Strange News

The London Sinfonietta fused the finest contemporary music with audio-visuals and performing arts to offer a window onto conflicts past and present, in this first concert of the 2010/11 Music Programme.

"The young Ugandan actor Arthur Kisenyi made a big impact, and the London Sinfonietta under Baldur Brönnimann played with flair" Financial Times

"remarkable use of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, whose every corner was inhabited by sound and light for the duration of Strange News" Classical Source

In an unflinching tale of hope and redemption, Rolf Wallin and Josse de Pauw's Strange News brought the reality of life for the world’s 250,000 child soldiers into the concert hall. Rolf Wallin's moving orchestral score weaves music with Josse de Pauw's video footage and the words of former young fighters performed live on stage by Ugandan actor Arthur Kisenyi. An on-screen cameo by well-known journalist and presenter Jon Snow completed this powerful piece of concert theatre.

The Exaudi singers joined the London Sinfonietta in the concert’s first half to explore two contemporary insights into violent moments in history. Michael Finnissy sets surviving accounts of an Anglo-Saxon war saga to his haunting modern sound in a rare live performance of Maldon.

Iannis Xenakis’s Nuits is a modern take on a classical Greek tragedy dedicated to 1960s political prisoners in his native Greece.

Join London Sinfonietta for Strange News for music that gets to the heart of the world’s most emotive issues.

6.15pm
Take Note: Pre-concert discussion

Rolf Wallin joined a panel to discuss the place of music in developing our awareness of world issues. Chaired by Simon Bucknall for Speakers Bank, the panel also consisted of representatives from the other Strange News Supporter Partners, including:

Oddvar Espegren
Director, Christian Relief Network

Charles Gay
Participation and Governance Programme Development Advisor, VSO

Sara Bowcutt
Head of Corporate and Donor Fundraising, War Child

Victoria Forbes-Adams
Director, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

Rose Mauwa
International Programme Manager, Africa Foundation Stone

Go to the Strange News website for more information about how this work was developed, plus video footage of the world premiere of the full orchestral version by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.