Walking helps you think (as anyone knows who has tried to resolve a problem sitting down). Offering a whole array of sparks, experiments, projects, catapults, prompts, drifts and exercises, Sonia Overall invites us to see walking as a creative writing method. She sets out a particular form which she calls walking-writing and suggests ways to gather materials, submit to the sensory, explore your home like a tourist, and scour the streets like a metal-detector in search of the hidden, the forgotten and the overlooked. The allure of the city is powerful, but not universally accessible. For many women, it can be exclusionary, exploitative and dangerous. Author of The Feminist Art of Walking, Morag Rose explores how women can and do claim their place in the public space. She traces local histories and personal stories and attunes herself to the wider resonances of women’s rights amidst alienating capitalist cityscapes. Craving connection and comradeship, she discovers a unique and inclusive approach to walking, celebrating diverse women who transform walking into an art form and act of resistance. Join Morag and Sonia in conversation that explores the benefits, beauties and barriers to women and walking. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

The Stuart Hall Foundation invites you to the first event of their 2026 programme, building on the theme In Search of Common Ground. The 9th Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation will welcome cultural theorist, poet, and teacher of performance studies, Fred Moten, to Conway Hall as its keynote speaker. Fred Moten’s presentation will be followed by a conversation and an audience Q&A. Guests are warmly invited to stay on in the Hall after the main event for an informal social gathering, where complimentary food and drink will be available for all ticket holders, soundtracked by a guest DJ. Supported by Comic Relief, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Hollick Family Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

Long-standing friends of our Sunday Concerts, the Zoffany Ensemble performances are always inspirational! Join us to enjoy two classics of the string repertoire, performed by musicians of the highest calibre. Mozart Quintet in C K515 Brahms Sextet in B flat Op.18 Manon Derome violin Ciaran McCabe violin Sarah-Jane Bradley viola Douglas Paterson viola Anthony Pleeth cello Joely Koos cello Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

An extra 15 minutes work here, another 20 minutes there: wage theft has been described as a silent epidemic blighting the global workforce. And it's on the rise - in the UK and US alone millions of workers put in billions of unpaid hours amounting to tens of billions in wage theft. But what if wage theft, rather than being a modern bug, is a feature of capitalism itself? There are as many ways to steal wages as there are to pay them. But rather than attribute these practices to the actions of a few nefarious employers, political economist Matthew Cole shows how wage theft is baked into the very working of the economy. But it doesn't have to be this way. The modern economy has a history, and we can change it. In this Ethical Matters talk, Matthew explains why wage theft occurs, how employers get away with it, and what we can do to fight back. Dr Matthew Cole is a Lecturer on Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex, researching wage theft and technological change. He is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford internet Institute working on the Fairwork Project and the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit). His work has been published in Tribune, Novara, Vice, OpenDemocracy, TheIndependent, Salvage, and in various academic journals. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego is celebrated for her versatility, compelling interpretations, and flawless technique. Alessandro Taverna came to international prominence at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2009, when “Suddenly the world was suddenly suffused with grave beauty: flawless minutes of poetry”, said The Independent. We are delighted to welcome these star performers for their Conway Hall début. Korngold Sonata in G Op.6 Schoenberg Phantasy Op.47 Strauss Sonata in E flat Op.18 Francesca Dego violin Alessandro Taverna piano Pre Concert Talk with Robert Hugill 5.30pm Late romantic: The violin sonatas of Richard Strauss and Erich Wolfgang Korngold are both early works, and neither composer would devote much time to chamber music during their maturity. Yet listening to these works, it is hard not to have an inkling of the various directions that the Austro-German musical tradition might have taken. In fact, musical development in the early 20th century proved complex. Strauss's career would seem to have been set in the direction of Modernism, yet after his opera Elektra (1909) he seemed to step back. Korngold, a musical prodigy, seemed set to step into Strauss' shoes but the politics of the era meant that a temporary stay in America turned permanent and he found a new home writing for films. It would be left to Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School to carve a new path. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

"You just need to stay calm. You should be able to manage. You should have grown out of that by now. You could try harder." Author and illustrator Eliza Fricker spent her adolescence being told all of these things, until her autism diagnosis as an adult revealed why she may not have met the expectations of others so easily. As an adult, she met others who identified as neurodivergent. They shared similar stories and struggles, and so, with her own eventual diagnosis, she started to process her experiences and write about it. And while diagnosis doesn't bring all the answers, it has allowed her to look back on her younger self with a bit more understanding and compassion - something she now wishes for others. In this UnMasked talk, Eliza encourages neurodivergent folks to take an empathetic look back at their experiences and honour the identity they have created for themselves, in response to their experiences. Eliza Fricker is an author and illustrator, and an advocate and consultant for PDA, autism and learning. She has published several books, including the Sunday Times bestselling Can't Not Won't, and the acclaimed, autobiographical Thumbsucker. Eliza offers a range of support for parents and educators on navigating autism and education, including one-to-one consultations, webinars, presentations, a podcast, and the enduring Missing the Mark illustrations and blog. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Change, we are told, is sweeping the economy as robots and AI threaten to take over tasks done by humans. But while we worry that we’re robotizing our work, what if the real risk is that we’re robotizing ourselves? When journalist Sarah O’Connor set out to investigate what was happening on the front lines of technological change, she found people who weren’t losing their jobs to machines, but who felt they were losing something else instead. From translators forced to edit AI output to university graduates interviewed by software and warehouse workers surrounded by robots, she heard stories of work becoming lonelier, less creative, less human. But she also found hopeful stories of jobs being made better, safer and more enjoyable - where workers haven’t rejected the new tools, but instead have learned to control them. In this talk, exploring questions of power, design, institutions and ideas, Sarah shows that the way technology changes the world of work is not pre-determined, but must be contested and shaped by all of us. Sarah O’Connor is a columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column focused on the world of work, as well as longer features and investigations. She has won the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils and the Wincott Award for financial journalism. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Ben Goldscheider was a prize-winner at the 2019 YCAT International Auditions, Concerto Finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician Competition, and an ECHO Rising Star for the 2021/22 season nominated by the Barbican, London. He has given recitals at major concert halls across Europe including at the Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Pierre Boulez Saal, Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall and has performed as a soloist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (BBC Proms). He joins Artistic Director Simon Callaghan in a fascinating programme of works for horn and piano by British composers. Bax Horn Sonata Dyson My Birthday Vaughan Williams Horn Sonata (completed by Martin Yates) Dyson Epigrams Ruth Gipps Triton Op.60 Alwyn Sonata alla Toccata Huw Watkins Lament York Bowen Horn Sonata Op.101 Ben Goldscheider horn Simon Callaghan piano Pre-Concert Recital with Dogoda Quintet 5.30pm An ensemble formed of highly successful students at the Royal Academy of Music, the Dogoda Quintet offer a colourful programme of wind quintets for their Conway Hall debut recital. Sally Beamish Adagio and Variations after Mozart Barber Summer Music Op.31 Bacewicz Wind Quintet Lucy Rowan flute Emily Long oboe Raj Bhaumik clarinet Chloe Harrison horn Tom Donkin bassoon Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

Sweet Dissonance Ensemble Échappée's programme zooms in dissonance, something we experience in life as well as music. Framing the programme are Webern’s fleeting Bagatelles, which were described by his teacher Arnold Schoenberg as “a novel in a single gesture, joy in a single breath”. Heard in this context, the sunny melodies of Mozart’s famed Dissonance Quartet-so named for a single shocking note-reveal deeper layers of poignancy. The programme reaches peak indulgence in the fin-de-siècle romanticism of Fritz Kreisler’s rarely heard String Quartet (1919). Mozart, Kreisler, and Webern all use dissonance to communicate complex human feelings-but perhaps opening our ears to dissonance in music can even reveal insights into how we understand friction in our everyday human interactions, conversations, and relationships. Mozart Quartet in C 'Dissonance' K465 Webern Six Bagatelles Op.9 Kreisler Quartet in A minor Jenna Sherry violin Sophia Prodanova violin Elisabeth Smalt viola Lucile Perrin cello Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

Superheroes were born in the 1930s, a time of great poverty and social unease. Social justice are at their roots - from Superman fighting slum landlords, racists and nazis to the every-mutant outsiders of the X-Men. Superheroes have been saving the world for nearly ninety-years. Join us for a conversation on superheroes, ethics, identity (secret or otherwise) and social justice with comedian, writer, presenter and mental health activist Juliette Burton and freelance journalist, author and academic specialising in Film & Comics Danny Graydon, founder of TheSuperhero Project. Juliette Burton is an award-winning comedian, writer, presenter, mental health activist and journalist. She is an ambassador for mental health charity ReThink Mental Illness, regular writer for research charity MQ Mental Health and close supporter of Chasing the Stigma, MindOut, Mermaids, Black Minds Matter, Switchboard, Mind and B-eat amongst other charities. She is also a founding member of The Speakers Collective. Danny Graydon is a freelance journalist, author and academic specialising in film & comics. A lifelong devotee of both mediums, Danny places particular focus and enthusiasm on the Superhero genre in its various forms (particularly related to DC Comics), film music, the cinema of The New Hollywood, screen-based Science Fiction & Fantasy, Special Effects (practical and digital) and the work of Steven Spielberg. Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Formed at the Royal Academy of Music, the Karelia Quartet are a promising new ensemble who were recently prizewinners in the CAVATINA Chamber Music Competition. Grieg's G minor quartet, thought to have been an inspiration for Debussy's quartet, completes an exquisite programme which also includes Ravel's quartet, completed when the composer was just 28, and Haydn's 'ream quartet, so named because of its serene slow movement. Haydn Quartet in F 'The Dream' Op.50/5 Ravel Quartet in F Grieg Quartet in G minor Op.27 Megan Yang violin Emil Hartikainen violin Felix Pascoe viola Daniel Schultz cello Pre Concert Recital with Daniel Schultz & Sejin Yoon For the last of our pre-concert recitals showcasing conservatoire students this season, we welcome to the stage Daniel Schultz and Sejin Yoon from the Royal Academy of Music. They perform Chopin's Cello Sonata, the last of the Polish composer's works to be performed in his lifetime. Chopin Cello Sonata in G minor Op.65 Daniel Schultz cello Sejin Yoon piano Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

We bring our summer season to a close with Quartet Concrète, who many of you will remember from their sublime performance at our 2025 Fundraising Concert. Schubert's glorious C major quintet was on the menu at that special performance, and for their Conway Hall return they present another of his masterpieces: the Death and the Maiden Quartet. Join us to celebrate three wonderful works for string quartet, and the final concert before the summer break! Haydn Quartet in E flat Op.76/6 Britten 3 Divertimenti Schubert Quartet in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' D810 Anna Brown violin Gwyneth Nelmes violin Dominic Stokes viola Joseph Barker cello Presented by Conway Hall. This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.

If It Bleeds, Nihilanth, Frayed Ends BC, Microtonal and Stitch play the biggest local metal show of the summer!