Down with the Patribachy

A live podcast event featuring an eight-piece chamber choir, that showcases a whistlestop tour through the history of Western Classical Music, shaped by the underrepresented composers you might not know so well. Performance from Omnium Ensemble. Hosted by Ellie Ajao, with guests Joe McHardy and Emma Arthur, it offers a fresh, funny and thought provoking journey through classical music history.

Closing the day, Down with the Patribachy brings the Classically Black programme to an energising finish with a live podcast event that re-examines the story of Western classical music through the work of underrepresented composers too often overlooked. Blending humour, insight and performance, the session offers audiences a fast-paced, engaging journey through musical history from a fresh, inclusive perspective.

Hosted by Ellie Ajao, the event features a live panel with Joe McHardy and Emma Arthur, who will bring their expertise, reflections and conversation to a discussion shaped by curiosity, challenge and discovery. Alongside the panel, Omnium Ensemble will perform live, adding a powerful musical dimension to the evening and bringing some of these wider histories and hidden voices into the room.

Together, the conversation and performance invite audiences to think differently about the canon, question whose stories have been centred, and celebrate the richness of the voices that have too often been left out. Entertaining, thought-provoking and full of personality, Down with the Patribachy offers a lively new lens on classical music history while continuing the wider Classically Black conversation around representation, access and belonging in the genre today.

Please note: this event will be recorded, not streamed.

This event will last approximately 90 minutes, with no interval. 

About Black Lives in Music

Talent is distributed evenly, opportunities are not! Black Lives in Music addresses the current inequality of opportunity for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse people aspiring to be artists or professionals in the Jazz and Classical music industry. Black Lives in Music believes in real equality for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse people to learn musical instruments at the grassroots level and to allow them to pursue and realise their musical ambitions.

Black Lives in Music is made up of over 100 partners who are all working towards the same goal: to dismantle structural racism in our industry. We aim to support the industry in providing better professional opportunities. We also want to achieve equality for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse professionals at all levels and in all areas of the UK Jazz and Classical industry. Representation matters; we need to take action together and create a level playing field for everyone to have an equal chance to succeed.