Yuja Wang immersive piano installation opens in London

Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang is now open at Southbank Centre in London through Jan. 3, 2027, giving audiences a mixed-reality look at the pianist’s performance and creative process. The show combines live recital, VR, spatial sound and visual art, and will travel next to Taipei and New York.

Why it matters: - Playing with Fire expands how audiences can experience classical music by blending live performance with mixed reality, virtual reality and spatial audio. - The installation gives viewers unusually close access to Yuja Wang’s playing, gestures and creative choices. - The show also signals continued investment in immersive arts as a format for major cultural venues.

What happened: - Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang is now open at Southbank Centre in London. - The installation runs through 3 January 2027. - The project premiered in November 2025 at Musée de la musique – Philharmonie de Paris. - It later traveled to Cannes Immersive and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. - The experience will next be shown at the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei from 10-24 October 2026. - The installation will then open at Lincoln Center in New York City from 30 January to 21 February 2027.

The details: - The experience combines a live piano recital, visual art, mixed reality, virtual reality and spatialised sound. - Pierre-Alain Giraud wrote and directed the project. - VIVE Arts and Atlas V produced the work in collaboration with Lightroom. - The creative team includes Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Nicolas Becker, Arthur Maugendre, Laurence Fontaine, Philippe Berthomé, Sylvain Hayot and Antoine Martin. - The production uses 360-degree volumetric video capture, recordings of Yuja Wang’s playing and voice, advanced spatial audio and VIVE Focus Vision headsets. - A Steinway & Sons Spirio concert grand piano sits at the center of the space. - The piano recreates Yuja Wang’s performance in real time alongside the holographic fingers of her virtual self. - The repertoire ranges from Bach to Stravinsky and was personally selected by Yuja Wang. - Murano glass light bulbs designed by Philippe Berthome are suspended in the gallery and recreated in the virtual experience. - Visitors moving closer to the piano and the bulbs enter an audio zone with fragments of poetry tied to the repertoire. - The project is supported by Steinway & Sons, the CNC and Pictanovo. - VIVE Arts says the initiative has realized more than 75 projects worldwide since 2017. - Book tickets.

Between the lines: - The installation turns a concert into a spatial experience, shifting the audience from passive listening to physical movement through the artwork. - The use of Yuja Wang’s voice, gestures and selected repertoire frames the project as part portrait, part performance and part digital artwork. - The rollout across Paris, London, Taipei and New York suggests strong institutional demand for premium immersive programming.

What's next: - Audiences can visit the show in London until early January. - The production continues its international run with stops in Taipei and New York in early 2027. - The format may offer a template for future classical-music experiences that combine live art and immersive technology.