Now in its twelfth year, the K-Music Festival returns to London this autumn (1 October – 20 November 2025) with its most ambitious programme to date. Presented by the Korean Cultural Centre UK in partnership with Serious, producers of the EFG London Jazz Festival, the festival will once again transform some of London’s most iconic venues, including the Barbican, Southbank Centre, Royal Albert Hall, and Kings Place, into stages for the very best of contemporary Korean music.

Since its founding in 2013, K-Music has built a strong reputation for bringing UK audiences closer to the vibrant intersections of Korean tradition, jazz, post-rock, and experimental sounds. This year’s programme mixes fresh new ideas with traditional roots, featuring great collaborations between top Korean and British artists.

The festival opens on 1 October at Kings Place, with a daring collaboration between Okkyung Lee, the cellist known for her avant-garde style, and UK electronic artist Mark Fell. On 5 October at the Barbican, internationally renowned post-rock innovators JAMBINAI will perform with the London Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ames. JAMBINAI’s Barbican debut marks the first time a Korean band has headlined the venue.

Hilgeum, a rising Korean string trio, will make their London debut on 18 October at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, performing alongside British vocalist and composer Alice Zawadzki. Together, they will weave intimate, cross-cultural dialogues between Korean traditional strings and Zawadzki’s expressive, genre-crossing voice.

Returning festival veteran Won Il presents new interdisciplinary work, Dionysus Robot, on 14 November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, co-presented with the EFG London Jazz Festival. Featuring drag artist Jimin Mo, the piece combines Korean shamanic tradition, live electronics, and performance art in a homage to Dionysian philosophy and media-art pioneer Nam June Paik.

On 15 November, at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, the award-winning quartet Gray by Silver brings its mix of jazz, classical, and Korean traditional music as part of the Late Night Jazz series.

The festival culminates on 20 November at the Barbican Hall with the world premiere of a new piano concerto by composer Dong-hoon Shin, performed by the pianist Seong-Jin Cho with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda. This commission, part of the LSO Futures series, highlights the growing prominence of Korean voices in global contemporary classical music.

“I’m thrilled to present an exciting and genre-defying line-up for this year’s K-Music Festival. From JAMBINAI’s orchestral collaboration to Won Il’s immersive Dionysus Robot, and the world premiere of a new concerto for Seong-Jin Cho, the programme reflects the extraordinary breadth and ambition of Korean music today. – Artistic Director Jaeyeon Park

This year’s programme combines fresh ideas with traditional roots, bringing unique collaborations between leading Korean and British artists that ought not to be missed.

Tickets can be purchased via Serious

The programme can be found here

Featured image courtesy of K-Music Festival

_{View of the Arts is an online publication dedicated to films, music, and the arts, with a strong focus on the Asian entertainment industry. With rich content already available to our readers, we aim to expand our reach and grow alongside our audience by delving deeper into emerging platforms such as K-pop and Asian music more broadly. At the same time, we remain committed to exploring the vibrant and ever-evolving global landscape of film, music, and the arts, celebrating the immense talent and creativity that define these industries worldwide.}