NEW MUSIC 20×12 WEEKEND
Southbank Centre, 13th to 15th July
Every single New Music 20×12 commission will be performed over one weekend at London’s Southbank Centre, with most performances completely free.
The weekend will also include two full days on one-to-one composer surgeries and four workshops for composers of all ages and abilities.
The weekend also promises many UK and London premières including
- World premiere of Aaron Cassidy’s A Painter of Figures in Rooms performed by EXAUDI. The work explores experimental approaches to vocal production and will be followed later in the day by a vocal technique workshop.
- London premiere of Our Day, a 12-minute opera about Olympic gold medallist Mary Peters, set against the troubles in Northern Ireland in 1972
- London premiere of Sheema Mukherjee’s Bending The Dark performed by Imagined Village
- London premiere of Ping! for table tennis players, string quartet and soundtrack
Many other memorable events are planned including
- Screening of a filmed performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Beyond This, composed in collaboration with prisoners from HMP Lowdham Grange Nottinghamshire
- Performances by Rambert Dance Company, Wonderbrass, The Black Dyke Band and London Chamber Orchestra
- Sally Beamish’s Spinal Chords presented as a recorded performance with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
- Many other commissions from some of the leading figures in the fields of contemporary classical, jazz and folk music including Julian Joseph, Jason Yarde, Howard Skempton and Richard Causton
The weekend will be punctuated by a series of four workshops for all aspiring composers, focusing on ‘Composing and folk music’, ‘Composing for the voice’, ‘Composing and text’, and ‘Composing for dance’. These sessions will be hosted by the newly-established Brunel Institute of Composing and will involve many of the New Music 20×12 composers and performers. Throughout Saturday and Sunday, Southbank Centre will hold continuous 25-minute one-to-one composing surgeries for all music-writing audience members who wish to get expert advice from any of the composers participating in the weekend.
The weekend forms part of Southbank Centre’s summer site-wide Festival of the World with MasterCard which opens on 1 June 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee Weekend, and closes on 9 September 2012.
