The MUSON Festival will bring classical music, jazz, opera and drama to Lagos from 23 October to 8 November 2026. Its programme combines paid performances with free events, including a music-technology symposium and a concert featuring young performers.
The Musical Society of Nigeria has chosen Music Sustained as this year’s theme. Its festival announcement lists ten concerts and a symposium at the MUSON Centre in Onikan, bringing contemporary music into a programme rooted in classical performance.
A musical brunch on 25 October will feature Yinka Davies, Adeyemi Bobby Benson and MUSON artistes. It begins at noon in La Scala Hall and Terrace. The published adult price is ₦30,000, with children’s admission at ₦23,000.
MUSON Day follows on 27 October, with a free cultural reception and concert in Agip Recital Hall. The opening ceremony starts at 5pm and the concert at 6pm. A ticketed Jazz Party follows on 30 October.
Drama takes the stage on 31 October with two works by Leke Gbolade. Jigida addresses equality and social justice, while Wanted In-Laws follows a feuding couple confronting interference from relatives. Both are scheduled for Agip Recital Hall.
Walter-Michael Vollhardt will conduct the orchestra concert on 1 November. The free Collabo programme follows on 3 November, while the Youth Variety Concert on 5 November will feature school performers and winners of the MUSON Schools’ Competition.
Collabo will examine how musicians can use technology in their working lives. Festival planning committee chair Sade Doherty said automation, artificial intelligence and collaboration would form the focus, according to the programme announcement reported by The Guardian.
“Automation in every sphere of life is progressing at breakneck speed, and music is no exception,” Doherty said. The symposium will consider the relationship between human creativity and increasingly sophisticated technologies used in musical production and performance.
Obi Asika, director-general of the National Council for Arts and Culture, is announced as keynote speaker. A practical masterclass will examine AI applications for musicians, with MUSON School of Music deputy director Korede Omopeloye describing tools for rehearsal and operational tasks.
Examples include separating instrumental parts from recordings, extracting chords and controlling tempo. The announced programme also includes student performances and a screening from Music Expressions by MUSON, the society’s podcast series. The symposium’s main session starts at 11am.
MUSON traces its beginnings to 1983, when a group of classical-music enthusiasts established the society. Its institutional history names Akintola Williams, Louis Mbanefo, Ayo Rosiji, Rasheed Gbadamosi and Francesca Emanuel among the Nigerians involved in its founding.
The society runs both basic music education and a diploma programme, alongside its orchestra and choir. Its stated aims include teaching children musical performance and theory, supporting performers and encouraging exchanges between Nigerian musicians and colleagues from other countries. Diploma graduates have also pursued further musical study in Europe, America and South Africa.
The festival’s free events and separately priced performances give audiences several admission options. The organiser’s current listings identify the hall, date and ticket arrangements for each event. The programme runs until 8 November at the Onikan complex.
Archive venue photograph: MUSON Centre entrance, 18 December 2024. Beendy234 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; not a photograph of the forthcoming festival. Photographic adaptation under the same licence. Source; licence.
