March 21, 2010
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…and here for LCO’s E-NEWSLETTER: Issue No. 01
January 30, 2010
LCO at the Roundhouse: Daily Telegraph review
“Young, free and singularly special. Watch out London Sinfonietta and Nash Ensemble - there’s a new kid on the block.”
Tuesday 26 January 2010
Watch out London Sinfonietta and Nash Ensemble – there’s a new kid on the block. It’s the London Contemporary Orchestra, young, keen as mustard, and able to field extravagantly large numbers of players to tackle determinedly left-field programmes – with a bit of help from Facebook and Twitter, which facilitated a last-minute appeal for extra players for John Cage’s last piece 74, which needs 74 players.
The smiling musical anarchist Cage died in 1992, which, I imagine, is before some of those players on the Roundhouse stage were born. The audience seemed much the same. So what drew them in such amazing numbers? The ambience of the Roundhouse certainly helps, with its screens above with close-up views of the players, and the whole domed space swimming in psychedelic red and blue light.
But it was surely the programme that worked the magic. It was a brilliantly contrived mix that delivered coolness, daring experimentalism, classic high-seriousness and cosmic spiritualism, all at once. The spiritual bit came first, in the form of Shhoctavoski, by Geir Jenssen, the Norwegian creator of “arctic ambient”…
Click here to read the review in full.
Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph
PHOTO: © Jana Chiellino/Bruce Atherton
January 29, 2010
LCO at the Roundhouse: concert photos
Huge thanks to Jana Chiellino/Bruce Atherton (www.janachiellino.com) and Edu Hawkins (www.eduhawkins.com) for these stunning shots from last Saturday’s Roundhouse concert.
PHOTOS: © Jana Chiellino/Bruce Atherton (1,2,3,5,6) and Edu Hawkins (4)
January 28, 2010
LCO at the Roundhouse: rehearsal photos
Many thanks to Jana Chiellino/Bruce Atherton (www.janachiellino.com) for these images from last Saturday’s rehearsal at the Roundhouse.
PHOTOS: © Jana Chiellino/Bruce Atherton
January 18, 2010
LCO in The Independent
The Roundhouse is more famous for rock than symphonies, but it could be just the venue to build up a young classical fanbase, says Jessica Duchen Monday 18 January 2010
How to persuade young people to attend classical concerts is an issue that has troubled the music world for decades. Attempt after attempt has bitten the dust, leaving the largely over-50s demographic of classical audiences virtually unchanged, give or take a little marketing via Facebook.
Now a dynamic new series in Camden Town is set to break the mould. Reverb at the Roundhouse, featuring everything from Beethoven to cutting-edge new works, is bringing classical music into a venue that has a devoted following among young fans of the coolest rock and pop gigs.
Will the teens and twenty-somethings of north London be ready to sample Bach or experimental percussion? Marcus Davey, chief executive and artistic director of the Roundhouse, is certain they will. The Roundhouse runs programmes at its studios in which local youngsters explore music-making, broadcasting, film-making and music production. One day, offered a box at a Prom, Davey gave the seats to some of the Roundhouse teenagers who had never been to a classical concert. “They were absolutely blown away,” Davey declares. “They said: ‘You ever heard of this amazing Stravinsky bloke?’ They loved the energy and the fantastic playing.”
Concerts targeted at young people have tended to water-down classical music to make it “cool”. Most teenagers see through such gimmicks straight away. “They know when they’re being patronised,” Davey says.
The Roundhouse is no stranger to classical performances: in the 1970s it hosted a series of contemporary-focused concerts by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez, and the piano duo of Katia and Marielle Labèque made their London debut there. The Labèques are returning for Reverb.
One of the most exciting contributions comes from the London Contemporary Orchestra: launched in 2008, its players’ average age is 25. “All of us are passionate about contemporary music and thrilled to devote so much attention to it,” says the LCO violinist Davina Clarke.
The LCO’s founders, conductor Hugh Brunt and violist Robert Ames, have a secret weapon: the chairman of their board is Simon Ambrose, the winner of The Apprentice in 2007. Ambrose developed a passion for contemporary music when he heard the works of Cage and Stockhausen at school. “I’d question whether classical music really is losing popularity,” he says. “Many of our supporters and audience members see classical as just one part of a lively musical diet.”
The LCO’s adventurous programme for Reverb includes a new Concerto for Turntable by Shiva Feshareki, the UK premiere of John Cage’s Seventy-Four, and Steve Reich’s Different Trains with live film created by the youngsters of the Roundhouse Studios. More thrills are promised from the likes of the pianists Joanna MacGregor and Rolf Hind, and the Britten Sinfonia with the popular young American composer Nico Muhly.
Click here to read the article in full.
December 16, 2009
LCO in MUSO Magazine
London Contemporary Orchestra is determined to bring new music to the forefront of the Capital’s cultural scene as Claire Jackson discovers. MUSO Magazine, December/January 2009 issue
Contemporary classical music is like Marmite - forever branded with an altogether undeserved you-either-love-it-or-you-hate-it bumper sticker. The genre is frequently tarnished with oversimplified generalisations; people often say that the music is ‘too dissonant’, or too complex for the audience to ‘get’. This is to do the discerning listener a disservice, for although there are plenty of discordant, difficult and theory-reliant pieces, there are also numerous intricate, beautiful and moving works.
One group that is opening itself up to the varying levels of modern classical is the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO); a young ensemble headed up by artistic directors Robert Ames and Hugh Brunt, the latter of whom also doubles as principal conductor. The duo wants to promote fresh and exciting music to a wide range of listeners who might not otherwise engage with new sounds, as well as giving under-the- radar composers a canvas upon which to paint.
Click here to read the full feature.
www.musolife.com
November 16, 2009
LCO at the Roundhouse
Saturday 23 January 2010, 9.30pm
Roundhouse, Camden
Biosphere (aka Geir Jenssen) Shhoctavoski (UK premiere)
Steve Reich Different Trains
Shiva Feshareki TTKonzert (world premiere)
John Cage Seventy-Four (UK premiere)
Shiva Feshareki (turntables)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Biosphere, aka Norwegian musician Geir Jenssen, has attracted a cult following for his ambient electronica – Shhoctavoski, his first piece for orchestra, is given its UK premiere with the Roundhouse Experimental Choir. Shiva Feshareki’s unconventional and often outrageous music has been performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and at the BBC Proms – she performs the world premiere of her concerto for turntables and orchestra.
Steve Reich’s Different Trains is one of the composer’s most evocative works – this event sees it performed in a venue originally built as a train engine shed, with live film created by young people from Roundhouse Studios. The performance finishes with the UK premiere of one of John Cage’s Seventy-Four, his swan song, composed months before his death in 1992.
Tickets: £7.50 - £15
Roundhouse Box Office: 0844 482 8008
Click here to book tickets
Pre-concert talk in association with Young People in the Arts at 8.30pm, Studio Theatre.
PHOTO: © Charlie Birchmore
Call for Scores!
LCO in association with the Roundhouse is pleased to announce its second Call for Scores. Young composers of any nationality, aged 16–25 are invited to submit previously unperformed works scored for ensemble of 6–15 players (i.e. sinfonietta forces). Four works will be selected for an afternoon workshop at the Roundhouse on Saturday 23 January 2010 with members of the LCO and a panel of leading composers, critics, performers and promoters.
To take part download an application form.
July 4, 2009
June review: Jonathan Cole’s ‘burburbabbar za’
“Following simulacrum (for solo viola), “an image of something, a shadowy likeness, a deceptive substitute – mere pretence”, which in Robert Ames’s performance proved a compelling piece, one rising in intensity, the second outing for burburbabbar za (or another first performance?) made a lasting impression, its tranquil web of timbres (including water and suggestions of light winds) was therapeutic as well as engaging, a world away with the real one just outside! If not a drama, and maybe the idea behind burburbabbar za has its roots in John Cage and Stockhausen, there seems to be some very precise thinking here to realise something – that for this listener at least – was calming, assuring in an escapist way, and beguiling…”
Click here to read the review in full.
Colin Anderson, Classical Source
June 12, 2009
LCO and Jonathan Cole’s ‘burburbabbar za’ at Village Underground, Saturday 27 June
Saturday 27 June 2009 8.00pm
Village Underground, Shoreditch (map)
Jonathan Cole simulacrum
Jonathan Cole burburbabbar za (World premiere)
Robert Ames Viola
Click here to book tickets from the Barbican Box Office.
“For the audience I want the piece to feel like an ancient apparition emerging and dissolving in front of their eyes and ears.”
LCO Composer-in-Association, Jonathan Cole on burburbabbar za:
“The title comes from the ancient Sumerian language dating back to the 4th millennium BC and translates roughly as “to make noise.” Whether the piece is an opera or not I don’t know - there is no story, there are no words - there are three singers and six instruments all of which have an equally important role in the unfolding of the drama. I do believe a strong drama is possible without a narrative - actually often words get in the way of our intentions in communication and much of the time people listen to opera without having a clue what’s going on because its in a language they don’t understand. One of the pleasures of living in London is sitting on a bus or tube and listening to many conversations in many different languages colliding with each other and the sounds around them - that for me is intensely dramatic and I’ve certainly tried to capture some of that ecstatic chaos in the piece. For the audience I want the piece to feel like an ancient apparition emerging and dissolving in front of their eyes and ears.”