City of London Sinfonia launches The Collections: Bright Fear at King’s Place, inspired by Mary Jean Chan’s celebrated volume of poetry. Composer Nicola T. Chang responds with a new score for CLS musicians and traditional Chinese instruments, creating an immersive dialogue of words and music, and continuing the partnership between CLS and Faber.

City of London Sinfonia presents The Collections: Bright Fear at King’s Place, an immersive performance where poetry finds new resonance through music.

At the heart of this premiere is Mary Jean Chan’s celebrated collection Bright Fear, with its urgency, intimacy, and themes that speak to our shared humanity. Chan’s exploration of identity, belonging, and language resonates deeply with CLS’s purpose: to tell stories that matter and create connections through music.

British-Hong Kong composer Nicola T. Chang responds to Chan’s work with a new composition for CLS musicians and traditional Chinese instrumentalists. This intercultural dialogue reflects the orchestra’s spirit of curiosity and co-creation, blurring boundaries between words and music. In The Collections: Bright Fear, audiences won’t just hear poetry spoken; they will feel it transformed into soundscapes that are adventurous, tender, and profoundly human.

The Collections: Bright Fear continues the partnership between CLS and Faber, pairing poetry with commissioned music.

Join us at Kings Place for the premiere of The Collections: Bright Fear and experience this bold and innovative performance. Be part of CLS’s journey to reimagine what an orchestra can be: a space where music, literature, and lived experience come together to inspire wonder, connection and joy.

What audiences can expect

The Collections: Bright Fear at King’s Place is not just a concert; it is an experience designed to move people beyond the traditional boundaries of orchestral music. Audiences will be invited into an unfolding story where poetry and music create a shared emotional journey.

Inspired by Mary Jean Chan’s intimate and questioning verses, audiences can expect to feel the tension between vulnerability and strength, between silence and sound. Nicola T. Chang’s new score amplifies those sensations, weaving in Chinese instruments to create textures that feel both familiar and startlingly new. King’s Place becomes a space for this dialogue, drawing listeners closer to the performers and immersing them in the interplay of words and music.

CLS creates concerts that people feel, not just hear. The orchestra’s relaxed, open style of presentation removes barriers, creating a place of warmth, curiosity, and connection. Audiences can expect to leave not only having discovered new music but also having experienced a moment of reflection; on identity, belonging, and the universal human need to be seen and heard.

This event will last approximately 80 minutes, with no interval.

About Mary Jean Chan

Mary Jean Chan is the author of Flèche (Faber & Faber, 2019), which won the Costa Book Award for Poetry. Bright Fear (Faber, 2023), Chan’s second book, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Writer’s Prize. Chan co-edited the landmark anthology 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022) with Andrew McMillan and served as a judge for the 2023 Booker Prize. A 2023–24 Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Chan is currently Departmental Lecturer in Poetry at the University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chan lives in Oxford.

About Nicola T. Chang

Nicola T. Chang is a composer/sound designer for stage and screen. She was a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021, and has received a WhatsOnStage nomination for Best Sound Design (Minority Report), four Off West-End Award nominations in Sound Design and a BroadwayWorld UK nomination in both Sound Design and Musical Direction. She has performed with Chineke! Orchestra, the Women of the World Orchestra and London Film Music Orchestra, and at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and Shakespeare’s Globe. Her works include the three Olivier-nominated plays: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, The Swell and A Playlist for the Revolution.

About City of London Sinfonia

City of London Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra founded in 1971 by the celebrated British conductor Richard Hickox. From the outset, CLS was driven by curiosity and experimentation, commissioning bold new works and championing choral storytelling. Our five-year strategy, Music and…, begins with a belief: that orchestral music can do more. It can reach more people, tell bigger stories, and have a deeper impact. That means combining world-class performance with long-term creative development, meaningful community partnerships, and adventurous cross-artform collaborations.