campaigns for Martini and Black Magic.
Following his untimely death in March 2023, Christopher’s widow Sveta asked Tommy Pearson to create a festival to emulate Christopher’s extraordinary talent, skill and infectious, enthusiastic spirit. In his honour, each year the Festival will present the Gunning Inspiration Award to a major figure in the industry who has made a lasting impact on music with their distinction and craft. The recipient will also headline that year’s Festival.
Today, music for film, TV and games is more popular than ever with orchestral music concerts featuring film soundtracks now making up 30%, TV soundtracks 26%, and video game concerts 11% of all concerts in the UK since 2018.
Soundtrack music also acts as a gateway for new audiences to explore orchestral music, with film screenings featuring a live orchestra ranking in the Top 5 of orchestral concerts attended by newcomers. Online engagement has grown too with TikTok’s #soundtrack hashtag growing 84% in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching 2.3 billion views.
With appreciation for film, TV and game music at an all-time high, this is the perfect time to celebrate the art form with some of its greatest practitioners.
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Programme highlights
Howard Shore
Howard Shore is one of the most successful and popular film composers. His soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for which he won countless awards (including three Oscars and three Grammys), is some of the most beloved film music of the last 25 years. Shore’s discography is vast and wide-ranging, scoring films such as Mrs Doubtfire, Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, and six films with Martin Scorsese including The Departed and The Aviator.
In recognition of his constant originality, creativity and craft, Shore will become the first recipient of the Gunning Inspiration Award, which will be presented to him by director David Cronenberg as part of the LSF’s central Gala Concert.
Cronenberg and Shore have worked together for over 45 years, creating some of film’s most memorable, startling, moving and controversial moments. As part of a special Q&A event at Royal Festival Hall, Cronenberg and Shore (in conversation with journalist Jon Burlingame) will discuss their extraordinary 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.
Shore will also introduce exclusive screenings of some of his most iconic scores, with further details to be announced.
Hildur Guðnadóttir
Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, best known for her scores for Joker (for which she won an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe) and TV series Chernobyl (Grammy, Emmy and BAFTA), is also an LSF Featured Artist next year.
Guðnadóttir will lead a pre-concert talk about her work ahead of presenting Hildur Guðnadóttir In Concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. The programme will celebrate Guðnadóttir’s film and TV music alongside her influences and inspirations.
Hildur has written a new commission for cellist Richard Harwood, who will premiere the piece at Wigmore Hall as part of a lunchtime recital of music by film composers written for the concert hall.
Gala performances
At the heart of the Festival is a Gala Concert at Royal Festival Hall from London Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Ben Palmer, featuring music by all featured artists, with a particular focus on the recipient of this year’s Gunning Inspiration Award, Howard Shore.
BBC Concert Orchestra will perform popular hits from film and television at Alexandra Palace in a live edition of the BBC’s long-running popular programme Friday Night Is Music Night, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Anne Dudley and Friends: Movie Songs Live sees Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley (The Full Monty, Art of Noise) and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at The Roundhouse presenting an exclusive night of movie songs and music featuring some very special guest vocalists, still to be announced.
Screenings
Musician and composer Anna Meredith will introduce a live performance of her score for Bo Burnham’s film Eighth Grade played in sync with a screening of the film at BFI IMAX.
Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece Modern Times will screen at Cadogan Hall with the original score played live by Covent Garden Sinfonia led by conductor Ben Palmer. The performance will be Introduced by Chaplin’s grandson, Spencer Chaplin.
Throughout the Festival, there will be exclusive screenings of films featuring scores by LSF featured artists, often introduced by the composers themselves. Further details will be announced soon.
Masterclasses and talks
Composer Paul Farrer (The Chase, Weakest Link) will reveal his composing and production process in a special masterclass.
Multi-award-winning composer Natalie Holt will present a masterclass exploring her process behind creating scores for TV hits Loki and Obi-Wan Kenobi in a masterclass.
Producers of music notation software Dorico will demonstrate the latest tricks and developments for media music creators in a demonstration session at the Southbank Centre.
And LSF host Jon Burlingame, one of the most respected writers on film and TV music in the world, will discuss his book ‘Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring’ with LSF Artistic Director and Founder, Tommy Pearson
Games Music
An unmissable celebration of Video Games Music will take place at The Roundhouse with Games Music: State of the Art, with masterclasses (by Grammy and Ivor-Award winning composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab on their score for Star Wars: Jedi Survivor), demos, autograph opportunities and a panel session with a stellar line-up of Games Music composers, including Borislav Slavov (Baldur’s Gate 3), Ludvig Forssell (Death Stranding) and Harry Gregson-Williams (Metal Gear).
Further events and details will be announced in the next few months.
Unveiling details of the inaugural Festival this morning at BFI Southbank, Festival Founder & Artistic Director Tommy Pearson has said: “It’s really exciting to be bringing this brand-new festival to London – the film, TV and games music capital of the world – and to celebrate the greatest composers working today who create the soundtrack to our lives. For me, it’s the culmination of a lifetime’s love of film and TV music; a chance to give audiences young and old (and everyone in between!) world-class performances, fascinating masterclasses, screenings and events for many years to come.”
Stuart Brown, Director of Programmes and Distribution at the BFI has said: “Music is the spiritual soul of cinema, television and video games, it inhabits our hearts, minds and dreams. We’re buzzing to be working with the London Soundtrack Festival to bring this very exciting new festival to audiences, and to be part of a really meaningful celebration of the incredible talent that brings these art forms to life.”
Howard Shore, composer and recipient of the inaugural Gunning Inspiration Award, has said: “It is an honour to be invited to the inaugural London Soundtrack Festival and to be the first recipient of the Inspiration Award. After many years of recording with the great London Philharmonic Orchestra, I am so looking forward to reuniting with them at the Gala Concert.”
Tickets to the Festival will go on sale in September 2024. For full details of the programme, and to sign up for the newsletter to hear about future updates, please visit londonsoundtrackfestival.com and follow the Festival on social media (@LDNSoundtrack).
