London Sinfonietta Highlights: December 2022

On Friday 2 December the London Sinfonietta headed to the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall for our Sleeping Patterns concert. This concert featured five works by contemporary composers, notably Juste Janultye's Sleeping Patterns, a London Sinfonietta co-commission. Juste's piece forms complex and beautiful musical textures inspired by the movements and rhythms of the human body. We also premiered Jack Sheen's Phant Heap Render and performed Lisa Streich's Älv, Alv, Alva, Tyshawn Sorey's For Olly Woodrow Wilson Jr and Salvatore Sciarrino's da un Divertimento. 

Read the Guardian's review here.

Gladly attended yesterday London’s premiere of "Sleeping Patterns" by internationally awarded Lithuanian contemporary music composer Justė Janulytė performed by world-known orchestra London Sinfonietta. pic.twitter.com/hRGmXSdPGt

— Eitvydas Bajarūnas (@EitvydasB) December 3, 2022

Our concert was followed by our annual collaboration with Central Saint Martins' course, BA Performance: Design and Practice. We commissioned students to create moving image responses to three works by Janultye: Aquarelle, Apnea and Harp is a Chord. The short films were beautiful, thoughtful and frequently thought-provoking. You can read more about our projects with CSM here.

This December we held an online event for our supporters to celebrate the season with us at an online event featuring Principal Saxophone Simon Haram in conversation with our Development Officer Eleanor Killner. It was a great event 

If you're interested in supporting the London Sinfonietta and attending similar events, find out ways to support us here.

This December we released the third instalment of our series, Introduction to Contemporary Instruments. This third episode sees Principal Trombone, Byron Fulcher, explore a selection of contemporary pieces and playing techniques. The emotional, dramatic and musical significance of these techniques is explored through carefully chosen excerpts from a variety of musical sources, from Folke Rabe to Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

You can also view our Introduction to Contemporary Clarinet and Introduction to Contemporary Viola. 

This December marked the culmination of our project with Cambridgeshire Music and Orchestras Live – it was a joy to hear the new work by the young musicians, pulled together by the wonderful Pete Letanka. Over a series of two creative workshops and one orchestral rehearsal, Pete and our musicians worked to create a new piece of music inspired by the idea of celebration. They reflected on Christmases lost over the past few years, juxtaposed with the joy they felt this year. As well as fully scored parts, the piece features an opportunity for the young musicians to improvise.