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ABC News
ABC News
National
C Benedict for The Music Show

From Tchaikovsky to Pankhurst, the quiet love stories of history's queer musicians

John Cage Peter Pears Benjamin Britten El Smyth Julius Eastman Emmeline Pankhurst Merce Cunningham Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Virginia Woolf Heritage Images
Tchaikovsky said this photograph of him and Kotek (left) was taken "at the very peak of my recent passion". (Getty: Heritage Images)

Classical music doesn't have a particularly radical reputation, but that doesn't mean that LGBTQ+ culture hasn't been thriving for centuries within its ranks.

Take, for example, the passion between Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the violinist Iosef Kotek, which burned hot and flamed out.

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