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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Joe Bromley

The 'Maestro' making classical music cool (and queer) again

There is an undeniable coolness to Oliver Zeffman, as he confidently reels off orders at a top table in Tomos Parry’s Soho restaurant Mountain. “Tomos is a good friend,” he says. We meet for lunch at the peak of the May heatwave, and Zeffman’s tight T-shirt, which reads “Boy University”, hugs a gym-trained physique.

This is perhaps not the scene you would imagine when you think of a classical conductor, and yet the staff here refer to him as “Maestro”. Indeed, the 33-year-old is London’s hottest conductor, here to discuss the project he has become best known for since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016: Classical Pride.

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