London Sinfonietta orchestra stages pedal-powered performance

The London Sinfonietta orchestra has staged a performance powered entirely by bicycles.

Musicians played while volunteers generated energy using 16 specially adapted bikes at the Royal Festival Hall in central London on Friday night.

The performance, titled Houses Slide, was designed to highlight climate change.

Its organisers describe the concert as illustrating “one woman’s intimate psychological journey to figure out her response to the climate crisis, from an initial depressing realisation of the gravity of the issue, through to her refusal to be overwhelmed and decision to take positive action”.

A text was created by Cordelia Lynn using submissions from members of the public.

All stage lights and amplification inside the auditorium were pedal-powered and soloist Jessica Aszodi performed from one of the bicycles.

Andrew Burke chief executive of London Sinfonietta, previously said that Houses Slide would be “a journey into the unknown – and yet the London Sinfonietta is best placed to make that journey having made pioneering new work and public engagement programmes for the past 53 years”.