YET UNHEARD

Click here to go to the stream (beginning at 7.30pm)
Click here to read the programme notes

The London Sinfonietta began its Southbank Centre season with a concert of music by established and emerging black composers, co-curated by leading composer and new music thinker George Lewis and experimental vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener.

Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at the end of October 2020, join us online TONIGHT (Wednesday 25 November 2020) for the video relay of that concert, including interviews with George Lewis, Elaine Mitchener and Vimbayi Kaziboni. 

Composers and artists from the night will also join us live, online in the YouTube chat room to comment on the event and answer your questions as the first play-out of the film of the concert unfolds. 

Partly inspired by the seismic changes in society over the summer, this varied and powerful programme addresses a range of under-represented points of view: Hannah Kendall’s unsettling Verdala explores the experience of the British West Indian Regiment in the First World War in her typically uncompromising and richly textured style, while Courtney Bryan’s intensely rhythmic Sanctum explores the sound of improvisation in Holiness-preaching traditions. The exciting music of Cuban composer Tania León begins the programme, while George Lewis’ energetic Assemblage provides a taste of what’s to come in his upcoming commission for the London Sinfonietta.

This concert is part of London Sinfonietta's 2020/21 season curated as a response to the times in which we live. This event brings new music not heard in the UK before to new audiences. 

Jason Yarde Rude Awakening (arr. Yong) 6’
Leila Adu-Gilmore Freedom Suite I and II 10’
Hannah Kendall Verdala 6’
Tania León Indígena 9’
George Lewis Assemblage 15’
Courtney Bryan Sanctum (arr. Bryan) 12’

Elaine Mitchener vocalist
Vimbayi Kaziboni conductor
London Sinfonietta

With the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation