20 November 2018
Newsdesk
UNKLE, YANN TIERSEN, LOUIE VEGA & E.O.L. SOULFRITO LIVE, LAURA MVULA, DAVID GRAY, MINISTRY OF SOUND, Beverley Knight, Hanson’s String Theory, Stewart Copeland, Dhafer Youssef, The Orb, Lizz Wright, Christian Löffler, Kelly Moran, Goran Bregović, Sergio Mendes, Christy Moore, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Laurance, Marius Neset, Michelle Gurevich, Bedouine, Our Girl, Jean-Michel Blais, Keith Tippett & Matthew Bourne, Phildel, Qasim Naqvi, Rival Consoles, Michael Price, Hatis Noit, Troika Klezmer, Steve Williamson Trio and more, plus Gary Numan in conversation.
Southbank Centre is proud to present a spring line-up of contemporary music and gigs that truly reflects its commitment to expand genre boundaries, showcase the best new sounds from across the globe and offer a world-class gigging experience with unique, not-to-be-missed events across its three iconic music venues.
From January - May 2019, the Royal Festival Hall is home to world and UK premieres including: James Lavelle’s UNKLE with the first ever live performance of their new album, The Road: Part One (RFH, 19 Apr); the world-premiere and launch of Ministry of Sound’s first ever fully produced classical music show and documentary The Annual Classical (RFH, 16 Jan); world-renowned singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef with the UK premiere of his new album Sounds of Mirrors (RFH, 19 Mar); and Balkan great, Goran Bregović with the UK premiere of his latest, Three Letters from Sarajevo (RFH, 1 Mar).
A highlight of 2019’s contemporary music programme is the launch of Purcell Sessions: Erased Tapes X LCO - a year-long collaboration with globally-respected, London-based independent record label Erased Tapes, and one of the UK's most innovative ensembles and winner of the RPS 'best ensemble' award, the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO).
The partnership brings handpicked Erased Tapes artists to Southbank Centre’s most intimate venue, the Purcell Room, for four exclusive dates throughout the year. In free, open workshops, audiences will see some of the top contemporary classical musicians and composers working together to test and develop new techniques and palettes of sound. These, along with pieces that have inspired the workshops, will be performed that evening, providing audiences with a unique insight into the creative process.
Bengi Ünsal, Senior Contemporary Music Programmer at Southbank Centre, says:
“From hosting the First London Concert of Electronic Music by British Composers in 1968, to the first and only full live performance of Mike Oldfield’s seminal Tubular Bells in 1973, and the world premiere of Tyondai Braxton’s TELEKINESIS as part of the Queen Elizabeth Hall reopening in April 2018, Southbank Centre has always been a place for breaking musical moulds.
“I’m incredibly excited to bring this partnership together. With Erased Tapes’ expertise in global avant-garde music, and the innovation and versatility of LCO, who have worked with everyone from Radiohead to Goldfrapp, the programme will focus on developing the next generation of players, conductors and composers, and promote new music to an increasingly wide audience. What comes from these meetings of minds will be a discovery for everyone.”
The artists involved in Purcell Sessions are: Brooklyn-based composer and drummer (Dawn of Midi) Qasim Naqvi who creates original music for film, dance, theatre and international chamber ensembles (PUR, 12 Feb); internationally recognised film and TV composer, producer, arranger, music editor and Emmy Award-winner Michael Price, who has worked on a wide range of scores from Sherlock to the Lord of the Rings trilogy (PUR, 18 May); London-based producer Ryan Lee West, better known as Rival Consoles, an electronic music producer known for making synthesisers sound human (PUR, 29 Sep); and the self-taught and versatile Japanese vocal performer Hatis Noit, who deconstructs and recombines Western Classical and Japanese folk with ambient dance (PUR, 6 Dec).
UNKLE, YANN TIERSEN, LOUIE VEGA & E.O.L. SOULFRITO LIVE, LAURA MVULA, DAVID GRAY, MINISTRY OF SOUND, Beverley Knight, Hanson’s String Theory, Stewart Copeland, Dhafer Youssef, The Orb, Lizz Wright, Christian Löffler, Kelly Moran, Goran Bregović, Sergio Mendes, Christy Moore, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Laurance, Marius Neset, Michelle Gurevich, Bedouine, Our Girl, Jean-Michel Blais, Keith Tippett & Matthew Bourne, Phildel, Qasim Naqvi, Rival Consoles, Michael Price, Hatis Noit, Troika Klezmer, Steve Williamson Trio and more, plus Gary Numan in conversation.
