I’m delighted to welcome you to LA’s first-ever Classical Pride, a concert celebrating the LGBTQ+ community’s profound contribution to classical music. Classical Pride began in 2023 as a single concert at the Barbican Centre in London; growing in 2024 to a five-day festival, including a Classical Drag show and a major performance with the London Symphony Orchestra; and now—for our third edition—I couldn’t be more excited to be here at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil.
 
For those of you who are new to Classical Pride—and indeed, to classical music—it’s worth pointing out that so many of the most important and influential composers have been LGBTQ+. From Tchaikovsky, Britten, Barber, Bernstein, and Copland, to Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Jennifer Higdon, and Jake Heggie today, it’s hardly an obscure list. 
 
The program we’ve curated tonight aims to present the best that classical music has to offer, while honoring the enormous diversity of the LGBTQ+ community in classical music. Ultimately, classical music is—and has been for a very long time—part of queer culture, and it’s about time we celebrated this. 
 
I’m hugely grateful to the LA Phil—the staff and the musicians—for tonight, as well as to Jake Heggie, who has written a new piece especially for the occasion; and to Marty Chavez whose steadfast support makes anything and everything possible. 

– Oliver Zeffman, conductor, Classical Pride, Thu / July 10, 2025