Southbank Centre New Music Biennial Sunday

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

Panopticon

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 11 am |Purcell Room| Free, but ticketed

The cimbalom governs the string ensemble in a new work by David Fennessy, performed by Psappha.

Every attack on the string of the instrument has a consequence on the rest of the players.

Each beat triggers a ripple, much like a stone dropped into a still lake, which eventually reaches the strings: they reflect and magnify its effects.

The cimbalom also governs pulse and dynamic and, through its careful exploration of the natural harmonics available on its lowest string, plots the entire course of the piece.

The word ‘panopticon’ is usually associated with an 18th-century design concept for a circular prison. Cells were arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could be observed at all times.

Performers Psappha Ensemble

RepertoireDavid Fennessy: Panopticon (World premiere)

Lunaria

Sunday 7 July 2019| 12 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall | Free, but ticketed

Music, installation and spoken text: see Northern Ireland’s capital afresh with the Belfast Ensemble and founder-composer Conor Mitchell.

Celebrating two years of the collective, this new work evokes a furiously vibrant city caught in the crossfire of national identities.

Performers: Belfast Ensemble | Repertoire: Conor Mitchell: Lunaria (World premiere)

Music for Seven Ice Cream Vans: Performance and Q&A

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 1.30 pm |Royal Festival Hall Wall, Queen Elizabeth Hall Side | Free

Ice cream vans call out to one another, and a beautifully nostalgic score floods Southbank Centre’s outdoor spaces.

You may remember hearing the siren song of the neighbourhood ice cream van as a child; this performance pop-up reimagines that ubiquitous sound. The vans, each with their own individual harmony, create a mesmerising symphony of different clustered sounds and a shared soundscape for unsuspecting audiences.

This performance includes a Q&A with composer Dan Jones about the piece and his work.

Written by award-winning composer Dan Jones, this brand-new iteration of Music For Seven Ice Cream Vans is commissioned by Absolutely Cultured and created especially for PRSF New Music Biennial 2019 and was originally co-commissioned by LIFT, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Blackpool Council and Sydney Festival.

Voice:Mash’d with Dominic Ellis-Peckham

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 1.30pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer | Free

Join the celebrated conductor for a vocal workshop for all ages and abilities, creating and mashing ideas from scratch.

New music has to come from somewhere, and more often than not from improvisation and creative compositional ‘play’. Anything is possible when you just start singing.

Brit-Ish

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 2.30 pm |Purcell Room | Free, but ticketed

Peer into radical Jewish culture through a British lens in a new commission for big band, performed by the Spike Orchestra.

Described by John Zorn’s Tzadik Label as ‘one of the most adventurous big bands working today’, the orchestra is led by Sam Eastmond (Zorn’s Masada Book 2 and 3).

She Who Pop-up

Sunday 8 July 2019 | 4.30 pm |Royal Festival Hall, Riverside Terrace, Level 2 | Free

Come and hear brand-new music created by female composers in this pop-up event.

Hear snippets of Jessica Curry’s She Who, sung by the outstanding young voices of the National Youth Chamber Choir.

Don’t miss our main event, which features two full performances of She Who and a Q&A with Curry about the piece and her work as a composer.

Tiger’s Nest

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 5.30 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall | Free, but ticketed

Rolf Hind’s work for percussion, gamelan and piano evokes the hike to an eponymous Bhutan monastery on a cliff.

The piece is written for Javanese gamelan percussion orchestra, two prepared pianos and solo percussion including the canna sonora – a collection of nine-foot aluminium rods.

As one of the key figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was writing at a time when his city was experiencing a pivotal moment in its cultural history. His writing has helped to shape the identity of jazz in the popular consciousness.

Performers

  • Colin Currie percussion
  • Rolf Hind piano
  • Zubin Kanga piano
  • Isabelle Carré gamelan soloist
  • Robert Campion gamelan soloist
  • Southbank Gamelan Players
  • Andy Channing
  • Nikhil Dally
  • Stephen Johnston
  • Ellen Jordan
  • Helen Loth
  • Cecily Nowell-Smith
  • John Pawson
  • Sophie Ransby
  • John Whitfield
  • Aga Ujma

Repertoire

  • Rolf Hind: Tiger’s Nest for gamelan, 2 prepared pianos & percussion. Questions & answer
  • Rolf Hind: Tiger’s Nest for gamelan, 2 prepared pianos & percussion (reprise)

She Who

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 4.30 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer| Free

She Who is a timely celebration of the powerful, beautiful collective voice of women and youth.

The piece, created by BAFTA Award-winning composer Jessica Curry for the National Youth Choir, premieres at the New Music Biennial.

Three Songs from Ethiopia Boy

Sunday 7 July 2019 | 7.30 pm |Queen Elizabeth Hall| Free, but ticketed

Chineke! Orchestra presents a new commission, and a significant new work for their jazz-inspired programme, by Roderick Williams.

Better known to some as a baritone soloist, Williams’ reputation as a composer is growing steadily. His Advent antiphon ‘O Adonai’ has gained popularity on both sides of the Atlantic and his ‘Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined’ was awarded the BASCA prize for Choral Composition in 2016.

The orchestra gave its first concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2015 and is now an Associate Orchestra at Southbank Centre.

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