14 May, 2025
15:15 -
16:00

Conference

Our People: Reclaiming queerness in traditional concert halls

A Celebration of Black and Queer Voices Through Song and Vogue

PRESENTATION | The difficulties and pay-offs of creating a safe and accessible space within traditional concert structures for nontraditional programming and audiences.

Our People is a highly original coming together of two distinct art forms not often witnessed together: classical art song stretching back to composers such as Schubert, and the stylized dance of voguing that developed out of the Black and Latino gay ballroom scene of 1960s Harlem, and that was propelled into mainstream consciousness through Madonna’s 1990s hit Vogue. Kunal, Freddie, and Lucilla embarked on a year-long process with the Konzerthaus Berlin to dismantle what they felt hindered their target audience to truly feel welcomed.

Kunal Lahiry (Photo: Justin Bach)
Lucilla Schmidinger (Photo: Claudia Höhne)

Chaired by

Kunal Lahiry (United States)
Pianist,

with

Lucilla Schmidinger (Germany)
Concert dramaturge, curator and creative producer, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg / Freelance