(UN)EASY LISTENING: 2014/15 SEASON

(UN)EASY LISTENING

New music is not always easy listening. It can be exciting, unsettling and yes, sometimes difficult. You don't have to like it all. The best new music will make you reassess what you thought you knew about sound and, like all great art, that's why it's important. It challenges us not to settle for what we already know but to embrace ambiguity, be curious and discover new possibilities for what music can mean to us individually.

2014/15 SEASON CONCERTS 

For full details please browse the season brochure below.

VIENNA REVISITED: PANEL DISCUSSION
Saturday 20 September 2014 at 6pm, Kings Place St Pancras Room
Part of the Kings Place mini-series Vienna Revisited with Tom Service, Nuria Schoenberg-Nono, John Deathridge, Alexander Goehr and Nicholas Snowman.

ROMITELLI: AN INDEX OF METALS
Wednesday 8 October 2014 at 8pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, £15
Original video art by Paolo Pachini and Leonardo Romoli. With conductor André de Ridder and mezzo soprano Hila Plitmann.

BIRTWISTLE: A CELEBRATION
Friday 5 December 2014 at 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, £28 - £8
Sir Harrison Birtwistle in conversation, interspersed by The Message for trumpet, clarinet and side drum and two new additions to his duet series (world premieres). With conductors David Atherton and Geoffrey Paterson, and the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble.

ALTERNATIVE VISIONS
Wednesday 10 December 2014 at 6.30pm, BFI Southbank NFT3, London, £10.45 (£5)
A Blue Touch Paper event
Five solo voyages specially written by emerging composers for double bass, cello, tuba, viola and flute, brought to the screen by artists at Central Saint Martins. New solo instrument compositions by Christopher Mayo, Benjamin Oliver, Jacob Thompson-Bell, Luke Styles and Deborah Pritchard.

RILEY: IN C
Saturday 10 January 2015 at 7.30pm, Kings Place Hall One, London, £34.50- £14.50
A performance of Terry Riley’s In C  and works which were inspired by, or written as a tribute to, In C, including the work of Michael Nyman.

DILLON: STABAT MATER DOLOROSA
Wednesday 21 January 2015 at 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, £12
A powerful setting of suffering: New work for choir, ensemble and electronics by James Dillon exploring Biblical text of Stabat Mater Dolorosa. With conductor Ilan Volkov and the BBC singers.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 1
Sunday 1 February 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
On Sunday afternoons this installation will evolve into short concerts given by the London Sinfonietta, of seven brand new commissions that respond to the space. The first, on Sunday 1 February, features the world premiere of John Butcher’s Good Liquor Caused my Heart for to Sing. 

STEVE REICH
Saturday 14 February 2015 at 8pm, Kings Place Hall One, London, £39.50- £19.50
The second in a series celebrating the Minimalist genre, with a must see programme of Steve Reich’s iconic works.

SPECTRUM OF SOUND: PART 1
Friday 27 February 2015 at 7.45pm, Purcell Room, London
Two-part series exploring the extraordinary advances in sonic manipulation over recent years featuring on-stage talk with conductor André de Ridder and composer Mica Levi.

SPECTRUM OF SOUND: PART 2
Saturday 28 February 2015 from 6pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
A pre-concert talk explores the use of texture, timbre, microtones and overtones as compositional techniques, before performances of Ligeti, Haas, Scelsi and Murail.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 3
Sunday 15 February 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
The third concert of this series with artist Christian Marclay, featuring the world premiere of a new work responding to the space by Mica Levi.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 4
Sunday 22 February 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
This fourth concert of our partnership with Christian Marclay features a new work by Elliott Sharp that responds to the space.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 5
Sunday 1 March 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
This will feature a performance of Green Slipper by Steve Beresford.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 6
Sunday 8 March 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
The sixth concert of this series features a repeat performance of 2 Dregs by Mica Levi.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 7
Sunday 15 March 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
Featuring a repeat performance of Green Slipper by Steve Beresford.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 8
Sunday 22 March 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
This eighth concert features a new work by Okkyung Lee.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 9
Sunday 29 March 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
Featuring another new work by Okkyung Lee.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: CONCERT 10
Sunday 12 April 2015 at 3pm, White Cube Bermondsey, London
A Blue Touch Paper event
The composer and work featured in the tenth and final concert will be announced on Wednesday 8 April. Each concert is recorded and pressed onto vinyl live at the exhibition by The Vinyl Factory, with screen printed record sleeves coming courtesy of London printmakers Coriander Studio.

HAAS: ATTHIS
Thursday 23, Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 2015 at 7.45pm, Royal Opera House, London, £8-£22
A modern Winterreise: A setting of Sappho’s poetry. Haas said he wanted to write ‘a modern Winterreise with a happy ending’ in what is a brilliantly intense 21st century soundworld. With conductor Pierre-André Valade  and soprano Claire Booth.

NOTES TO THE NEW GOVERNMENT
Saturday 9 May 2015 from 6pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Songs about hopes for society: Sixteen songs by composers considering the society they hope to see. 

BIRTWISTLE: THE CORRIDOR/THE CURE
Friday 12 June 2015 at 7.30pm, Sunday 14 June 2015 at 2.30pm, Monday 15 June 2015 at 5pm, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape, £32 - £15
A pairing of love and loss: The world premiere of The Cure at the 2015 Aldeburgh Festival in a double bill with The Corridor with conductor Geoffrey Paterson, soprano Elizabeth Atherton and tenor Mark Padmore.

BIRTWISTLE: THE CORRIDOR/THE CURE
Thursday 18 - Saturday 27 June 2015 at 7.45pm, Royal Opera House, London, £40 - £12.50
A pairing of love and loss: With conductor Geoffrey Paterson, soprano Elizabeth Atherton and tenor Mark Padmore.

MUSICIANS OF TOMORROW
Saturday 11 July 2015 at 5pm, LSO St Luke's, London
London Sinfonietta Academy final performance with music by Birtwistle, Ligeti, Milhaud and Pritchard.

2014/15 TOURS

We toured extensively throughout the UK and internationally during our 2014/15 season – read about our travels in this summary of events. 

LISTEN TO THE 20TH CENTURY: RESIDENCY IN SINGAPORE
Wednesday 3 to Sunday 7 September 2014, Singapore International Festival of Arts
The Southbank Centre and London Sinfonietta bring an expedition through 20th century music to Singapore over a four day residency. 

FLORENCE ARTS MUSIC EVENT
Sunday 14 September 2014 at 9.15pm Florence, Italy
We visit Florence Arts Music Event at the National Museum of the Bargello, with a programme originally performed in London, including Birtwistle and Adès.

ON TOUR: POLAND
Friday 19 September 2014 at 9pm, Sacrum Profanum Festival, Krakow
Performing our celebrated Warp Works programme at the annual Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow including Ligeti, Nancarrow, Cage, Aphex Twin and Reich.

ON TOUR: SOUTHAMPTON
Sunday 16 November 2014 at 7.30pm, Turner Sims
Performing side-by-side with music students from Southampton University, in the world premiere of Michael Finnissy's Remembrance Day.

ON TOUR: RUSSIA
Tuesday 18 November 2014 at 7pm, The Other Space Festival
The London Sinfonietta performs new Russian and British music under conductor Vladimir Jurowski, at Moscow's annual contemporary music festival Drugoye Prostranstvo.

ON TOUR: HUDDERSFIELD
Sunday 23 November 2014 at 8pm, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
World premiere of James Dillon's Stabat Mater Dolorosa, repeated in London in January 2015

RIPPLES AND ROOTS: RUSHMOOR STORIES
Sunday 9 November 2014 at 11.30am and 2pm, Aldershot Military Museum
Premiere of a new collaborative work by London Sinfonietta and Scanner, as part of the New Dimensions initiative in Hampshire

ON TOUR: SOUTHAMPTON
Tuesday 3 March 2015 at 8pm, Turner Sims
Charting the evolution of 20th century music

ON TOUR: SPAIN
Tuesday 10 March 2015, BBVA Foundation Concert Series
A programme of Spanish and British contemporary music

ON TOUR: POLAND
Thursday 21 May 2015 at 7.30pm, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall
A two-concert residency in Katowice featuring Takemitsu, Stravinsky, Milhaud, Ives and Ades.

ON TOUR: POLAND
Friday 22 May 2015 at 7.30pm, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall
The second of a two-concert residency in Katowice with music by Karol Szymanowski and Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs).

2014/15 PARTICIPATION AND LEARNING

SECONDARY SCHOOLS CONCERT (morning and afternoon events)
Friday 13 February 2015 at 11am and 1pm, Kings Place Hall One
Secondary schools will experience the music of minimalist composer Steve Reich, through Key Stage 3 and 4 curriculum set works Electric Counterpoint and New York Counterpoint. 

PRIMARY SCHOOLS CONCERT (morning and afternoon events)
Monday 9 March 2015 at 10.30am and 12pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall
A brand new schools concert for Key Stage 2 will explore the relationship between music and maths, animated by vibrant live performance and audience participation.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS CONCERT (afternoon)
Friday 4 December 2015 at 11am and 1pm, Hall One, Kings Place
Featuring Steve Reich’s Clapping Music and Electric Counterpoint, this is a rare opportunity to hear live performances by a pioneer of minimalist music and one of our greatest living composers.

MUSICIANS OF TOMORROW
Saturday 11 July 2015 at 5pm, LSO St Luke's, London
London Sinfonietta Academy final performance with music by Birtwistle, Ligeti, Milhaud and Pritchard.