A view looking down at a spiral interior of a multi-level building with people walking and standing on each level, and a central area with tables and decorative plants.

The Jupiter Orchestra at Gasholders Building, King's Cross — 4 March 2026.

Photograph: Chris Gloag

The Jupiter Orchestra at Gasholders Building, King’s Cross: architectural listening in a circular space

The Jupiter Orchestra’s launch concert at Gasholders Building, King’s Cross, showed how architecture can shape orchestral listening. Presented in the circular courtyard of the building on 4 March 2026, the performance placed the orchestra at the centre of the space while the audience listened from tiered levels above. The programme was chosen in response to the architecture, allowing sound, space, and audience position to become part of the musical experience.

The Jupiter Orchestra's first performance took place in the circular courtyard of the Gasholders Building, King's Cross. An audience of over a hundred stood on the tiered levels of the building, looking down into the courtyard from every side. The orchestra, led by Julian Azkoul, performed in the centre.

As guests arrived, the harpist Harriet Adie performed solo on the ground floor. The harp was the first sound of the evening, reaching listeners before the programme had formally begun.

The concert itself ran thirty minutes: selected movements from Grieg's Holberg Suite, the first movement of John Adams's Shaker Loops, and Christopher Clark's arrangement of the Intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. A spoken introduction followed the Grieg.

Throughout the building, the sound was clear and warm. From the centre of the courtyard, the clarity, immediacy and blend were extraordinary, a quality of listening particular to that room. During the Adams, the concentric, circling motifs of Shaker Loops met the concentric architecture of the Gasholders itself, music and building describing the same figure at once. As the piece ended there were audible murmurs of appreciation from the tiers above.

The evening proved the founding principle of The Jupiter Orchestra: that programming chosen in direct response to a space changes what the music is, and what the audience hears. A formal concert presented in a non-traditional space is an uneasy proposition. The Gasholders Building is not a concert hall, and the decision to treat it as one carried a risk that was part of the point. The audience response suggested the risk was the right one.

An overhead view of a classical orchestra performing in an indoor venue with audience members visible on a curved balcony.
A young man with dark, curly hair wearing a black suit and black turtleneck, standing indoors near a yellow light fixture, gesturing with his right hand and holding his stomach with his left hand, with a background of a rocky landscape.
Orchestra performing in a dimly lit concert hall with a conductor and musicians playing string instruments.
Multiple people reading or looking at documents, sitting or leaning at curved, tiered white counters in a modern, multi-level interior space.
A conductor leading an orchestra, seen from above, with sheet music and a music stand.
An overhead view of an orchestra performing, with musicians playing violins, a harp, a double bass, and a viola, casting shadows on the floor.