Laura Karpman’s opera Balls tells the story of the Battle of the Sexes tennis match of 1973 – a decisive victory for Billie Jean King and for gender equality.

Composer Laura Karpman, conductor Marin Alsop  and actor Emma Kennedy are the perfect team to bring this turning point in the struggle for women’s rights to a 21st-century audience. Karpman, composer of many acclaimed film and game soundtracks including American Fiction, The Marvels and Kung Fu Panda 2, is a fierce advocate for equality in the film industry. Marin Alsop has blazed a trail for women conductors, through a performing career studded with ‘firsts’ and as a mentor and educator. Emma Kennedy is a multi-talented writer-performer who has won awards for her books, radio shows, TV series and films.

Battle of the Sexes: Marin Alsop conducts Balls

Southbank Centre

The mystic, the magician and the messenger - a parade of heavenly bodies demonstrate their powers as conductor Robert Ziegler leads the Orchestra in an adventure through space and time with Holst’s mighty symphonic suite, The Planets. Beforehand, Manu Martin’s Cosmic Rhapsody inspires child-like wonder in nature and science, and pianist Jean Yves-Thibaudet plays Gershwin irresistible I Got Rhythm Variations.

London Voices

Nov 20, 2025

Battle of the Sexes: Marin Alsop conducts Balls

May 5, 2025

Holst, Gershwin and Martin

London Voices