Skip to main content
The politics of massed rapping
SIMON DUFF admires new work at the LSO Jerwood Composer + Showcase that employs rap, sampling and live music to explore unashamedly political themes
The world premiere of Anselm McDonnell's work-in-progress, Politics of the Imagination [Kevin Leighton]

Politics of the Imagination
LSO, St Luke’s London

ANSELM McDONNELL is an Irish Welsh composer based in Belfast who has composed over 90 works for orchestra, chamber groups and electronics, performed all over the world. 

As curator for the event, he has a wide musical imagination with a vision to match, whose two works are central in an event that features 12 compositions by nine composers, covering a variety of styles, ranging from dubstep to Balkan rhythms, rap and beyond, all designed to stimulate the imagination around themes of playfulness, imagination with political concerns to the fore. 

The core line-up on stage consists of Louise McMonagle (cello), Heather Roche (clarinet), and Matthew Farthing (percussion), working alongside rap artists Barrowclough, Joel the Custodian and Kosyne. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
MPF
Manchester Punk Festival 2026 / 7 April 2026
7 April 2026

BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism

rani
Music Review / 2 December 2025
2 December 2025

WILL STONE witnesses an experimental piano concerto inspired by the work of a young Jewish victim of the Nazis

Clark in action / Pic: Will Stone
Music review / 26 November 2025
26 November 2025

WILL STONE enjoys a set by an artist too eclectic to be pigeonholed

69
Music / 8 October 2025
8 October 2025

WILL STONE applauds a comprehensive survey of love in its many moods and musical forms