BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra return to Blackpool for the first time in 8 years with an ambitious programme in Blackpool's historic Opera House.

Programme Overview – Playing with pleasure's dark edges;

In Oliver Leith's music, pleasure and pain overlap, so both feelings are palpable in every gesture. Pearly, goldy, woody, bloody, or Abundance for orchestra begins with the best of intentions: "classical, thick, like marble moulding, beautiful, regal." But formalities quickly get out of hand; everything at Leith's party droops, fuzzes and deflates.

The psychedelic, blissful minimalism of Terry Riley's In C flirts with darkness before being dragged back into the light. As a lover of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, a believer in the power of collective music-making, and a seeker of transcendence, In C distilled Riley's thinking into something pure and strong, and became minimal music's first mainstream hit.

Searing pain sits at the heart of John Adams's Harmonielehre. Spread across forty minutes, Harmonielehre is both Adams's love letter to the symphonic tradition, and a happy marriage of lyrical late Romantic expression with his own glittering minimalism.

Into this heady mix comes a world premiere of new work by Mica Levi, the Oscar nominated composer of inventive and anarchic film scores for The Zone of Interest, Jackie, and Under the Skin, a mainstay of the south London underground, and a creator of music with hidden, unerring depths.

The show is presented as part of THE BLACK LIGHTS; a new festival of contemporary arts taking place across multiple venues in Blackpool 26th – 28th June 2026.

This show will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

New work by Mica Levi has been co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and THE BLACK LIGHTS festival.

Kindly supported by Arts Council England & Blackpool Council.

Opening Times

28 Jun 2026

Ticket Pricing

Note: Prices are a guide only and may change on a daily basis.