Southbank Centre New Music Biennial Friday

These are some of the selected free events taking place at Southbank Centre. Click on the event title for further information.

Southbank Centre Map — Southbank Centre Locations. Click to enlarge

New Music Biennial from 5th to 7th July

New Music Biennial is a showcase of composers and music creators who are pushing the boundaries of music in the UK.

The festival, presented in association with the PRS for Music Foundation, is a unique snapshot of contemporary music in the UK across all genres: classical, world music, jazz, folk, electronic and even music for ice cream vans.

New Music Biennial 2019 comprises 20 new works, featuring new commissions from Gazelle Twin and Max de Wardener, Roderick Williams, Claire M Singer, Khyam Allami, Sona Jobarteh, Arun Ghosh, Sarah Tandy, Forest Swords, Klein, Dan Jones and Sam Eastmond alongside works composed within the last 15 years, including Shiva Feshareki’s acclaimed Dialogue for turntables and orchestra, commissioned by BBC Concert Orchestra in 2018.

Across the weekend works are performed in a range of venues, inviting audiences to discover new music in an interactive way, both inside and outside of traditional concert hall settings.

New Music Biennial is a PRS for Music Foundation initiative presented in partnership with Absolutely Cultured, Southbank Centre, BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings.

Requiem for the 21st Century: Weekend Installation

Friday 5 -7 July 2019 | Several times |Exhibition Space, Level 1 | Free

Contemplate the challenges of the 21st century in this oud-based sound installation

The New Commissioners

Friday 5 July 2019 | 11.30 am | Royal Festival Hall | Weston Roof Pavilion, Level 6, Green Side | Free but ticketed

New music has never been easier to access. Composers have a huge digital reach, and audiences are enjoying music in new, fluid, post-genre ways. It’s a brave new world.

Arts organisations looking to commission new work find themselves in shifting sands: the traditional rules about composers, record labels, and publishers no longer apply.

Join Adam Szabo, Managing Director of Manchester Collective, Jenny Jamison, Chief Executive of Scottish Ensemble, and Jo Nockels, commissioner and senior Projects Manager at Opera North, as they grapple with one vital question: in the 21st century, how does new music get made?

Performers

Adam Szabo speaker
Jenny Jamison speaker
Jo Nockels speaker

RepertoireTalk: How does new music get made

#ClassicalMusic #NewMusicBiennal

Friday Lunch: Khyam Allami

Friday 5 July 2019 | 1pm | Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer

Explore the confluence of the oud and electroacoustics with Khyam Allami. The Iraqi oud player and composer presents his new solo work for electroacoustic oud, Kawalees: Part I.

Developing modernist, contemporary and avant-garde approaches to the oud and the Arabic maqam system (the modes of Arabic music), Kawalees is Allami’s latest multi-part solo project. Part I explores the exaggeration of micro-sounds and gestures associated with the oud and its performance techniques, magnifying them with an electroacoustic instrument and manipulating them with live digital processing.

Allami fragments and distorts traditional approaches to the Arabic maqam system through unconventional melodic improvisation, yielding a familiar yet abstract language that is expressive of the current age while maintaining its characteristic identity.

Allami is a PRSF New Music Biennial composer. He presents a new commission at Southbank Centre, the immersive sound installation Requiem for the 21st Century, as part of New Music Biennial. The installation is open all weekend, with a special performance on Saturday 6 July at 5.30pm

Why Theatre?

Friday 5 July 2019 | 2.30 pm |Royal Festival Hall, Weston Roof Pavilion, Level 6, Green Side |Free, but ticketed

What ‘sings’ about a story? What can theatre add to music, and vice versa? Composer Conor Mitchell leads a discussion on the art of theatre.

The theatre specialist examines what new developments in theatre craft, including light, sound and text, can enhance musical performance without the traditional constraints of the stage.

Performers Conor Mitchell speaker | RepertoireTalk: The art of theatre

The Arabic Maqam System with Khyam Allami

Friday 5 July 2019 | 3.45 pm |Royal Festival Hall | Free, but ticketed

Get clued up on writing music using the microtonal intervals of the Arabic musical scale at a free workshop and Q&A.

The Arabic musical scale differs to the Western system of twelve equally tempered tones thanks to its microtonal intervals, which give a distinct character to the melodies that are constructed using it.

Composer Khyam Allami introduces audiences to writing music using this tonal system, including some practical exercises.

Performers Khyam Allami speaker | Repertoire Workshop: The Arabic Maqam System

Friday Tonic: Numb Mob

Friday 5 July 2019 | 5.15 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall | Free

Adventure into the world of avant-garde electronic duo Numb Mob at this free Friday evening concert.

Since forming, the Hull-based duo have become an adventurous electronic outfit with forward-thinking sensibilities: they produce music that explores the fickle relationship between digital and acoustic worlds. With influence from artists such as John Carpenter, Portishead, Simon Fisher Turner, James Holden and Boards of Canada, they’ve arrived at a visually charged sound that is both familiar and alien.

Gleann ciùin

Friday 5 July 2019 | 6.30 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall | Free, but ticketed

The Quietus dubbed Claire M Singer’s debut album for organ, cello and electronics, ‘genuinely magical.’

Known for her experimental approach to the organ, Claire M Singer performs a new work with leading musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra, commissioned by the orchestra for the New Music Biennial.

Claire M Singer is a composer, producer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, film and installations.

In June 2017 she was a recipient of the inaugural Oram Awards from the PRS Foundation and New BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Following the New Music Biennial, her work is touring the UK.

Trespassing

Friday 5 July 2019 | 9 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall | Free, but ticketed

A new commission created by Forest Swords DJ and Immix Ensemble investigates the future of musi

Music Biennial After-Party

Friday 5 July 2019 | 10 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall | Free

Celebrate this year’s New Music Biennial with a free summertime club night of genre-bending electronic sounds curated by Forest Swords and Lotic.

The Merseyside-based producer, DJ and composer – aka Matthew Barnes – is at the forefront of modern electronic music, having released critically acclaimed records through labels like Tri Angle and Ninja Tune. His warped sound has led to remixes for Björk, a slot in the DJ-Kicks compilation album series, and appearances at festivals such as Sónar, Unsound and Dekmantel.

The night will feature DJ and producer J’Kerian Morgan, better known as Lotic. Raised in Houston, Texas, Lotic moved to Berlin in 2012 and helped to form the city’s famed Janus collective. In recent years, Lotic has evolved into one of Berlin’s most original voices of avant-garde club music.

For the New Music Biennial happening across Southbank Centre, Barnes has programmed a night that dives into contemporary music’s most thrilling and joyful sonic fringes: a celebration of artists that construct their own worlds, on their own terms.

Disclaimer: WISE16 publish public notices from London Borough of Southwark with the aim to encourage participation. Please visit Southwark Council’s website for further in