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cnlester.bsky.social
CN Lester 🏳️‍⚧️
@cnlester.bsky.social
2.9K followers 2K following 1.2K posts
Multi-genre musician: voice/piano/composition/improvisation
Artistic Director Transpose
PhD on Barbara Strozzi - interdisciplinary work is life
’Trans Like Me’, ‘Furies,’ various critical intros, 2 current trans historical WIP

they/them
www.cnlester.com
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cnlester.bsky.social
In other, beautiful news - Transpose: SUBVERSE opening night at Barbican was an absolute joy and wonder last night. We have three nights left - if trans art and incredible music/poetry is your thing, then come/share/both!

If cost is a barrier, just message.

www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...
Under glowing green light on a black, industrial stage, two singers wearing flowing black clothes are lying entwined, stretching out toward the light. Two performers reach towards each other, separated by gauze, their hands meeting with the barrier between them - the light above them glows pink with dark purple-blue shadows. Under a sickly green-yellow light, are two performers, draped across each other.
November 13, 2025 at 4:17 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Fudge, after sticking her nose in a yoghurt pot.
A black labrador with traces of yoghurt on her nose, looking beseechingly at the camera.
October 29, 2025 at 9:56 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Iolo hates operatic singing more than anything else in the entire world, but we've all learnt to work around it. Unlike my previous dog, Fudge, whose nemesis was the moon, which we could not hide from her.
A fluffy brown spaniel looking up to ask for a cuddle Another shot of the same fluffy brown spaniel - he has big golden eyes and is sitting politely waiting to be petted
October 29, 2025 at 9:45 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Working ridiculously hard to get this year's Transpose ready - November 12-15th at Barbican! - and then I keep forgetting to tell people! So here's a photographic reminder: recording tracks for live performance yesterday with curator ILĀ and a fuzzy helper.

www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...
An open piano set up for recording with a microphone - a fuzzy ginger cat sits on the knee of the pianist, looking intently at the keys
October 24, 2025 at 12:40 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Just back from an ten day writing retreat in Paris, thanks to the kindness of people who love books and their authors. No social media, no news - just writing and music and asking myself 'what would Camus do?' Very hard to come back.
CN Lester, looking down, in a sunny square in Paris. They're a white genderqueer person with short brown hair, large square black glasses, and dark eyebrows. A view of the Pont des Arts from the furthest point of the Île de la Cité - the sky is opalescent and the river is grey - the view is framed by willow leaves.
October 14, 2025 at 2:53 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Ongoing London positivity posting - is there anything lovelier than a beer garden on a sunny evening?

Proper CAMRA ale, half listening to some of the regulars debate tomato growing and canning methods while I get some writing done. Lavender and rosemary growing in the old urinals.
A view from a London beer garden, looking up at the fading pastel evening sky, framed by green vines. There are enormously tall sunflowers growing up past the top of the vine-covered walls. Under the vines are lights, posters, and old urinals used as planters, full of growing herbs.
August 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Might just start London posting at regular intervals, because fuck all the right wing losers telling lies and trying to whip up fear and hatred.

Beautiful night of experimental music and awesome people at Avalon Cafe last night. Walking down from the overground: scent of flowers everywhere.
A cycle/pedestrian path running through banks of wild and overgrown greenery. Two large industrial structures stand up against the evening sky, which is blue and scattered with fluffy clouds. South East London.
August 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
A good thing in the world is that my Nana is 95 and very frail, but my dog loves her with all his heart, so he's learnt to be gentle around her and no one else, and subsumes his full body wriggling and wagging into falling asleep on her feet. She loves him back.
A floppy eared brown spaniel rests his head on his paws, with one ear spread over the red shoe of an elderly lady in thick stockings and green trousers.
August 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
In my neighbourhood today - I stopped to take some apples and a picture, and someone I'd never met before stopped to do the same. I said 'if only everyone was this kind' and he looked at me sadly and said 'if only 10% of the world were this kind we'd be in a better place.'

It all matters...
A crate full of apples on the wall of a front garden in London, with a handwritten and decorated sign reading 'Please help yourself to cooking apples grown in our garden'
August 10, 2025 at 8:10 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
London Trans Pride 2025: I've never seen so many cis people showing up for trans rights.

Labour may be trying to drag us back to Section 28 - but we never had support like this back then.
A cardboard sign, covered in plastic flowers, reading 'Just be Kind' next to one that reads 'Trans Joy is Resistance' at London Trans Pride A cardboard sign reading 'Parents supporting trans rights' at the London Trans Pride march 2025
July 26, 2025 at 4:51 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Two weeks ago as soloist (and composer) at the UK's leading concert hall for Classical Pride.

It meant a huge amount to me personally. It's meaning a lot politically, too.

Working for the day when a trans musician centre stage is just normal - and a celebration only for the best of reasons.
The Fourth Choir (the UK's leading LGBT choral ensemble), conductor Jamie Powe, and soloist CN Lester performing on a traditional concert stage. Above them all is a beautiful painted mural in dark colours highlighted in gold. The choir and conductor are wearing black, and CN is wearing black and white. The photograph is by Matthew Johnson.
July 12, 2025 at 8:42 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Never stops blowing my mind - one of the world's major cities, and nature like this wound all through it. Lots of hard parts of living in London - and a lot of beauty too.
A bush full of pink flowers covered with little butterflies on a beautiful sunny day A clear stream surrounded by green plants, sunlight dappling on the water
July 3, 2025 at 1:12 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
The best thing about being a slow and plodding runner is that you get to notice and enjoy the wildlife. The best parts of not being 'the best' at things are everywhere.
A Marbled White butterfly on a thick bramble bush on a sunny day in a South London park.
July 1, 2025 at 12:21 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
I know I need to up my game and start doing actual proper photos at important events - but I totally forget, so here's an outfit check backstage at Wigmore Hall on Friday night between my opening solo and the my final one of the night.

It was phenomenal. Keeping on climbing that mountain.
A backstage mirror selfie of a crowded greenroom in an old concert hall in London, showing CN Lester - a white genderqueer person in a black suit, white print shirt, with short dark hair. Their ears are pink because it was INCREDIBLY hot backstage.
June 29, 2025 at 8:57 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
I'm working so hard on letting other people see me again after some very hard years of fighting the need to defensively hide.

It means so much that I can actually see myself in my new headshots.
A black and white photographic portrait of CN, a white genderqueer trans person, looking up and away from the camera. They have short dark hair - the photograph is deeply shadowed. A black and white photographic portrait of CN, a white genderqueer trans person, looking up with their eyes closed. They have short dark hair - the photograph is deeply shadowed. A black and white photographic portrait of CN, a white genderqueer trans person, looking straight to camera. They have short dark hair falling in waves across their forehead - the photograph is deeply shadowed. A black and white photographic portrait of CN, a white genderqueer trans person, with their eyes closed as though thinking. They have short dark hair - the photograph is deeply shadowed, which highlights their lashes.
June 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
I've been working pretty much all of my musical life to get to perform on the Wigmore Hall stage - and today I was there rehearsing for my debut on Friday night, as both a singer and a composer. Warming up backstage, wallowing in the acoustics onstage - nervous and excited for the real thing.
A grand piano and piano stool in an old-fashioned London room. The wallpaper is chintzy, the carpet is green, and there are framed photographs of legendary musicians who've performed at Wigmore lining the walls and placed on top of a sideboard.
June 22, 2025 at 3:14 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Leslie Feinberg, interviewed by Curve Magazine in 1993.

Used this in a training yesterday, and wanted to share.
A black and white image of trans liberationists Leslie Feinberg wearing a suit and tie, speaking into a microphone, with the words 'Stone Butch but not Blue' and 'Leslie Feinberg and Transgender Liberation' printed next to and across the image.
May 21, 2025 at 12:30 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Did some baking about it: blueberry sour cream with cinnamon sugar and a yoghurt whipped vanilla cream.

It helps.
A piece of blueberry cake on a white dish, with whipped cream beside it, dusted with cinnamon.
April 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
To break up the doomscrolling - London is covered in blossom, and the skies have never been so blue.

I hope you get some flowers today.

#Bloomscrolling
A close up of a tree covered in small white blossom, against the background of a bright blue sky and green and orange bushes
April 2, 2025 at 2:05 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Today is a Timoclea throwing her rapist down a well by Elisabetta Sirani kind of day. If you're one of the lucky 10,000 yet to experience this work - enjoy. Everyone else - enjoy.

More of this, I think.
An Italian Renaissance oil painting showing a woman with a serene yet concentrating expression throwing a man in soldier's garb down a well.
March 28, 2025 at 3:23 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
More work at the National Archives today, and this advert for a 1930s queer/trans dance is making me want both to cry and laugh at my desk. 'Live, Laugh, Love' London Quean-style, in a beautiful private mansion in bougie Kensington. 'Lady Austin' and 33 of her 'camp boys' were put on trial for this.
A brown paper flyer for an old queer dance, with coded language: 'Live, Love and Laugh at Hotel Staff Dances'. The flyer is in a protective plastic sheath.
March 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Felt so much safer and less alone seeing this on my walk to work today. Please don't forget how small actions can spark courage - and let strangers know that they have friends in an often hostile world.
A small progress pride flag hanging outside an old brick building on a street in London, against a cloudy blue sky.
March 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Have focused hard on my work a rebellion today: a long session in the National Archives, researching the queer/trans/gender transgressive traces of 1930s London. A ticket for Lady Malcolm's Servants' Ball - the event of the year for the working class queans, 'nancy boy types' and 'undesirables.'
A pink ticket sitting on top of a typed police report, both from 1935. The ticket is to Lady Macolm's Servants Ball. A section of the ticket has been highlighted: "No Man Impersonating a Woman, And no Person Unsuitably Attired will be Admitted or Permitted to Remain.'
February 14, 2025 at 5:26 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
Tonight I conducted and sang with an incredible vocal ensemble - half trans, half not - making groundbreaking new music with one of the UK's leading arts institutions, in a beautiful warm space filled with an audience who sang with us. The bad things are horrific - but still we live and thrive.
Music stands surrounding a central microphone in an old Victorian chapel - there are lights shining down on the music stands.
January 30, 2025 at 11:40 PM
cnlester.bsky.social
For your consideration: the very attractive Maurice Ravel.
A black and white photograph of French composer Maurice Ravel in around 1900, when he was 25 years old. He looks straight at the camera - he's super hot.
January 17, 2025 at 2:01 PM