Transported by Culture: a new music programme brings young musicians from London conservatoires to the London Transport Museum

If you have visited the London Transport Museum at all, recently, then it is likely to have been for its iconic transport collection. After all, few of us can resist an historic bus or a tube train evoking our youth. But if you heard any music, then it was likely to have been from a busker in Covent Garden Piazza, but a new initiative is planning to change that.

The Museum is planning to bring young classical and jazz musicians from some of London’s leading music schools to perform for visitors at the Museum in Covent Garden as part of the Museum’s initiative to bring more art, culture and design into its programming to engage new audiences with its collection, as well as the stories it tells about London. 

This forms part of a wider vision for the Museum, which has so far seen its first theatre performance, The Truth About Harry Beck, presented by Natural Theatre Company, which celebrated the mind behind the world-famous Tube map – and enjoyed critical acclaim and sold out shows in its Cubic Theatre. Another theatre production will be launching at the Museum later in the year.

Launching on 14 February and running until October 2025, visitors to London Transport Museum can enjoy live performances from rising classical and jazz musicians against the unique backdrop of its iconic collection. The young musicians are from four London conservatoires: Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, and Trinity Laban. The programme has been developed to equip young classical and jazz musicians at the start of their careers with real-world performance experience. It is also an opportunity for young people to engage with London’s transport history and the Museum’s collections through their work.

In late 2024, London Transport Museum put out a call to recruit young musicians, with a mandatory requirement that applicants were either undergraduates or postgraduates.  As part of this competitive process, the Museum then appointed 10 soloists and ensembles to join the programme, representing a wide range of styles and instruments. Each young musician will perform three times over the duration of the programme. 

 Elizabeth McKay, Director and CEO for London Transport Museum, said: “Not only are we the world’s leading museum of urban transport but, as a cultural cornerstone of the Covent Garden Piazza, we have a long history of embracing art, culture and design as part of our work. As we look to the future, we want to do this even more. We are therefore delighted to be offering some of the capital’s leading young classical and jazz musicians the chance to perform in our iconic central London venue, supporting their career development and, in turn, offering a unique musical experience for our visitors as part of their visit.“

And, I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t resist this:

Full details will be available, in due course, from the Museum’s website.