It Sounds Like Courage: Music and Solidarity

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab with London Contemporary Orchestra

Arooj Aftab, the Grammy-winning singer and composer known for her spellbinding blend of jazz, minimalism and South Asian classical traditions, embarks on a rare and unmissable tour with the London Contemporary Orchestra led by co-artistic director and principal conductor, Robert Ames. Reimagining music from across her acclaimed catalogue, this collaboration brings sweeping new orchestral textures to her intimate, emotionally rich sound world. LCO’s bold, cinematic approach perfectly complements Aftab’s haunting voice and boundary-defying compositions, promising an evening of deep atmosphere and transcendent beauty. Produced by MBM, this special series of performances offers audiences a unique chance to experience one of today’s most distinctive artists on a truly expansive scale.

All tour dates

15/06 Liverpool Philharmonic
16/06 Birmingham Symphony Hall
18/06 Poole Lighthouse
20/06 Manchester Bridgewater Hall
21/06 Bristol Beacon
22/06 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
24/06 Edinburgh Usher Hall

15th June
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Hope Street
Liverpool L1 9BP
Tickets and more info >>

Arooj Aftab & Daniel Wohl with London Contemporary Orchestra

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith With London Contemporary Orchestra

Anoushka Shankar presents ‘Chapters’

Anoushka Shankar presents ‘Chapters’

Anoushka Shankar – ‘Chapters’ with the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames 12-8-25

Sitar virtuoso and composer Anoushka Shankar returns to the Philharmonie Luxembourg. Following the success of last year’s BBC Proms performance of her Chapters trilogy, Anoushka reunites with Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra to present the fully orchestrated work in Luxembourg.

The result is an intense, richly layered concert in which Indian classical music, contemporary composition, and deeply personal storytelling converge. Shankar, Ames, and the LCO invite audiences into an intimate sound world that is both cinematic and profoundly personal.

This is a rare opportunity to experience a concert of this scope and depth — presented at only two venues outside the UK this year: Luxembourg and Amsterdam.

17th May, 2026
Philharmonie Luxembourg
Tickets and more info >>

Un-natural Harmony: The Sound of Alexander McQueen with LCO x Holly Blakey × Michael Clark

Un-natural Harmony: The Sound of Alexander McQueen with LCO x Holly Blakey × Michael Clark

Jóhann Jóhannsson: Cinematic Suites – The Denis Villeneuve Scores

A special performance at the Barbican of late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Cinematic Suites. Performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, the concert will bring to life Jóhannsson’s evocative musical landscapes for three acclaimed films by visionary director Denis Villeneuve: Prisoners (2013), Arrival (2016), and Sicario (2018), celebrating the remarkable collaboration between them.

18 Feb, 2026
19.30
The Barbican Centre
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Claire M Singer x LCO: Gleann Ciùin

Acclaimed composer and performer Claire M Singer, known for her experimental approach to the organ, celebrates the release of her new album with a special concert with the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Programme highlights include her new album’s title track, Gleann Ciùin, commissioned for the Queen Elizabeth Hall’s Flentrop organ in 2019 and nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 2020. Singer also performs works from her albums Solas and Saor specially orchestrated for the Queen Elizabeth Hall organ and the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Deeply inspired by the dramatic landscapes of her native Scotland, Singer’s work weaves rich harmonic textures and complex overtones, crafting ever-shifting melodic and rhythmic patterns that often fade almost as quickly as they emerge.

7 Dec, 2025
19:00
Queen Elizabeth Hall,
Southbank Centre
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Public Service Broadcasting with the London Contemporary Orchestra

JAMBINAI with London Contemporary Orchestra

JAMBINAI sound less like a band than a force of nature, fusing the full dramatic range of post-rock dynamics to Korean folk roots to create an exhilarating, vivid and unique fusion. Their instrumental music combines traditional Korean instruments like the haegeum, geomungo, and piri with crushing guitars and cinematic textures.

Formed in Seoul in 2009, JAMBINAI have earned international acclaim, including 5 recognitions in the Korean Music Awards and a breathtaking performance at the 2018 Winter Olympics closing ceremony. After captivating audiences at their sold out show at K-Music Festival 2023, they return ready to unleash their bold signature sound, unlike anything you’ve heard before. They will be joined on stage by the London Contemporary Orchestra.

5 Oct, 2026
19.30
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
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Sven Helbig’s Requiem A

Four renowned European choirs from France, Poland, Germany and the UK will unite to perform Sven Helbig’s Requiem A together with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s Westminster City Hall.

The line-up features opera singer René Pape, the Dresdner Kreuzchor (DE), Trinity Boys Choir (UK), Poznań Boys’ Choir (PL), La Maîtrise de Garçons de Colmar (FR), and composer Sven Helbig (DE) on live electronics — all under the baton of Kreuzkantor Martin Lehmann.

The world premiere in Dresden and the concert at Vienna’s Heldenplatz received overwhelming media acclaim from the BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, and many more.

4 Oct, 2026
19.00
Central Hall Westminster, London
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Sigur Ros with London Contemporary Orchestra

BBC Proms: Anoushka Shankar – ‘Chapters’

Multi-Grammy-nominated sitar virtuoso and composer Anoushka Shankar returns to the Proms for the world-premiere performance of music from her three ‘Chapter’ albums, tracing her musical and geographical journeys. She is joined by Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra to perform new orchestral arrangements of the trilogy – Forever, For Now, How Dark It Is Before Dawn and We Return To Light.

12 Aug, 2025
18:30 doors, 7:00 start
Royal Albert Hall
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Sleeping at Last with London Contemporary Orchestra

London Soundtrack Festival: Hildur Guðnadóttir In Concert

Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir curates and performs an evening of her own incomparable music for film and TV.

Icelandic composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir is one of the most exciting artists working in contemporary music today and, in a relatively short career so far, has already won an Oscar, a Bafta, a Golden Globe and two Grammys for her work in television and film.

In this concert, Guðnadóttir performs with the London Contemporary Orchestra in a specially selected programme of music from her TV and film scores, including Joker, Journey’s End, A Haunting in Venice and Chernobyl, alongside music by composers who have inspired her.

Pre-concert talk: Hildur Guðnadóttir discusses her varied and award-winning career and the music being performed in the concert. Free to all concert ticket holders.

Programme includes:
Tar
Joker
Joker: Folie a Deux
A Haunting in Venice
Women Talking
Chernobyl
Journey’s End
+ music from Hildur’s solo album ‘Fact of the Matter’

Mica Levi: Under The Skin
Anna Porvaldsdóttir: Ró (from Tar)
David Lang: Just (from Youth)

26 March, 2025
Queen Elizabeth Hall
18:15 – Pre-concert Talk
19:30 – Concert

Tickets and more info >>

Nai Barghouti with London Contemporary Orchestra

Award-winning singer, composer, and flautist Nai Barghouti joins forces with the London Contemporary Orchestra for an evening at Cadogan Hall.

A generational talent, Nai’s genre-defying artistry bridges the worlds of Arabic music and jazz, blending her layered vocal technique with deeply evocative melodies.

Known for her rearrangements of iconic works by legends such as Umm Kulthum and Fairuz, Nai also presents original compositions that draw on Arabic maqams, jazz, and classical Western music.

22 February, 2025
19:30
Cadogan Hall

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Gazelle Twin and London Contemporary Orchestra

One of the most enigmatic artists of our times returns to the London stage, for a November night of dark magic in the grand Entrance Hall of the British Library, together with London Contemporary Orchestra

Plus Laura Cannell performing Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined.

01 November, 2024
19:30
British Library

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Caroline Rose with LCO

Caroline Rose returns to London on Saturday 19th October at the historic Milton Court at the Barbican with the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Prom 34: Reel Change – Soundtracks at the Cutting Edge

Welcome to the freshest sounds in cinema and TV. A new generation of composers for the screen is emerging, who know no boundaries and whose startlingly evocative music resists categorisation. The London Contemporary Orchestra comes to the Proms for a deep dive into the hypnotic world of contemporary soundtracks. Conducted by Robert Ames

Programme:

Volker Bertelmann: All Quiet on the Western Front (excerpts)
The Echo Society: Postcard from Earth (excerpts)
Hildur Guðnadóttir: Tár (excerpts)
Anna Meredith: The End We Start From (excerpts)
Son Lux: Everything Everywhere All at Once (excerpts)
Colin Stetson: The Menu (excerpts)
Tamar-kali: Shirley & The Last Thing He Wanted (excerpts)

Royal Albert Hall, 14 August 2024
19:30
More information >>

Assassin’s Creed Symphonic Adventure

Lucinda Chua & Galya Bisengalieva with London Contemporary Orchestra

Colin Stetson : Hereditary

Rone – L(oo)ping With London Contemporary Orchestra

Cassie Kinoshi with seed. + NikNak + London Contemporary Orchestra

EFG London Jazz Festival: Makaya McCraven & LCO: In These Times

Kinkajous X LCO

Kinkajous, known for their powerful and cinematic sound, comes to the stunning EartH Theatre for a very special live performance with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Joined by guests Nik Colk Void, Sunda Arc, and Li Yilei, this is set to be a captivating night of emotive, exploratory electronica in one of London’s most dramatic spaces. Those seeking a voyage into the varied, nuanced shades of electronica should look no further.

15th Oct, 2023
18:30
EartH

Tickets and information >>

Bonny Lightman Horseman X LCO

Folk trio Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman perform their loving ode to the past, Bonny Light Horseman, as well as new material. Joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra and conducted by Robert Ames, this show is the UK premier of these brand new arrangements. 

Beginning their musical experiment together in 2018, the trio were soon after invited to perform at the Eaux Claires festival by its co-founders, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (The National). Encouraged by the natural, intuitive bond they felt while writing together, each musician brought their own musical ideas to the rehearsals. The direction toward traditional songs from the British Isles emerged quickly, culminating in the self-titled Bonny Light Horseman followed by their 2022 album Rolling Golden Holy, described as ‘impeccably crafted’ by UNCUT.

15th Sept 2023
19:30
Barbican Centre

RyX feat LCO at St Pauls Cathedral

RY X, hailed for his exceptional musicality and critically acclaimed releases, will grace the stage at St Paul’s Cathedral for this unique show. Set to bring his signature blend of electronic and soulful sounds, RY X promises an unforgettable performance and one-off event that will push sonic boundaries, as the grand cathedral setting gets reimagined through contemporary electronic music.

RY X will be joined by one of the UK’s most innovative and respected ensembles, The London Contemporary Orchestra for this special event and supported by Houndstooth artist Hinako Omori. A very limited amount of seated tickets will be available for purchase for this intimate and atmospheric gig situated within the grandeur of the cathedral’s iconic architecture.

13th Sept
St Pauls Cathedral
Tickets and information >>

Proms 9: Mariza Sings Fado

Make a date with destiny at this Proms celebration of fado, the musical soul of Portugal. Fado literally means ‘fate’ and the genre’s keening melodies are charged with passion, longing and despair.

Tonight we’ll hear Mariza, one of the tradition’s greatest living exponents, together with her band and London Contemporary Orchestra. Their Proms debut features favourite songs from her 20-year career as well as a glimpse of her forthcoming album.

21st July
Royal Albert Hall
19:30

Sigur Ros European Tour

Sigur Rós have announced a limited run of very special dates, performed with a 41-piece orchestra in both Europe.

Working with conductor Rob Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra, Sigur Rós will be giving their very first series of orchestral concerts. The tour coincides with the release of the Icelanders’ first studio album in 10 years, with orchestral recordings from sessions with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s legendary Abbey Road studios.

Show dates are as follows:

Roger Eno X LCO

Roger Eno plays with the LCO string quartet at St Lukes.

Eno’s 2022 solo debut on Deutsche Grammophon The Turning Year is an album of grace, melancholy and solace. It follows 2020’s celebrated Mixing Colours, his first full-length album recorded with his brother, Brian Eno.

A revered composer in theatre and film, Eno scored Trevor Nunn’s production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal at the National Theatre and Nick Hornby’s Emmy-winning TV series State of the Union. With over a dozen solo albums under his belt, he’s also collaborated with Peter Hammill, The Orb and Channel Light Vessel; alongside brother Brian and Daniel Lanois on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.

Bringing his compositions to life against a backdrop of filmic-style visuals, Eno performs music from The Turning Year alongside with London Contemporary Orchestra, and material from the new EP, Rarities.

St Lukes, Barbican
19th April 2023
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Homage to Julius Eastman: Loraine James x London Contemporary Orchestra

New York minimal composer Julius Eastman died in 1990, penniless and forgotten. Only in recent years has he finally received the recognition he deserves. As a black gay man, Eastman made his life the subject of his art. The young British producer Loraine James pays a hyper-personal homage to Eastman’s legacy, together with the groundbreaking London Contemporary Orchestra. The project was shown once in the Southbank Center and is now coming to Amsterdam – unique and not to be missed.

Loraine James – not yet born when Eastman died – made her breakthrough during the corona pandemic with quirky and innovative electronic music, often dreamy and contemplative. For this project she chose known and unknown work from Eastman’s oeuvre and molded it into something new. The result was released in October 2022 on the Phantom Limb label: the album Building something beautiful for me is the enchanting fruit of a relationship that cuts across the boundaries of time and space. To emphasize the musical bloodlines, James always mentions Eastman’s original compositions in brackets in her titles.

Saturday, April 15
Muziekgebouw

Tickets and information >>

Purcell Session: Cassie Kinoshi

Nominated for the Mercury Prize as part of SEED Ensemble, and a key part of KOKOROKO, Cassie Kinoshi is a captivating alto-saxophonist, composer and arranger performing with the London Contemporary Orchestra as a part of the Purcell Session series.

Sunday, 5th March
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Purcell Session: Damsel Elysium x LCO

Damsel Elysium uses double bass, violin and original sounds to explore alternative communication and connections with space and nature.

Described by Vogue as ‘London’s most stylish experimental sound artist’ – making scores for Gucci, as well as featuring in FKA Twigs’ Tiny Desk session – Damsel Elysium is an emerging avant-garde artist not to be ignored.

Their aim is to establish an expressive world that speech or writing could never transmute. As a neurodivergent artist, it’s vital for them to create work that is accessible to all audiences and all senses. Combining experimental sound and sight, Elysium crafts worlds of their own, where they can be as fluid as their own feelings and skills are.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer and experimental sound and visual artist Damsel Elysium marries their creations with the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Wednesday, 1st March
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Holly Blakey presents: Cowpuncher My Ass feat. London Contemporary Orchestra

Holly Blakey’s Wild West dance show returns to the Southbank Centre with the London Contemporary Orchestra performing Mica Levi’s score.

A colourful and often violent tale of the Wild West, Cowpuncher My Ass is a story of fear and togetherness, featuring vivid costumes designed by Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood.

Choreographer Holly Blakey’s piece was first presented at the Southbank Centre in 2018. This latest version features eight performers and 20 musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra to bring to life the original score composed by Mica Levi.

19:30
15th February, 2023
Royal Festival Hall

Purcell Sessions: TAAHLIAH x LCO

Since her debut release on untitled (recs) last summer, Glasgow’s rising star TAAHLIAH has been making waves at numerous events across the UK and Europe, sharing stages with the likes of Stingray, Kelly Lee Owens, Eris Drew and LSDXOXO.

Confidently cementing her position amongst the main players of the electronic music landscape, TAAHLIAH has been invited to the stage and studio by her peers VTSS, Loraine James and Sherelle.

Heralded as a breakthrough artist by a range of tastemakers including DJ Mag, Mixmag, Mary Anne Hobbs and Jaguar, TAAHLIAH is also the first Black trans artist to be nominated and win in two categories at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards.

London Contemporary Orchestra teams up with TAAHLIAH, an artist icing a sugary layer of pop over hard-dance bass.

Wednesday, 1st Feb
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Celeste with Robert Ames and London Contemporary Orchestra

A candlelight concert will be lighting up Central Hall on December 17, with Celeste taking to the stage for a mesmerising live performance accompanied by London Contemporary Orchestra.

American born, British-Jamaican singer-songwriter Celeste, who’s career has been on an upward trajectory since topping the annual BBC Sound Of… poll in 2019 and has earned 3 Brit Award nominations, winner of the prestigious Ivor Novello and even an Oscar-nomination for her song ‘Hear My Voice’; which featured in the Aaron Sorkin film Trial of the Chicago 7.

The one-of-a-kind event will unfold on a fittingly festive evening the week before Christmas. Lose yourself in the sublime sound of Celeste and the hypnotic sweeping bows of London Contemporary Orchestra

17th December,
Central Hall, Westminster

Candlelight / Mahogany / Secret London

RAFTS Live

Serpentine presents a special one-night concert, bringing to life Rory Pilgrim’s film, RAFTS, beyond the screen. Created over three years with residents of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, RAFTS was made for the exhibition Radio Ballads to explore stories of support in our everyday lives. 

Taking the symbol of the raft as the simplest vessel of survival across open water and also a symbol that represents the Earth as the ultimate preserver of life, the concert interweaves stories, poetry and reflections around a seven-song oratorio.  

The performance is narrated by Pilgrim’s collaborators Hugh, Carina, Liam, Butterfly, Katy, Dee, Mark, and Eddie – eight residents from Barking and Dagenham and members of Green Shoes Arts. Each reflects on what the symbol of a raft means to them. Making connections between work, mental health, home, recovery, and our environment, additional voices of people from near and far join the chorus, including members of Barking and Dagenham Youth Dance and Project Well Being: a group for people experiencing homelessness in Boise, Idaho, USA.  

The concert will also star singers Robyn Haddon from Sheffield, Kayden Fearon from Barking and Dagenham, and Declan Rowe John from Boise, accompanied by the London Contemporary Orchestra and Rory Pilgrim on harp and piano.

RAFTS was commissioned by Serpentine Civic for Radio Ballads, in partnership with New Town Culture, a Cultural Impact Award-winning project, part of London Borough of Culture, a Mayor of London initiative.

Saturday 26 November
19.30
Cadogan Hall

Purcell Sessions: KMRU X LCO

Joseph Kamaru, known as KMRU, is a sound artist and experimental ambient musician currently based in Berlin, where he is a student in sound studies and sonic arts at Universität der Künste.

His works touch on field recording, improvisation, noise, ambient, machine learning, radio art and expansive hypnotic drones.

Envelop yourself in the ambient sounds and field recordings of KMRU, as he collaborates with the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Friday 25th Nov,
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Purcell Sessions: Sote X LCO

Known for creating compositions that range from the delicate to the abrasive, using sounds both of acoustical and electronic origins, Sote sees music as the expression of cultural habits in sound and anti-sound (silence). Seeking to expand these traditions, he creates music that, while rooted in many cultures at once, belongs to none in particular.

Sote’s work deals with various blueprints, in particular his solo all synthetic music, his electro-acoustic audiovisual group project, and his multi-channel sound installations.

Ata ‘Sote’ Ebtekar composes music with the conviction that rules must be deconstructed and rethought – the London Contemporary Orchestra is happy to indulge.

Sunday 6th Nov,
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Purcell Sessions: Charles Hayward X LCO

Sunday 16th Oct,
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Loraine James X LCO

The London Contemporary Orchestra line up a collaborator crafting intimate, bass-heavy, glitchy productions – Loraine James.

She grew up in Enfield, north London. Her wide exposure to jazz, electronica, UK drill and grime, reassembled through her intuitive skills and intimate, almost diaristic approach to music-making can be heard on the colourful mix-up of her Hyperdub debut album For You And I.

Sunday 2nd Oct,
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Djrum X LCO

He is a perennially acclaimed underground artist who’s quietly built a list of fans that reads like a who’s who of contemporary dance music.

He’s known for his ability to deftly fuse a range of genres including techno, ambient, modern classical, jazz, broken beat, samba, dubstep, jungle, footwork and gabber.

Djrum is a keen listener of all things new and old, whether it be singer and composer Meredith Monk, early sacred music like Palestrina, John Cage’s solo piano works or more lately the rhythmic experimentation of the artists on Livity Sound or Ilian Tape

Saturday 1st Oct,
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Organ Reframed : Union Chapel

Organ Reframed is the only festival of its kind in the UK. It has been commissioning innovative music, introducing new artists and attracting new audiences to this versatile instrument since 2016

Organ Reframed is curated by acclaimed artist Claire M Singer, known for her experimental approach to the organ she has created a unique festival at Union Chapel, home to one of the finest organs in the world.

On the 16th September 2022 (rescheduled from September 2021) the fourth annual Organ Reframed returns to Union Chapel with a programme packed full of cutting edge new works from artists at the forefront of experimental music. Alongside headline performances, the two-day international festival will also feature talks, masterclasses, an interactive soundscape and family-friendly workshops.

Organ Reframed launches with three new works composed and performed by artists known for redefining their fields: Anna von Hausswolff renowned for her gothic organ creations “Anna von Hausswolff is reinventing rock ’n roll, producing work that is radical yet familiar and shimmering with invention.” – The Observer, enigma Abul Mogard a synth visionary “the music cuts through all the grime of a developed perception and leaves its essence in pure form.” – Headphone Commute and Ipek Gorgun a composer of energetic, textural masterpieces“patiently stitching together a whole sonic universes” – Pitchfork. All three works for organ, electronics and the London Contemporary Orchestra will push Union Chapel’s sonic possibilities to the extreme.

On Saturday evening join us for the world premiere of Voci del Vento by Chris Watson and Claire M Singer. A new multichannel diffusion work for field recordings, organ, the London Contemporary Orchestra and Choir.

16th – 18th September 2022
Union Chapel
Tickets and More Information >>

Purcell Sessions: Teebs X LCO

A member of Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label and the My Hollow Drum collective, Teebs’ style involves recording, layering, altering, and organising several sounds, including, harps, shakers, drum taps and even tape peeling.

Teebs released his first album, Ardour, on Brainfeeder in 2010. LA Weekly called it ‘one of the most delicate and lovely albums of the year.’

Working in unison with the London Contemporary Orchestra, electronic musician and painter Teebs lays down his delicately assembled, off-kilter beats.

Friday 16th Sept,
Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Coby Sey x LCO: From The Vestry : London

Coby Sey’s prolific, open-hearted creative presence in London has seen him develop a formidable body of work in recent years, through both his own material and via close collaborations and performances with a host of artists, including Tirzah, Mica Levi (with whom he features in CURL) and Lafawndah.

For the New Music Biennial, Sey is creating an entirely acoustic new 15-minute work in collaboration with members of the London Contemporary Orchestra – a radical departure for a musician and producer most known for his electronic work.

Sey’s music is reflective of his vast spectrum of influences, yet he remains undeniably, uniquely himself, experimenting with live instrumentation and electronic-based productions, melding sounds with introspective lyrics into a dubbed-out anaesthesia.

Live, these dreamlike compositions are imbued with a heavy, uneasy dancefloor energy, often abetted by live vocals as well as saxophone interjections courtesy of Ben Vince and CJ Calderwood.

Building on his recent Purcell Room performance with the LCO, Sey is imparting knowledge and learning from his collaborators to enter into new musical territories, while introducing his and the wider audience to a broad array of musical influences rarely heard together.

1st July – Purcell Room, London
More information and tickets >>

Grace Jones’ Meltdown Festival – cktrl X LCO

One of the UK’s most exciting recording artists performs live with the London Contemporary Orchestra in a one-off collaboration.

His output is influenced by a blend of his West Indian heritage, years of classical training, his south London manner and a global network of creatives and friends.

With a catalogue straddling everything from freestyle contemporary classic duets to electronic R&B to dark, moody instrumentals, his approach to creation is all-encompassing.

Tickets and more information >>

William Basinski X LCO – The Disintegration Loops

London Contemporary Orchestra performs an orchestral arrangement of The Disintegration Loops; and a solo performance by Basinski of 2020’s Lamentations.

Basinski is a relentless experimentalist, obsessed with reel-to-reel tape decks, the merging of splices of tape, loops, and delay. The Disintegration Loops was born literally from disintegrating tape loops slowly deteriorating as they passed over a tape head – the unexpected result of Basinski’s attempt to transfer his earlier recordings to digital format. These are ambient waves of sound, like heavy breath that washes through the listening body: deeply emotional sounds filled with multiple textures, tones, drones, and shades that are as hauntingly beautiful as they are sombre.

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Purcell Sessions: Roger Eno x LCO

Roger Eno is the brother of Brian Eno, with whom he worked on the 1983 album Apollo.

His discography spans three decades and 25 albums, both solo and collaborative. His minimal piano compositions evolve through chamber music, folk, and neo-classical.

Roger Eno is an ambient composer who relishes adding the visual to the sonic. Here, he teams up with the London Contemporary Orchestra to bring forward his vision.

Coby Sey X LCO : From The Vestry : Bristol

Friday night at Arnolfini finds Coby Sey and Beatrice Dillon, two key protagonists in UK experimental music, opening up their soundworlds to different modes of contemporary classical influence in the form of players from London Contemporary Orchestra and Indian percussionist and composer Kuljit Bhamra – all complemented by the deft and minimal Bristol languor of Tara Clerkin Trio.

6th May – Arnolfini, Bristol.
More information and tickets >>

Anna Meredith: FIBS with London Contemporary Orchestra

Purcell Sessions: Sven Helbig X LCO

Skills, the new album from composer Sven Helbig is a melancholic hymn on humans’ ability to master extreme circumstances and develop perfection.

Helbig teams up with the London Contemporary Orchestra, deploying four french horns, a string quartet, vibraphones and electronics.

The sounds they create are added to by the visuals of artist Máni M Sigfússon, who has previously worked with Jóhann Jóhannsson, Sigur Rós, Kiasmos and the Rolling
Stones.

Purcell Room,
Southbank Centre.
24th April, 2022

Coby Sey X LCO : From The Vestry – New Music Biennial

South East London musical polymath Coby Sey joins forces with the London Contemporary Orchestra to present a radical new work, building on their first collaboration at the Purcell Sessions in December.

For the New Music Biennial 2022, Coby is creating an entirely acoustic work in collaboration with members of the London Contemporary Orchestra – a radical departure for a musician and producer most known for his electronic work. Building on his recent Purcell Room performance with the LCO, Coby will both impart knowledge and learn from his collaborators to enter into new musical territories, while introducing his and the wider audience to abroad array of musical influences rarely heard together.

Performances:

24th April – HMV Empire, Coventry.
More information and tickets >>

6th May – Arnolfini, Bristol.
More information and tickets >>

1st July – Purcell Room, London
More information and tickets >>

Circuit des Yeux with LCO Soloists

Southbank Centre: Slava Ukraini

Join us in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and London’s Ukrainian community at a specially curated night of music, poetry and spoken word.

Slava Ukraini features writers Dr Olesya Khromeychuk, Andrey Kurkov and Serhiy Zhadan, musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra, and readings by actors Ben Whishaw, Jonathan Pryce and Juliet Stevenson, including poetry by Ilya Kaminsky.

The line-up of Ukrainian and British guests attending in person and via live link-up from Ukraine also includes Ukrainian classical musicians Yuriy Yurchuk, Kseniia Nikolaieva, Dinara Klinton, Rozanna Madylus and Stefan Bulyha.

All net proceeds from the event and all further funds raised on the evening will be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

DEC brings together the UK’s leading aid charities to respond to humanitarian crises. 13 of DEC’s member charities are working directly, or through their local partners, on the ground in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries to help refugees fleeing the conflict.

Slava Ukraini is organised in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, and supported by the British Council.

22nd March, 2022
Queen Elizabeth Hall
20:00

Purcell Sessions: Hinako Omori x LCO

Hinako Omori is a musician and producer based in London, originally from Yokohama, Japan.

Auraelia, Omori’s debut EP was released in November 2019 via Injazero Records. The tracks are a sonic exploration of space, haziness and transformation, building on layers of synths and vocals.

The electronic producer’s layered synths and vocals fold in an added dimension, the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Purcell Room,
Southbank Centre.
19th March 2022

Purcell Sessions: Penelope Trappes x LCO

Penelope Trappes is a London-based vocalist and soundscaper.

Since 2017 she has composed percussion-less, reverb-heavy haunting atmospherics with dystopian themes, releasing Penelope One, Penelope Two and is now onto the final installment of the trilogy, Penelope Three.

Trappes completes her ambitious and otherworldly triptych with an album of healing. She looks to release herself from fear and into love, evoked in her signature ambient, gothic dreamlands that are equal parts shoegaze pop and surrealist soundscapes.

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Purcell Sessions: Coby Sey X LCO

After 18 months behind The Purcell Room reopens its doors by launching a brand new artistic strand, Purcell Sessions. Set to feature some of the most talked-about cultural moments of the year ahead, from audiovisual installations to new collaborations and commissions and cross-genre concepts by allowing artists to push the new ground with bold contemporary approaches.

Coby Sey along with the London Contemporary Orchestra brings a new angle to his gruff, haunting sounds and introspective lyrics. His sound is a powerful new addition to the UK’s contemporary music scene. Whities 010: Transport for Lewisham laid down a hazy mix of live instrumentation and electronic-based productions, overlaid by spoken vocals, underscored by muddy beats.

He also hosts a regular slot on NTS which offers a portal into his appealingly murky musical world.

Purcell Room,
Southbank Centre.
8th December, 2021

Purcell Sessions: Laurel Halo x LCO

After 18 months behind The Purcell Room reopens its doors by launching a brand new artistic strand, Purcell Sessions. Set to feature some of the most talked-about cultural moments of the year ahead, from audiovisual installations to new collaborations and commissions and cross-genre concepts by allowing artists to push the new ground with bold contemporary approaches.

In their first collaboration, experimental composer Laurel Halo teams up with the London Contemporary Orchestra to find new ground for her upcoming music by creating something unique: a work in progress fusing the combined potential of a masterful orchestra and a producer toying with her new ideas.

Laurel Halo is an American experimental music composer and producer who is currently based in Berlin. In 2021 she launched a new record label and monthly NTS show called Awe.

Purcell Room,
Southbank Centre.
11th November, 2021

Clark with the London Contemporary Orchestra

musikprotokoll

Functioning as a kind of laboratory, musikprotokoll invites the audience to embark on an exploratory journey to discover the latest developments and trends in music. Dedicated to contemporary and experimental music and intermedia activities, the programme features outstanding protagonists of current artistic trends and has throughout the festival’s long history always placed Austrian positions in an international context.

The London Contemporary Orchestra will play music composed by CHAINES and Edmund Finnis using its own instrumental articulations contributing to the mission that musikprotokoll has set to achieve.

Tickets and more information >>

Purcell Sessions: Sarah Davachi X LCO

After 18 months behind The Purcell Room reopens its doors by launching a brand new artistic strand, Purcell Sessions. Set to feature some of the most talked-about cultural moments of the year ahead, from audiovisual installations to new collaborations and commissions and cross-genre concepts by allowing artists to push the new ground with bold contemporary approaches.

Sarah Davachi, a minimalistic composer of both acoustic and electronic music will be joined by the LCO for two nights, as they create a meditative performance of her new album, Antiphonals.

Purcell Room,
Southbank Centre.
16th & 17th of September, 2021

Alison D’souza – Deptford 360°

Led by local violist Alison D’Souza, choreographer Ukweli Roach and Dan Samsa, Deptford-360° is an immersive combined arts piece performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, SE London dance group Birdgang and vocalist Rosie Strobel celebrating the joining of cultures and exploring themes inspired by the historical, social and cultural landscape of Deptford. Purposely created for this event and sound system array, Deptford-360° merges electronic dance, folk and classical music with urban/contemporary dance and 360° sound recordings, with such a melting pot of styles and mediums.

Tickets and more information >>

Live from London: VOCES8 + London Contemporary Orchestra

Two of London’s most innovative musical organisations come together to present Colliding Worlds, in which old meets new and the natural world meets the challenges of the 20th Century. The London Contemporary Orchestra performs one of Philip Glass’s most loved masterpieces, Glassworks. Glass’s Vessels, from the cult movie Koyaanisqatsi (meaning “life out of balance”) will be performed by VOCES8 and Apollo5 who also sing the world premiere of a new commission by Russian/British/Ghanaian composer and producer Afrodeutsche. The concert will include an arrangement by Robert Ames of Ascent, composed by the Oscar winning Hildur Guðnadóttir, from VOCES8’s upcoming new album, Infinity.

You can buy tickets for this concert directly through the LCO by clicking on the links below:

Photo credit: Takis Zontiros/Southbank Centre

Deptford 360

Deptford 360 is an immersive combined arts performance work celebrating the joining of different cultures and exploring themes inspired by the historical, social and cultural landscape of Deptford. The work merges electronic dance, folk and classical music with urban/ contemporary dance and 360°sound.

6 x 15 minute performances on Friday 16th (4pm, 6pm, 8pm) and Saturday 17th July (2pm, 4pm, 6pm)

FREE ENTRY

LCO Live from the Southbank Centre

London Contemporary Orchestra present orchestral versions of new electronic masterpieces, and a UK premiere with Voces8 and Apollo5, in a concert streamed from Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Programme includes:

Ólafur Arnalds
Hildur Guonadóttir
Kelly Lee Owens
Duval Timothy
Kjartan Sveinsson

Tickets and more information »

Erland Cooper: An Orkney Triptych

Organ Reframed: Chris Watson + Claire M Singer

The Organ Reframed festival concludes on Saturday evening with the world premiere of Voci del Vento by Chris Watson and Claire M Singer. This collaborative work will combine organ, field recordings, modular synths, the London Contemporary Orchestra and Choir to transport audiences on an epic journey from pole to pole.

Chris Watson, is a founding member of the influential experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire. He is famously known for his recording of wildlife sound for David Attenborough’s documentaries and his ground-breaking work on Grammy nominated Chernobyl. His 2003 release Weather Report was voted as one of the 100 best albums to hear before you die by The Guardian.

Claire M Singer, founder of Organ Reframed is known for her experimental approach to the organ and her critically acclaimed releases on the prolific experimental label Touch. Her debut album Solas was described as ‘… timeless and genuinely magical’ – The Quietus.

Organ Reframed is brought to you by Union Chapel Project, in partnership with the London Contemporary Orchestra and Spitfire Audio with generous support from Arts Council England and the Institute of Physics.

Tickets and more information »

Spitfire Audio: Showcase

As part of a new partnership with Kings Place for Luminate, Spitfire Audio will be hosting an afternoon of workshops and panels, culminating in an evening of unique collaborative performances by the London Contemporary Orchestra and Alev Lenz.

Schedule for the day:

2pm – Composition Workshop with Oliver Patrice Weder, Homay Schmitz (90 Minutes)
5pm – In Conversation: Christian Henson, Nitin Sawhney (60 Minutes)
6.15pm – Concert: London Contemporary Orchestra, Alev Lenz (90 Minutes)

Tickets and more information »

LCO + Rival Consoles + Claire M Singer

Erased Tapes x LCO: Hatis Noit

In a year-long collaborative programme, LCO joins forces with globally-respected independent record label Erased Tapes to create a season of experimental new works in the Southbank Centre’s most intimate venue, The Purcell Room. Featuring handpicked Erased Tapes artists, each performance in the Purcell Sessions: Erased Tapes x LCO series is the culmination of an afternoon of experimental workshops, where you can see the composers and players working together to test and develop new methods.

#4 / December 2019 / Hatis Noit

Be the first to hear new music created by vocalist Hatis Noit and LCO at this performance which rounds off a year of Erased Tapes x LCO sessions at The Purcell Room.

The Japanese vocal performer’s EP Illogical Dance, released in 2018, creates unique song-worlds with transcendent vocal interpretations that at once deconstruct and recombine Western classical, Japanese folk and nature’s own ambient atmosphere. Inspired by gagaku – Japanese classical music – and operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, to avant-garde and pop vocalists, the record was co-produced by Haruhisa Tanaka and Björk collaborators Matmos.

Afternoon drop-in workshop sessions: free to attend (no ticket required)

Evening performance: £15

Tickets and more information »

The Fashion Awards 2019

This annual celebration of creativity and innovation will shine a spotlight on exceptional individuals and influential businesses that have made significant contributions to the global fashion industry over the past twelve months. The London Contemporary Orchestra return to accompany the Fashion Awards 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall.

Deep Minimalism 2.0

The Philip Glass Ensemble – Music with Changing Parts

A rare opportunity to see the Philip Glass Ensemble, as they perform one of the composer’s early masterpieces for the first time in over 48 years in the UK – joined by players from the LCO.

Premiered in New York in 1970, Music with Changing Parts was a transitional work in Glass’s career. Melding electronic and acoustic instruments and voice, the piece saw Glass experiment with richer harmonies and increased contrapuntal complexity, hinting at the landmark piece that he was to create next – Music in 12 Parts. ­

Moor Mother x LCO: The Great Bailout – London (+ Klein + Galya Bisengalieva)

A first time collaboration between Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist Moor Mother and the London Contemporary Orchestra, The Great Bailout is free verse poem that acts as a non linear word map about colonialism, slavery and commerce in Great Britain and her commonwealth. Moor Mother is a representative of Afro-futurism with her social activist texts and furiously experimental electronics.

Tickets and information

Moor Mother x LCO: The Great Bailout – Milan

A first time collaboration between Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist Moor Mother and the London Contemporary Orchestra, The Great Bailout is free verse poem that acts as a non linear word map about colonialism, slavery and commerce in Great Britain and her commonwealth. Moor Mother is a representative of Afro-futurism with her social activist texts and furiously experimental electronics.

Tickets and information

Moor Mother X LCO: The Great Bailout – The Hague

A first time collaboration between Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist Moor Mother and the London Contemporary Orchestra, The Great Bailout is free verse poem that acts as a non linear word map about colonialism, slavery and commerce in Great Britain and her commonwealth. Moor Mother is a representative of Afro-futurism with her social activist texts and furiously experimental electronics and this performance plays the opening night of Feyerabend at the Korzo Theatre. 

Tickets and information

Moor Mother x LCO: The Great Bailout – Vooruit, Ghent

A first time collaboration between Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist Moor Mother and the London Contemporary Orchestra, The Great Bailout is free verse poem that acts as a non linear word map about colonialism, slavery and commerce in Great Britain and her commonwealth. Moor Mother is an alias of Camae Ayewa, and she is not stranger to the Belgian audience: the musician, slam poet and multidisciplinary artist previously performed during the alternative film festival Courtisane.

The Great Bailout comes to Vooruit during the festival for VIDEODROOM: a series of concert evenings where top musicians representing a diversity of genres come and play new compositions live to accompany films and projections. 

Tickets and information

Moor Mother x LCO – Tusk Festival

“If only all large-scale trans-Atlantic collaborations were this simple to initiate. We spotted a tweet by Moor Mother saying she’d love to work with an orchestra, started a conversation with Camae (Moor Mother) Ayewa and her agent, made contact with London Contemporary Orchestra and here we are. Not quite that breezy to actually develop the project of course and a whole lot of work has been going on at LCO’s studios in London and via cables under the ocean to Philadelphia to make this first-time collaboration dream come true. Moor Mother is of course the Afro-futurist rapper and poet who effortlessly merges the painfully social-realist with the eerily surreal and has an immediacy of delivery rarely matched. LCO have probably soundtracked half the films you’ve watched in the last few years – anything by Paul Thomas Anderson, You Were Never Really Here, collaborations with Jonny Greenwood, Actress, Chaines, Terry Riley, Stochhausen and more.”

“Initial meetings set Camae on the course of investigating the British slave industry as a core theme of the project – something the pavements we all walk are built on but that we rarely acknowledge. The two parties have such impressive discographies separately and dove into this project with such enthusiasm that we can’t help but expect the first few rows of Hall One to leave this performance with singed eyebrows and melted glasses at the very least.”

Ticket and more information »

Moor Mother x LCO: The Great Bailout – Unsound Festival

A first time collaboration between Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist Moor Mother and the London Contemporary Orchestra, The Great Bailout is free verse poem that acts as a non linear word map about colonialism, slavery and commerce in Great Britain and her commonwealth. Moor Mother is an alias of Camae Ayewa, well known to the Unsound audience from her solo show, a collaboration with Zonal (Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick) and the band Irreversible Entanglements.

Unsound Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Kraków, Poland, dealing with evolving and mutating forms of music, as well as related visual arts.

The theme of Unsound 2019 is Solidarity. At a time of widespread instability, solidarity is a word that belongs to no one group. It takes as a starting point the 30th anniversary of democratic elections in Poland, a result of protests that spread across Central and Eastern Europe. Thirty years on, the festival will explore what solidarity means today, in the context of the wider world and Unsound.

Tickets and information

Erased Tapes x LCO: Rival Consoles

In a year-long collaborative programme, LCO joins forces with globally-respected independent record label Erased Tapes to create a season of experimental new works in the Southbank Centre’s most intimate venue, The Purcell Room. Featuring handpicked Erased Tapes artists, each performance in the Purcell Sessions: Erased Tapes x LCO series is the culmination of an afternoon of experimental workshops, where you can see the composers and players working together to test and develop new methods. 

#3 / September 2019 / Rival Consoles

Afternoon drop-in workshop sessions: free to attend (no ticket required)

Evening performance: £15

Tickets and more information »

BBC Proms: The Sound of Space

Jed Kurzel Alien: Covenant
Hans Zimmer Interstellar
Mica Levi Under the Skin
Clint Mansell Moon
Steven Price Gravity
John Murphy Sunshine
Carly Paradis The Innocents

A Late Night Prom with a futuristic spin brings together some of the best sci-fi film music. Excerpts from cult soundtracks come together with recent works by Hans Zimmer and Mica Levi. LCO perform music from Under the Skin, Interstellar and the recent Netflix series The Innocents, among other titles, as well as from Alien: Covenant, whose soundtrack the LCO recorded.

Robert Ames (conductor)

Clint Mansell: Moon – LIVE (15)

Claire M Singer: gleann ciùin – Hull

Claire M Singer is a composer, producer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, film and installations. Recipient of the inaugural Oram Awards from PRS Foundation and New BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 2017, she incorporates the aesthetic of electronics created purely through acoustic means. Known for her experimental approach to organ, she collaborates with leading musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra in a new work for organ and mixed ensemble, revealing a rich world full of shimmering overtones, resounding bass drones and bittersweet dissonances.

Tickets and more information »

Jónsi & Alex Somers: Riceboy Sleeps – London

Jónsi & Alex Somers: Riceboy Sleeps – Paris

ComposHer @ EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney)

ComposHER is a new concert celebrating the best new music to moving picture, featuring a stunning roster of some of the best women composers writing for the screen today. 

With composition being one of the most unequal areas of the global music industry, this concert seeks to continue to support and empower the UK women composers’ community, towards further progression and change in 2019.

The composers being showcased are: Carly Paradis, Jessica Jones (selected by the NFTS to represent their alumni), Anne Nitikin, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Kate Simko, Jessica Curry, Jocelyn Pook, Nainita Desai, Imogen Heap (music performed by LCO and SHE Choir), Alev Lenz, Claire M Singer and Amelia Warner.

Genres featuring in this evening’s performance include classical composition, vocal performance alternative & electronic music and ensemble performances, played by the London Contemporary Orchestra.

With thanks to Spitfire Audio, ASCAP, P&G, Manners McDade, Production Music Awards, WMP Studios, Alliance for Women Film Composers, shesaid.so, SHE Choir and LCO.

Tickets and more information »

Saint Etienne: Tiger Bay

Erased Tapes x LCO: Michael Price

In a year-long collaborative programme, LCO joins forces with globally-respected independent record label Erased Tapes to create a season of experimental new works in the Southbank Centre’s most intimate venue, The Purcell Room. Featuring handpicked Erased Tapes artists, each performance in the Purcell Sessions: Erased Tapes x LCO series is the culmination of an afternoon of experimental workshops, where you can see the composers and players working together to test and develop new methods. 

#2 / May 2019 / Michael Price

Afternoon drop-in workshop sessions: free to attend (no ticket required)

Evening performance: £15

Tickets and more information »

Philip Glass – The Bowie Symphonies

Repertoire

Philip Glass: Symphony No.1 (Low); Symphony No.4 (Heroes)
Interval
Philip Glass: Symphony No.12 (Lodger) for orchestra & organ – from the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno (European premiere)

Attend the European premiere of Philip Glass’ Symphony No.12, a tribute to the chameleon genius of pop mastermind David Bowie.

It’s performed alongside his First and Fourth symphonies by trail-blazing new music ensemble the London Contemporary Orchestra with innovative organist James McVinnie.

Philip Glass’ Symphony No.1 and Symphony No.4 reimagine the first two albums of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, Low and Heroes, as classical works.

Bowie had moved to the East German capital in 1976, where he joined forces with Brian Eno over a triptych of albums to create a more experimental sound, bringing together aleatoric techniques (involving elements of chance), Krautrock influences and synthesizers.

Glass describes his Low Symphony, composed in 1992, as ‘a real collaboration’ between his music and the work of Bowie and Eno on the first album in the trilogy, released in 1977.

A few months after Bowie’s death in January 2016, Glass’ Heroes symphony became the first classical work to headline Glastonbury. Composed in 1996, the six-movement work responds to Bowie’s brooding Cold War album, out just seven months after Low, and its well-known title track.

Bowie liked the symphonic version so much that he used it as walk-in music at his live appearances, and according to Glass, privately superimposed his own vocals over the recording.

Bowie and Glass had discussed a third symphony, and now, finally, the work has been realised, in a Southbank Centre co-commission with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.

London Contemporary Orchestra 
Robert Ames conductor
Hugh Brunt conductor
James McVinnie organ
Angelique Kidjo vocals

Tickets and more information »

BBC Radio 3 Open Ear

BBC Open Ear presents music from the leading-edge of the UK’s contemporary scene. The London Contemporary Orchestra presents an alternative, experimental programme hosted by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Programme: 

Paula Matthusen In Absentia

Elena Rykova 101% Compressed  

John Luther Adams In a Treeless Place, Only Snow 

Tickets: £10

Ticket and more information »

Sarah Davachi with London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, Cafe OTO

“In Davachi’s music, I hear a negotiation between human instigation and letting be. Sometimes I catch little traces of melodic patterns, as she sends synthesisers through little zig-zagging motifs that rise out of the drones and return to them. At other points, she simply allows the instrument to play itself, leaving harmonics and timbral inconsistency to form shapes of their own accord. Prolonged synthesiser tones falter gently, creating undulations in texture like chips and dents on an old antique; drones curdle together to form overtones that flicker and dance above the central hums.” – ATTN:Magazine

Tickets: £18 advance; £14 members

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The Eternal Golden Braid: Gödel Escher Bach

Could an algorithm ever write music to rival Bach? The audience decides in this performance lecture with Marcus du Sautoy, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and composer Robert Thomas.

In a pre-recorded interview with Douglas Hofstadter, whose book Gödel, Escher, Bach inspired this event, Du Sautoy posits Bach as a musical coder, applying rules to musical material to grow something complex and beautiful. His works are then fed through a machine learning process created by computational artist Parag K Mital, which uses the data in Bach’s writing to ‘compose’ a piece of its own. Here’s where you, the audience come in. Arranged next to real Bach pieces and new pieces by composers Robert Thomas and Robert Laidlow will you be able to tell the difference?

Alongside Esfahani’s performance, a small ensemble of musicians from the LCO perform a piece which you help compose on the spot as the music, formed from composition both by AI and Thomas, will react to audience feedback in the moment.

Tickets and more information »

The Piano – Live

In this new presentation, The Piano is seen with the score played live in synchronisation with the film. It’s a chance to experience the film in a new, engrossing way, back on the big screen, with members of the London Contemporary Orchestra playing Nyman’s iconic score.

Nyman’s potent romantic minimalist music became one of the most popular soundtracks ever written. The film follows mute Ada (Holly Hunter) to New Zealand as she’s sold into marriage to land-grabber Alisdair (Sam Neill). Forced to sell her beloved piano, Ada enters an uneasy arrangement with local, Baines (Harvey Keitel), to buy it back, one key at a time. Their bargain grows into a dark love affair that puts them both – and the piano – in danger.

Standard Tickets £20 – £30 (plus booking fee)

Young Barbican (14-25) £10 (no booking fee. Subject to availability)

SBC members receive 20% discount

Tickets and more information »

John Cage, ‘Ryoanji’ at Towner Art Gallery

Join a trio of soloists from London Contemporary Orchestra as they perform John Cage’s Ryoanji live at Towner Art Gallery.

In 1983, Cage began a composition-in-progress called Ryoanji, named after the zen rock garden at the Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto, Japan,  a collection of 15 rocks, placed in a landscape of raked, white sand. In performance, the soloists represent the stones of the garden, the accompaniment the raked sand.

Free to attend, everyone welcome

No booking required

>> More information

Erased Tapes x LCO: Qasim Naqvi

In a year-long collaborative programme, LCO joins forces with globally-respected independent record label Erased Tapes to create a season of experimental new works in the Southbank Centre’s most intimate venue, The Purcell Room. Featuring handpicked Erased Tapes artists, each performance in the Purcell Sessions: Erased Tapes x LCO series is the culmination of an afternoon of experimental workshops, where you can see the composers and players working together to test and develop new methods. 

#1 / Feb 2019 / Qasim Naqvi

Witness the creation of new palettes of sound as Qasim Naqvi joins forces with soloists from London Contemporary Orchestra.

When he’s not on tour as the drummer of Dawn of Midi, Brooklyn-based composer Naqvi creates original music for film, dance, theatre and international chamber ensembles. His most recent work delves deep into the timbres of analogue synthesizers and orchestral configurations.

Chamber and orchestral music by Naqvi has been performed by yMusic, NOW Ensemble and BBC Concert Orchestra, and as part of Nimbus Dance Works and The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, among others.

His soundtracks for film have appeared on international television networks and at Tribeca, Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals, as well as in installations at locations including Guggenheim Museum, MOMA and Liverpool Biennial.

Afternoon drop-in workshop sessions: £5

Ticketed evening performance: £15.

>> Tickets and further information

4U A Symphonic Celebration of Prince

Prince is widely regarded as one of the best musicians ever to live, and one of the greatest showmen of all time. His music makes up the soundtrack of our lives – from the parties of our youth to our weddings; and we share his music with our children who repeat the cycle.

Great music lives on forever, and, it’s with this in mind that we introduce 4U: A Symphonic Celebration of Prince. The first and only estate-approved Prince celebration, 4U is curated, produced, and directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots, widely known to be Prince’s biggest fan and musical genius in his own right.

Through the course of the evening, we’ll hear everything from the biggest hits to some lesser-known gems, all played by a top-tier band hand-selected by Questlove, and with a spectacular video presentation featuring never-before-seen footage courtesy of the estate.

Book now via the Royal Albert Hall website.

Hannah Perry: GUSH

GUSH presents a captivating and poignant exhibition featuring large-scale dynamic sculpture, sound and film, in a candid and personal exploration of mental and emotional health in our contemporary, hyper-networked society.

Central to the exhibition is an immersive film, created using a custom rigged 360° camera built by Perry, that surrounds viewers with the contorted, continuously shifting movement of bodies. The film is narrated with fragmented spoken word that ebbs and flows with the images, summoning the highs and lows of both the everyday and life changing events, including the impact trauma and grief can have on our physical and mental state.

In an intensely personal yet universal exploration of the experience of loss, the installation marks the first time Perry has chosen to address the tragedy of the recent suicide of her best friend and artistic collaborator, Pete Morrow. Morrow’s diaristic writing and verse provide the basis for her moving inquiry into romance, psychosis and our relationship to death, along with the words of young people from London South East College, Plumstead, who Perry met through a series of workshops at Somerset House.

A compelling, original instrumental score written in collaboration with a cross-disciplinary ensemble of contemporary musicians, including award-winning composers Mica Levi, Coby Sey and London Contemporary Orchestra, accompanies these words and visual images, mirroring their rhythms and repetitions.

Other Worlds

Giacinto Scelsi Uaxuctum The Legend of the Maya City, destroyed by themselves for religious reasons (UK premiere)
John Luther Adams Become Ocean

Experience the self-destruction of an ancient civilisation and our planet engulfed by the vastness of the ocean in two massive audio-visual portrayals of a dark past – and still-avoidable future.

These two modern masterpieces share a single unignorable message. John Luther Adam’s Become Ocean imagines our planet succumbing to the rising sea in music of startling, bottomless beauty in what Alex Ross declared ‘may be the loveliest apocalypse in musical history’. And Giacinto Scelsi’s Uaxuctum is equally ravishing in its own way; a vast orchestra creating a fierce, haunting atmosphere through sounds as strange as they are prophetic, building to a point of no return as the ancient Mayan city implodes.

The performance will take place in a unique audio-visual installation with the orchestra situated behind a translucent mesh onto which projections will be cast. The projections are generated by a newly built artificial intelligence, created by Artrendex with art direction by Universal Assembly Unit. The AI generates imagery in specific palettes live in response to the music meaning that for the first time visualisations will be interacting with the live sound of the orchestra rather than pre-prepared and layered on top of it.

London Contemporary Orchestra & Choir
Robert Ames (conductor)
Universal Assembly Unit (art direction)
Artrendex (artificial intelligence)

Supported by funding from Arts Council England and the Cockayne Foundation

Organ Reframed: Éliane Radigue and Hildur Guðnadóttir

For the second night of our Organ Reframed performances, London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists peform a world premiere by Hildur Guðnadóttir.

Hildur Guðnadóttir is an Icelandic composer, cellist, and singer at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary music. A member of Icelandic band mom she has since released four critically acclaimed solo albums on touch and written widely for theatre, dance and film. One of Hollywood’s most sought after film composers Hildur is currently making headlines by signing up as composer for the upcoming film Joker with Joaquin Phoenix, making her the first woman to compose a score for a live-action DC Comics film. Previous scores include Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Mary Magdalene. Hildur has also released four critically acclaimed solo albums on touch and written widely for theatre and dance. Hildur will be performing her new work live with James McVinnie and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists.

For more information and tickets, please visit the Union Chapel website.

RY X and London Contemporary Orchestra

Singer-songwriter and producer RY X performs new versions of his soulful songs with the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Spurred along by lyrics of isolation, solidarity and humanness, RY X’s searching vocals are here buoyed by the strings of the London Contemporary Orchestra. Built into something even more encompassing, it’s as if his fragile songs, built on acoustic guitar, piano and electronics were waiting for these orchestral arrangements.

From Australia to LA, RY’s life in music has taken him across continents and genres. When he wasn’t sweating in warehouse clubs in the small hours, he was producing Electronic music as part of Howling and The Acid; and, when he wasn’t experimenting with synthesisers and drum machines, he was writing fragile, reverb-drenched songs for his tape-recorded debut EP, Berlin. Released in 2013, he soon found his two-minute tearjerkers on mainstream radio alongside some of the world’s biggest Pop hits, yet it’s his sincere and deeply human songwriting that really sets him aside.

Organ Reframed: Visions in Meditation

The first of two performances by the London Contemporary Orchestra in this year’s Organ Reframed series at Union Chapel is a special screening of Visions in Meditation, interspersed with three world premieres from composers at the forefront of new music.

This remarkable collection of short films by the legendary experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage will be projected on 16mm film for a rare London screening and made even more special by three works from artists whose aesthetics very much resonate with those of Brakhage.

For further information and tickets, visit the Union Chapel website. 

Hannah Perry: GUSH

GUSH presents a captivating and poignant exhibition featuring large-scale dynamic sculpture, sound and film, in a candid and personal exploration of mental and emotional health in our contemporary, hyper-networked society.

Central to the exhibition is an immersive film, created using a custom rigged 360° camera built by Perry, that surrounds viewers with the contorted, continuously shifting movement of bodies. The film is narrated with fragmented spoken word that ebbs and flows with the images, summoning the highs and lows of both the everyday and life changing events, including the impact trauma and grief can have on our physical and mental state.

In an intensely personal yet universal exploration of the experience of loss, the installation marks the first time Perry has chosen to address the tragedy of the recent suicide of her best friend and artistic collaborator, Pete Morrow. Morrow’s diaristic writing and verse provide the basis for her moving inquiry into romance, psychosis and our relationship to death, along with the words of young people from London South East College, Plumstead, who Perry met through a series of workshops at Somerset House.

A compelling, original instrumental score written in collaboration with a cross-disciplinary ensemble of contemporary musicians, including award-winning composers Mica Levi, Coby Sey and London Contemporary Orchestra, accompanies these words and visual images, mirroring their rhythms and repetitions.

BBC Radio 3 Open Ear / London Contemporary Orchestra

Gruff Rhys with the London Contemporary Orchestra

Craig Armstrong Live In Concert at Union Chapel

One of the world’s most sought-after and respected composers, Craig Armstrong, will perform a very special show at London’s Union Chapel on 4th June, showcasing pieces from throughout his diverse career and accompanied by the London Contemporary Orchestra.

A Royal Academy of Music graduate, Armstrong’s classical commissions during his diverse career are many from the London Sinfonietta, St Martin In The Fields, Organ Reframed, RSNO, Scottish Ensemble and his award winning The Lady From The Sea opera for Scottish Opera in 2012.

Armstrong has scored over 25 movies since 1996, including some of the best loved soundtracks in contemporary film. His work ranges from both independent and Hollywood cinema – from Peter Mullan’s directorial debut The Close Trilogy to the BAFTA, Ivor Novello and Golden Globe winning award scores for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge! to the much adored ‘Love Actually’ score.

As well as his compositions for picture, Craig Armstrong has also released consecutive successful solo albums, ‘The Space Between Us’, and 2016’s ‘It’s Nearly Tomorrow’. He is also known for his genre defining work with Massive Attack as well as arrangements for Madonna & U2 amongst many other contemporary artists.

Recognised as a pioneer in his art, Armstrong was awarded an O.B.E for services to the music industry in 2010, and in 2016 received the Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Music lovers should not miss this rare chance to experience a Craig Armstrong gig in London, with his last being at the Barbican in 2002. He will perform some of his most well known compositions from his solo albums, film, and also new works which will be released later this year.

Prom 13: Pioneers of Sound

Programme
Delia Derbyshire, The Delian Mode
Chaines, Knockturning (world premiere of new arrangement for orchestra)
Spiegel, Only Night Thoughts (world premiere)
Suzanne Ciani, Improvisation on Four Sequences
Daphne Oram, Still Point (world premiere of revised version)

The London Contemporary Orchestra leads a late-night tribute to the legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop – pioneers of experimental electronic music – which includes Daphne Oram’s groundbreaking Still Point and music by RW stalwart Delia Derbyshire.

Daphne Oram’s visionary Still Point fills the cavernous space of the Royal Albert Hall for the first time in the premiere of a revised realisation based on recently discovered archive material. Composed in 1949 – almost a decade before Oram co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop – the piece was possibly the first to combine a live orchestra with live electronic manipulations, here played via turntables.

Still Point forms the centrepiece of a late-night sonic exploration that features work by Delia Derbyshire – another Radiophonic Workshop pioneer who achieved cult status for her electronic arrangement of the Doctor Who TV theme – as well as new works inspired by the Radiophonic legacy.

There will be no interval

Suzanne Ciani
Shiva Feshareki, Turntables/Electronics
James Bulley, Live Mix/Electronics
London Contemporary Orchestra
Robert Ames, Conductor

Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly with LCO

Using Colin McPhee’s transcriptions of Balinese music as a springboard for their own texturally hypnotic dual piano compositions, Nico Muhly and Doveman perform a collection of nine new songs.

Colin McPhee, whose music inspired tonight’s performance, was the first composer to seriously study the music of Java and Bali, producing a number of transcriptions for two pianos that reimagined the gamelan for Western ears. In turn, Nico Muhly and Doveman reimagine McPhee’s transcriptions for the 21st Century, borrowing their mesmerising interlocking patterns for a new collaborative album to be released on Nonesuch Records, Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music – which they will perform in its entirety tonight.

The record, ten years in the making, was born from Muhly’s and Bartlett’s shared love of Colin McPhee’s music. McPhee himself was a close friend of Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears – an accomplished musician in his own right, for whom this collaborative project is named.

LCO Soloists

Actress & London Contemporary Orchestra

+ Duval Timothy, Silvia Kastel and Toxe

LCO Soloists: Different Trains

Performers from the London Contemporary Orchestra present Steve Reich’s Different Trains on the 30th anniversary of its premiere.

Bryce Dessner Aheym (for guitar & string quartet)
Mica Levi You belong to me (for string quartet)
Steve Reich Different Trains (for string quartet & tape)

Tickets and more info >>

John Cale (2018-1964): A Futurespective

Nimbly navigating both the Experimental and Pop worlds, John Cale performs a career-spanning set with help from the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Since before his time as the Velvet Underground’s Avant-Gardist-in-residence, Cale has been a totally uncompromising artist, embracing manifold musical approaches across his remarkable career. Tonight, joined by the LCO, he’s exploring the enormous scope of his musical output; playing selections from the Velvet Underground, the proto-minimalist songs of The Dream Syndicate – his collaboration with La Monte Young and others – and the richly enigmatic music from his landmark solo albums.

His is a difficult career to summarise succinctly – who else could have collaborated with both Terry Riley and the Happy Mondays? He’s a Classical composer and Pop genius; virtuosic violist and vitriolic Rock’n’Roller; moody Drone artist and pastoral Welsh songwriter.

Please note there will be two performances: March 9th at 7.30pm; March 10th at 7.30pm

Tickets £35 – £45.

Tickets and more info >> 

Phantom Thread: Live

Be one of the first to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film Phantom Thread with Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack performed live by the LCO. Director Paul Thomas Anderson and composer Jonny Greenwood introduce the film starring Daniel Day-Lewis in this preview event, before the film is released in the UK on 2 February 2018.

London Contemporary Orchestra
Robert Ames (conductor)

MORE INFO >>

Spitalfields Winter Festival 2017: In the Light of Air

Creating a home for mindful listening, London Contemporary Orchestra performs works by Pauline Oliveros and the London premiere of Anna Thorvaldsottir’s In The Light Of Air.

Transforming Shoreditch Church into a home for mindful listening, London Contemporary Orchestra will perform selections of works by Pauline Oliveros, which explore producing sound naturally for meditative practice.

Following this, LCO will perform the London premiere of Anna Thorvaldsottir’s In The Light Of Air. Rumbling and atmospheric, it calls to mind the sparse landscapes of Thorvaldsottir’s native Iceland, featuring a light installation which dims and glows according to the players’ breath.

Generously supported by the RVW Trust and Hinrichsen Foundation

Approx. Running Time: 1hr & 15mins. Tickets £28

Tickets and more info >> 

Image Credit: Saga Sigurdardottir

Uniqlo Tate Lates – ‘Electronic Pioneers’

CHAINES writes a new work for flutes, clarinet, harp, electronics and reverb exclusively for a one-off performance with London Contemporary Orchestra at Uniqlo Tate Lates, in the unique setting of the Tate Tanks. At the heart of CHAINES‘ new work is the music of early groundbreaking electronic pioneers including Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram and Else Marie Pade.

Discover this unique world-premiere set and LCO commission, written and performed by CHAINES with LCO, alongside an eclectic mix of art, music, talks, film and workshops.

Listen in to our special NTS feature radio show on Oct 31st for more music from leading female electronic pioneers.

‘Electronic Pioneers’ is funded and supported by The Hinrichsen Foundation; The RVW Trust; The Ambache Trust.

Opening hours: 18:00 – 22:00

This event is free and do not require booking.

More information here >>

Photograph CHAINES © Bruce Atherton

Organ Reframed: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Organ Reframed 2017 closes with a night of classic silent film accompanied by a new score from the ambient drone mastermind Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie (Stars of Lid and A Winged Victory for the Sullen), performed by James McVinnie, London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists & Choir. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, prepare for a spine-tingling experience in the grand Victorian Gothic setting of Union Chapel.

Robert Ames (conductor)

World premiere / commissioned by Organ Reframed in partnership with the LCO

Tickets and more info >>

Organ Reframed: Six New Works

New works by Mira Calix, Emily Hall, Tim Hecker, Gordon Monahan, Phill Niblock and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.

The opening night of Organ Reframed features six world premieres from composers at the forefront of new music, performed by James McVinnie, London Contemporary Orchestra plus special guest Gordon Monahan.

Each with their own unique voice, from the legendary avant-garde pioneer Phill Niblock to the classical/electronic composer Emily Hall, these works show just how versatile the organ is.

“I’ve always wanted to compose for a pipe organ and am honored to have been given the opportunity to do so. When I was studying composition in college, I remember reading that Stravinsky would always say that one’s composition isn’t complete until they’ve heard it on a pipe organ. It’s where you can truly hear how the harmonics play with each other. ” – Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

World premiere / commissioned by Organ Reframed In partnership with the LCO

Tickets and more info >>

BBC Proms @ The Tanks at Tate Modern

Join BBC Radio 3 presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch and the London Contemporary Orchestra for a specially curated Prom in the industrial surroundings of The Tanks at Tate Modern. In a link-up with BBC Radio 3’s new music series Open Ear, cutting-edge experimental music sits side by side with brand new sounds and free improvisation.

LCO will perform the world premiere of a new piece by Catherine Lamb and – after 2016’s sell-out concerts in London and Moscow – continue their hugely successful collaboration with electronic artist Actress.

The programme also includes Cassandra Miller’s evocative, folk-inspired Guide performed by vocal ensemble Exaudi and Rodrigo Constanzo’s dynamic performances with light and sound.

Part of the BBC Proms 2017 series.

More information and tickets >>

Photograph: Actress x LCO by Tom D Morgan

GABA-analogue: LCO + Shiva Feshareki + Lee Gamble

GABA-analogue is an exclusive new installation over a year in the making that features commissions from some of the UK’s leading new composers and music producers presented within a unique immersive audio-visual environment:

DOORS & BAR 7:45pm
CONCERT 8:30pm
DOORS TEMPORARILY CLOSED 8:40-9:10pm (due to quiet nature of first piece)
RE-ADMITTANCE FROM 9:10pm ONWARDS

8:30-9pm: Edmund Finnis Parallel Colour
9-9:30pm: Benedict Mason Nodding Trilliums and Curve Lined Angles (presented as part of PRS for Music Foundation’s RESONATE programme)
9:30-10pm: CHAINES Carpathia (world premiere – revised version)
10-10:45pm: Shiva Feshareki GABA-analogue (world premiere – LMM commission)
10:45pm-12:15am: Lee Gamble – DJ set (exclusive)
12:15am-close: Shiva Feshareki – DJ set (manipulated sounds)

Robert Ames (conductor)

For the first time in its history Printworks will feature acoustic instrumentation, including four orchestras playing simultaneously with electronic sampling, all in its unique 30,000 sq. ft main space. The evening will feature multiple different performances spread across the evening from 8:30pm−1am all in durational style. The audience is free to wander around the installation as the pieces unfold.

UIQ label boss, musician and DJ Lee Gamble will play an exclusive aftershow set.

LIMITED FINAL EXTRA TICKETS RELEASED DUE TO DEMAND: £20 (plus booking fee)
BOOK NOW >>

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates on the guests performing at the show.

Nodding Trilliums and Curve Lined Angles is presented in partnership with PRS for Music Foundation’s RESONATE programme. Resonate is a PRS Foundation initiative in partnership with Association of British Orchestras, BBC Radio 3 and Boltini Trust supporting the best UK orchestral music from the last 25 years. 

LCO gratefully acknowledges support from London Music Masters in commissioning, and presenting the world premiere of GABA-analogue.

Supported by Arts Council England and the PRS Foundation

With thanks to Markson Pianos and Bell Music, proud supporters of LCO

Under the Skin: Live

Mica Levi Under the Skin (dir. Jonathan Glazer)

LCO is joined by Kazakhstani musicians to perform Under the Skin for one night only at the Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall. A seminal recent work of UK contemporary film and music making, the film was never distributed in Kazakhstan and so this presentation marks the first opportunity that audiences will have to see it live.

Robert Ames (conductor)

The performance is organised by the British Council Kazakhstan in partnership with Esquire Kazakhstan.

Daniel Wohl and LCO: music from Holographic

In this special performance Daniel Wohl and London Contemporary Orchestra perform music from Holographic at Kings Place.

In 2016, Holographic, Daniel’s sophomore album was released on New Amsterdam Records. Commissioned by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series and the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

Daniel Wohl’s music blends electronics with acoustic instrumentation. He has produced albums, orchestral and chamber works, film and ballet scores, and has received critical praise as one of his generation’s ‘imaginative, skilful creators’ (New York Times).

Tickets £16.50 / £9.50 Savers

More information here >>

[Photography: Daniel Wohl © Nathan Lee Bush; London Contemporary Orchestra © Tom D. Morgan]

LCO @ (Le) Poisson Rouge: The London Sound

LCO takes #TheLondonSound stateside with the orchestra’s New York debut at (le) Poisson Rouge on Tuesday May 18th, conducted by Robert Ames.

Edmund Finnis Relative Colour
Mica Levi suite from ‘Jackie’ (US premiere)
Mica Levi suite from ‘Under the Skin’
Jonny Greenwood Application 45 Version I; Future Markets; Sweetness of Freddie (US premiere)
Jed Kurzel suite from ‘Macbeth’ (world premiere)
Ricardo Romaneiro 12 Volt Ghost Render
Julius Eastman Joy Boy
Philip Glass Echorus

Table seating tickets $15; standing bar tickets $10. No reservations available for seated tickets, first come, first seated. Doors 6pm. Concert 7pm

Tickets and more information here >>

[Photograph: LCO / Robert Ames © Mark Allan BBC]

Moonlight: Live

Already with a Golden Globe for Best Drama Motion Picture and four BAFTA nominations, Barry Jenkins‘s touching exploration of black gay identity in modern America, Moonlight, is enhanced in this special European premiere screening featuring the soundtrack performed live by the LCO.

The story centers around Chiron, a young black man growing up in Miami. Meeting him at three chapters in his life, grappling with his sexuality, fleeting experiences of love and acceptance contrasted with pain and confusion. As he journeys through life and self-discovery, his feelings seem out of touch with the often rough and toxic masculinity of his surroundings – and he struggles to cope.

The character’s sense of isolation, being trapped between conflicting identities, is beautifully reflected in Nicholas Britell’s score. Combining elements of Southern Rap with orchestral Chamber Music, with the score seemingly in slow motion, taking influence from chopped and screwed Hip-Hop remixes. This effect of slowing things down suspends each interaction, zooming in on Chiron’s emotions, his yearning.

Ryan McAdams (conductor)
Nicholas Britell (piano/organ; audio production)
Tim Fain (violin)

Tickets and more info >>

The xx / Night + Day Brixton

London Contemporary Orchestra joins The xx and a stellar bill of support acts and after-parties for the band’s upcoming ‘Night + Day’ run of gigs at the Brixton Academy.

The now legendary ‘Night + Day’ series was started by the trio back in 2013 with a run of specially curated gigs in Lisbon, Berlin and London. Now in support of their acclaimed new album ‘I See You‘, they’ve applied the same treatment to seven London shows.

LCO supports The xx on Tuesday March 14th, performing work by Mica Levi.

* THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT *

LCO Soloists: Royal Albert Hall’s Loading Bay

London Contemporary Orchestra return to the Royal Albert Hall for a unique performance from the Hall’s Loading Bay space, as part of the 12-day ‘Love Classical’ festival. Deep underground and accessed via the Loading Bay’s ramp, this is the first time ever the space has been used for a classical music performance.

LCO present an eclectic programme of music including works from long-term collaborator Jonny Greenwood, giants of American Minimalism Steve Reich and Michael Gordon, Mica Levi of Micachu & The Shapes and CHAINES. 

With support from Mara Carlye and Liam Byrne.

Doors 3:15pm for 4pm support.

Jonny Greenwood Prospector’s Quartet from ‘There Will Be Blood’ (for string quartet)
CHAINES I Found This (for cello, performed by Oliver Coates)
Michael Gordon Potassium (for amplified string quartet)
Mica Levi SAW (for viola, performed by Robert Ames)
Jonny Greenwood 88 (for piano)
Steve Reich Triple Quartet (for string quartet and pre-recorded tape)

Tickets and more info >>

There Will Be Blood: Live – Bristol

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning There Will Be Blood with Jonny Greenwood’s score performed live by the LCO.

Cynthia Millar (ondes Martenot)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Tickets and more info >>

THERE WILL BE BLOOD: LIVE – BRIGHTON

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning There Will Be Blood with Jonny Greenwood’s score performed live by the LCO.

Cynthia Millar (ondes Martenot)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Tickets and more info >>

There Will Be Blood: Live – Birmingham

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning There Will Be Blood with Jonny Greenwood’s score performed live by the LCO.

Cynthia Millar (ondes Martenot)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Tickets and more info >>

There Will Be Blood: Live – London

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning There Will Be Blood with Jonny Greenwood’s score performed live by the LCO.

Jonny Greenwood (ondes Martenot)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Tickets and more info >>

Arthur Russell’s ‘Tower of Meaning’ (UK premiere)

LCO makes its Kings Place debut with a performance of Arthur Russell’s orchestral work Tower of Meaning. The ensemble will be led by percussionist Bill Ruyle, who will also conduct, and trombonist Peter Zummo, (both long-term collaborators of Russell’s and performers on the original 1983 Chatham Square label recording), with Oliver Coates on cello. Part of an ongoing collaboration between Ruyle, Zummo and Coates exploring Russell’s music, Tower of Meaning will be performed in the round to offer an immersive experience of the composition’s meditational flow.

Russell Tower of Meaning (UK premiere, with Oliver Coates)

Eastman Joy Boy (UK premiere)

Mary Jane Leach Wolff Tone E-Tude

Mica Levi You belong to me (string quartet)

Bach Prelude to Cello Suite number 4

PLEASE NOTE: This event was previously listed as seated, but due to artistic developments is now standing. If you require a seat for this event, please contact Kings Place Box Office on 020 7520 1490.

Saturday 14 January at 8pm & Sunday 15 January at 3pm & 8pm.

Tickets: £16.50 / £9.50 Savers

More information here >>

The Hub Sessions @ British Grove Studios

The Hub Sessions is a unique event for composers, players and promoters working at the forefront of their fields to meet and discuss modern composition and performance.

LCO’s principal players will be workshopping and recording existing instrumental music from Brown, Feldman and Mica Levi, alongside new orchestrations of works by Jon Hopkins, Nils Frahm and Autechre. There will also be Q & A interviews with LCO’s co-Artistic Directors and Principal Conductors Robert Ames and Hugh Brunt. The sessions will be recorded for LCO’s ever-expanding video archive as well as for broadcast on future sessions of LCO’s monthly NTS Radio show. 

Click here for LCO’s video archive >>

Click here for LCO’s NTS Radio show >>

The Hub Sessions are supported by:

Arts Council England; PRS for Music Foundation; The RVW Trust; The Lucille Graham Trust

The Hub Sessions @ Union Chapel

In November’s Hub Sessions LCO’s principal players will be workshopping and recording existing instrumental music from Brown, Feldman and Mica Levi, alongside new orchestrations of works by Jon Hopkins, Nils Frahm and Autechre. There will also be Q & A interviews with LCO’s co-Artistic Directors and Principal Conductors Robert Ames and Hugh Brunt. The sessions will be recorded for LCO’s ever-expanding video archive as well as for broadcast on future sessions of LCO’s monthly NTS Radio show. 

Click here for LCO’s video archive >>

Click here for LCO’s NTS Radio show >>

The Hub Sessions are supported by:

Arts Council England; PRS for Music Foundation; The RVW Trust; The Lucille Graham Trust

LCO Soloists: FIGHTBACK at The Roundhouse

LCO Soloists perform at ‘FIGHTBACK’ at The Roundhouse, a fundraising concert in support of the Music Venues Trust. The charity performs a vital a role in protecting the future of iconic live music venues in the UK. MVT fights to preserve and improve these grassroots venues, improving the experience for performers and audiences and ensuring musicians and music fans continue to have access to this essential part of UK music heritage.

Galya Bisengalieva and Robert Ames perform the 4th movement from Brother by Edmund Finnis, Saw by Mica Levi and Obsession from Ysaÿe‘s Sonata No. 2.

Proceeds go the Music Venues Trust Emergency Response Service

BBC Radio 3: Big Chamber Weekend

LCO performs Messiaen’s Trois petits liturgies de la presence divine for women’s voices, piano, ondes martenot, percussion and strings at Wells Cathedral. Part of the BBC Radio 3 Big Chamber Weekend.

Conducted by Christopher Finch, with Simon Smith and Cynthia Millar.

Photo: Mark Allan

Organ Reframed – Union Chapel

Organ Reframed is a three day festival of film, intimate solo sets, improvisations and larger scale commissions based around Union Chapel’s 1877 organ, designed and built for the space. The weekend brings an experimental approach to this extraordinary instrument and will challenge perceptions of what it is capable of.

In celebration of the final night of the festival, the London Contemporary Orchestra with James McVinnie will perform five new works from prolific composers: Craig Armstrong, Mark Fell, Alex Groves, Chaines and Catherine Lamb, many writing for the organ for the first time. These works will firmly put the organ in the spotlight as an instrument which plays a key role in the development of new music today. Plus, the premiere of the revised version of Edmund Finnis‘ ‘Between Rain’ and the first public performance of Mica Levi‘s ‘Brain’.

Robert Ames (conductor)

Photo: Mark Allan

Steve Reich & Bill Morrison: Different Trains – Live

LCO Soloists will perform Steve Reich’s Different Trains on September 29th as part of a special site-specific event at Metal Liverpool’s Edge Hill station, the oldest active passenger railway station in the world.

For the first time in the composition’s 28-year history a film accompaniment has been permitted, in the form of a newly commissioned work from artist and filmmaker Bill Morrison.

The unique performance will take place in the presence of Steve Reich himself, in collaboration with the LCO and Sound Intermedia. The event will also feature a supporting presentation of Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, performed by Mats Bergstrom.

This project is presented by Metal in partnership with Southbank Centre, Liverpool Biennial, Culture Liverpool and Boiler Room.

‘In C’ with Terry Riley

You can hear Terry Riley’s influence in everything from piano music to techno and psychedelia. Here is a rare opportunity to see the composer himself participate in a performance of his most-celebrated piece ‘In C’, revisiting last year’s collaboration with the LCO.

Starting with a single pulsing ‘c’ note, ‘In C’ slowly builds into something constantly shifting and changing, with a trance-inducing rhythm at its heart.

Part of the joy of seeing it live is that every performance is different, leaving the performers to interpret it as they wish. Damon Albarn, Brian Eno and Nick Zinner turned it into an infectious Afro-pop song for the Africa Express project, and Pantha du Prince transposed the piece onto bells, chimes and electronic pulses. Now it comes full-circle back to its composer, for his take on it over 50 years on.

Opening the concert, Riley plays more intimate pieces solo and duo with his son, guitarist Gyan Riley, giving an introduction to both composers’s back catalogues, and performing the European premiere of a new piece.

Ron Arad’s ‘Curtain Call’

Ron Arad’s Curtain Call returns to the Roundhouse as part of the ground-breaking London venue’s 50^th anniversary celebrations. Consisting of 5,600 silicon rods suspended from an 18m diameter ring, the work will display artwork from a wide array of artists and provide a dramatic setting for a series of live music events.

Part of the original line-up at the installation’s inception in 2011, the LCO returns to Curtain Call on August 25 with a fresh and exciting programme featuring LCO-commissioned premieres and works inspired by the Roundhouse Main Space and this iconic installation.

Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel
CHAINES (aka Caroline Haines) new work (world premiere – LCO commission)
John Tavener Svyati
Mica Levi new work (world premiere – LCO commission)
Yoko Ono Sky Piece to Jesus Christ

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

The curtain will display bespoke artwork created specially for LCO’s programme by Nicol Vizioli, UniversalAssemblyUnit, Ioana Sisea, Pavel Samokhvalov, and Hannah Perry.

LCO Soloists + NU:NORD: Union Chapel

LCO’s collaboration with music & performing art network NU:NORD continues, with a North / South mini-series this summer, showcasing work from NU:NORD’s 2016 creative workshop programme and compositions from new-music creators from Canada, Norway and the UK.

The Sunday Sessions is a fortnightly event featuring some of London’s finest acoustic musicians in the stunning surroundings of Union Chapel. This session will feature the work of 15 Canadian, Norwegian and UK composers, performed by the LCO Soloists, Canada’s Architek Percussion, and violinist/NU:NORD co-director Mira Benjamin.

Tickets £10 in advance or £12 on the door (+ booking fee). Discounts Union Chapel members.

On August 5th LCO Soloists perform at the Creative Arts Building, University of Huddersfield. Click here for more details.

LCO SOLOISTS + NU:NORD: Huddersfield

LCO’s collaboration with music & performing art network NU:NORD continues, with a North / South mini-series this summer, showcasing work from NU:NORD’s 2016 creative workshop programme and compositions from new-music creators from Canada, Norway and the UK.

The evening starts at 6:30pm in Phipps Hall with a set from Montreal-based quartet Architek Percussion. At 7:45pm LCO Soloists perform in the CAB Atrium with new compositions by Amber Priestley, David Pocknee, Tyler Futrell, David Stephen Grant and Peter Edwards. 

Admission is FREE and no ticket is required.

On August 7th the series continues in London with The Sunday Sessions presents NU:NORD at Union Chapel, Islington. Click here for more details.

ACTRESS + LCO: MOSCOW

Tickets and more info >>

Latitude Festival: LCO Soloists

Making a welcome return to Latitude, the LCO present works from two giants of American Minimalism, Michael Gordon and Steve Reich. The set also includes a rare opportunity to hear 88 for solo piano by the LCO’s long-term collaborator Jonny Greenwood, alongside Prospector’s Quartet, composed by Greenwood for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. SAW for solo viola by Mica Levi of Micachu & The Shapes receives its first performance outside of London.

Tickets and more info >>

BBC Radio 3 in Concert: St John at Hackney

Following on from January’s BBC Radio 3 New Year New Music concert, the LCO returned to St John at Hackney for Open Ear – a concert of contemporary music featuring pieces by Shiva Feshareki, Andrew Hamilton and Meredith Monk, as well as solo performances from Shiva Feshareki, composer and performer Neil Luck, and pianist Sarah Nicolls.

Hosted by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Robert Ames (conductor)

Photo: Mark Allan

DEEP∞MINIMALISM: ‘Still Point’

Daphne Oram Still Point, for orchestra, treated instrumental recordings and turntables
(realised by Shiva Feshareki & James Bulley – world premiere)
John Cage Twenty-Three
Pauline Oliveros Rock piece

Robert Ames (conductor)

InTRANSIT Festival: Adrift

More information >>

Portsmouth Festivities: opening concert

Jonny Greenwood Detuned Orchestra (There Will Be Blood)
Edmund Finnis Across White Air
Pauline Oliveros Rock Piece*
Catherine Lamb Tone/Noise
Jonathan Harvey Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
Mica Levi SAW
Claude Vivier Zipangu

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

*with musicians from Portsmouth Grammar School

LCO Soloists + NU:NORD

Isaiah Ceccarelli (Canada): Bow for string quartet
Eric Skytterholm Egan (Norway): Through the Embers for 2-8 players (string quartet version)
Claire M Singer (UK): 4-8-1 for string quartet and 8-channel Live electronics
Amber Priestley (UK): …And go ahead! Dare to be irrational! for violinist & field recordings
Iannis Xenakis: Tetora for string quartet

Actress + LCO

A unique collaboration commissioned and curated by Boiler Room and the London Contemporary Orchestra pairs producer Darren Cunningham, aka Actress, with the LCO. This world-first performance of the live show will be debuting brand new material as well as expanded arrangements of his dark and brooding electronica.

Over a decade of releases Cunningham has built a reputation as a fine creator of cerebral abstract techno, or R&B concrète, crafting pulsing kickdrums, jittering percussion and chopped sample loops into churning, rumbling tracks soaked in static. But he has also been on record saying he wants to make ‘classical stuff for a modern generation’, an ambition finally realised with this project.

Emphasising the rich textures of his music, the LCO bring a new dimension to Cunningham’s choice of sounds which celebrate the ambiguity of sound colour that sits between electronic and acoustic spaces. With the producer in effect using them as a new instrument, matching his electronic loops with precise manipulation of their acoustic instruments, together they form a heightened kind of chamber music.

This project has been curated by Boiler Room and the LCO with the support of Arts Council England and the backing of leading British independent record label Ninja Tune, with additional support from NTS.

More info >>

Harmonic Series: LCO Soloists

Éliane Radigue Occam XVII for double bass (world premiere)
Kevin Volans String Quartet No. 2 (Hunting – Gathering)

Dominic Lash (double bass)
LCO Soloists

Harmonic Series presents Kevin Volans’ second string quartet Hunting – Gathering (performed by LCO Soloists) and the world premiere of Éliane Radigue’s newest work written for bassist Dominic Lash, presented in the intimate surroundings of Spirit Level (Blue Room) at Royal Festival Hall.

Tickets £5 (plus booking fee) with concessions available.

More info >>

BBC Radio 3 in Concert: New Year New Music

New Year New Music: a performance of contemporary music given by the LCO which offers a snapshot of where things are at in 2016: including pieces by Jonny Greenwood, Catherine Lamb, Laurence Crane, CHAINES and Edmund Finnis.

Plus, solo performances from electronic artist Leafcutter John, composer/performer Jennifer Walshe, and soprano Juliet Fraser with pianist Mark Knoop.

Hosted by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

More info >>

LCO Soloists: Sonos Studio London

Monthly Sunday residency at Sonos Studio London: open rehearsals and performance

Jed Kurzel cues from Slow West (world premiere live performance)
Jonny Greenwood cues from Norwegian Wood
Scelsi Trio for Strings accompanied by a new film from Nicol Vizioli commissioned by LCO

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Eloisa-Fleur Thom (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Zoe Matthews (viola)
Brian O’Kane (cello)
Max Ruisi (cello)
Adam Wynter (double bass)
Alastair Putt (guitar / mandolin)

More info >>

Shades Lengthen

Trad. Tonus Peregrinus chant
Kaija Saariaho Sept Papillons^
Magister Grimace (ed. Hugh Brunt) Se Zephirus / Se Jupiter: I
(Codex Chantilly – MS fol. 19: Ballade)
Edmund Finnis Shades Lengthen** (world premiere)
(London Music Masters commission, supported by The Boltini Trust)
Arvo Pärt Annum per annum^^
Magister Grimace Se Zephirus / Se Jupiter: II
John Cage In a Landscape~
Trad. Tonus Peregrinus chant

London Contemporary Orchestra & Choir
Oliver Coates (cello)^
Benjamin Beilman (violin)**
Anna Lapwood (organ)^^
Katherine Tinker (piano)~
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Credits sheet >>

In partnership with London Music Masters

LCO Soloists: nyMusikk

Laurence Crane Holt Quartet
David Stephen Grant Bånsull
Eric Skytterholm Egan Through the Embers
– – – – – – – –
Edmund Finnis Brother
Ansgar Beste Dialogues Fragiles
Kristin Bolstad FRISK
– – – – – – – –
Howard Skempton Tendrils

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Mira Benjamin (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Gregor Riddell (cello)

More info >>

LCO SOLOISTS: THE HUB SESSIONS III

Erik Nyström new work
Call for Scores screening – please see information below
– – – – – – – –
Alvin Lucier I am Sitting in a Room
– – – – – – – –
Shiva Feshareki For Jack (Volcano)
Screening of Brother Quay / Stockhausen In Absentia

Erik Nyström (sound projection)

Tickets: £9 advance (plus booking fee); £15 on the door
Book online >>

There will be two 15-minute intervals

Call for Scores

The closing date for submissions (Friday 9 October) has now passed

For the LCO’s third and final #‎TheHubSessions Call for Scores, composers / sound artists of any age and nationality are invited to submit electronic scores to accompany one of Ioana Sisea Atelier’s Present Continuous films.

Three shortlisted entries will be showcased on the LCO’s website and YouTube channel, with one of the films receiving a screening as part of this performance (following a workshop session and open discussion with Ioana).

The selected composer will be shortlisted alongside March and April 2015 Call for Scores composers Neil Quigley and Stephen Wilkinson, one of whom will receive a £1,000 commission from LCO Soloists for 2015/16.

Click here for full details.

‘In Absentia’ screening by kind permission of the British Film Institute
Supported by Arts Council England

JONNY GREENWOOD AND LCO SOLOISTS: BUDAPEST

Jonny Greenwood Mata Aini Kuru Kara Ne (‘Norwegian Wood’)
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Gerald Barry Triorchic Blues*
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Miniature
Mica Levi Love (‘Under The Skin’)^
Jonny Greenwood Loop
Interval
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Jonny Greenwood Application 45 Version 1 (‘The Master’)
Jonny Greenwood Sweetness of Freddie (‘The Master’)
Jonny Greenwood 88: Sketch I & II**
Jonny Greenwood Setting Up Arrows
Ysaÿe Sonata No. 2: I. Obsession^^
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers

Jonny Greenwood (electric guitar / ondes Martenot / tanpura)
Daniel Pioro (violin)*
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)^^
Robert Ames (viola)
Ian Anderson (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)^
Brian O’Kane (cello)
Dave Brown (double bass)
Katherine Tinker (piano)**
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Graeme Stewart (sound designer)

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Moscow

Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Gerald Barry Triorchic Blues*
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Miniature
Mica Levi Love (‘Under The Skin’)^
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers
Interval
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Jonny Greenwood Application 45 Version 1 (‘The Master’)
Jonny Greenwood 88: Sketch**
Jonny Greenwood Sweetness of Freddie (‘The Master’)
Ysaÿe Sonata No. 2: I. Obsession^^
Jonny Greenwood Fight with Cudgels
Jonny Greenwood Loop
Encores:
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Microtonal Shaker
Jonny Greenwood Loop

Jonny Greenwood (electric guitar / ondes Martenot / tanpura)
Daniel Pioro (violin)*
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)^^
Robert Ames (viola)
Ian Anderson (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)^
Brian O’Kane (cello)
Dave Brown (double bass)
Katherine Tinker (piano)**
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Graeme Stewart (sound designer)

[Photo: Hugh Brunt]

LCO Soloists: Sonos Studio London

Open House Weekend: LCO Soloists Residency

Jonny Greenwood Prospector’s Quartet from ‘There Will Be Blood’
CHAINES I Found This
Michael Gordon Potassium
Mica Levi SAW
Jonny Greenwood 88 (UK premiere)
Steve Reich Triple Quartet

Galya Bisengalieva (violin I)
Eloisa-Fleur Thom (violin II)
Robert Ames (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Katherine Tinker (piano)
Simon Hendry (sound design)

Entry: free, booking required
More info >>

THERE WILL BE BLOOD: LIVE

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning There Will Be Blood with Jonny Greenwood’s score performed live by the LCO and Greenwood.

Jonny Greenwood (ondes Martenot)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Part of David Byrne’s Meltdown

More info >>
The Times write-up >> | Financial Times write-up >>

Terry Riley premiere: ‘Bell Station III’

Terry Riley Bell Station III (world premiere)

Members of the London Contemporary Orchestra
Tiffin Boys’ Choir
Terry Riley (vocals / prepared piano)
Robert Ames (conductor)

Part of Doug Aitken’s Station to Station: A 30 Day Happening

The Guardian write-up >>

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Open’er Festival

Jonny Greenwood Miniature
Edmund Finnis Brother
Jonny Greenwood Application 45 Version 1 (‘The Master’)
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood 88: Sketch*
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers
Jonny Greenwood Loop

Jonny Greenwood (electric guitar / ondes Martenot / tanpura)
Daniel Pioro (violin)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Ian Anderson (viola)
Brian O’Kane (cello)
Clare O’Connell (cello)
Dave Brown (double bass)
*Gwenaëlle Rouger (piano)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Erik Nyström (sound designer)
Graeme Stewart (sound engineer)

[Photo: Hugh Brunt]

BECK

Part of Doug Aitken’s Station to Station: A 30 Day Happening

More info >>
The Guardian write-up >>

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Best Kept Secret Festival

Jonny Greenwood Miniature
Edmund Finnis Brother
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Mica Levi Love (‘Under The Skin’)*
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers
Jonny Greenwood Loop

[Photo: Hugh Brunt]

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Dublin

Beck with special guests Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists

Jonny Greenwood Miniature
Edmund Finnis Brother
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Mica Levi Love (‘Under The Skin’)*
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Jonny Greenwood Loop
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers

[Photo: Galya Bisengalieva]

LCO Soloists

Laurence Crane Holt Quartet
Xenakis Tetora
Mica Levi Saw
Schnittke A Paganini
John Lely The Harmonics of Real Strings
David Stephen Grant Bånsull

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Mira Benjamin (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Gregor Riddell (cello)

London Music Masters: New Music Concert

Mark Simpson Barkham Fantasy
Donnacha Dennehy North Wall
Edmund Finnis Brother
Helen Grime To See the Summer Sky
Mark Bowden Five Memos

Robert Ames (viola)
Eloisa-Fleur Thom (violin)
Roderick Chadwick (piano)
Hyeyoon Park (violin)
Richard Uttley (piano)

Discrete Positions: LCO Soloists

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Mira Benjamin (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Gregor Riddell (cello)

More info >>

LCO Soloists: The Hub Sessions II

Call for Scores workshop:
Stephen Wilkinson Frail

Vivier Cinq Chansons pour Percussion: Chanson du Matin
Couperin Première Suite des Pièces de Violes: Prélude
Vivier Cinq Chansons pour Percussion: Chanson à Midi
Couperin Première Suite des Pièces de Violes: Courante
Vivier Cinq Chansons pour Percussion: Chanson au Soleil
Couperin Première Suite des Pièces de Violes: Allemande Légère
Vivier Cinq Chansons pour Percussion: Chanson à la Mort
Couperin Première Suite des Pièces de Violes: Sarabande Grave
Vivier Cinq Chansons pour Percussion: Chanson d’Adieu

Edmund Finnis Colour Field Painting

Sam Wilson (percussion)
Liam Byrne (viola da gamba)
Tom Foster (harpsichord)
Edmund Finnis (sound projection)

Harmonic Series: LCO Soloists

Morton Feldman untitled work for solo violin (unpublished)*
Catherine Lamb String Quartet (world premiere)

*Daniel Pioro (violin)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)

LCO Soloists: The Hub Sessions I

Scelsi Trio for Strings
Caroline Haines (aka CHAINES) new work

Call for Scores workshop:
Neil Quigley crutch

Mica Levi Love (from ‘Under the Skin’)
Edmund Finnis Brother (new extended version)

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Festival Antigel

Jonny Greenwood Miniature
Jonny Greenwood Setting Up Arrows
Edmund Finnis Sister
Jonathan Harvey Ricercare una Melodia
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Mica Levi Love (‘Under The Skin’)
Jonny Greenwood 88 (new material)
Jonny Greenwood Loop
Interval
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Jonny Greenwood Sweetness of Freddie (‘The Master’)
Schnittke A Paganini
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (‘There Will Be Blood’)
Parsons In Nomine III à 5
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers
Encore:
Jonny Greenwood Loop

Jonny Greenwood & LCO Soloists: Oxford

Goldfrapp

London duo Goldfrapp returned to the Royal Albert Hall for a special one-off show with the LCO.

The show saw a 20-piece orchestra and choir join Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory to perform their sixth studio album, 2013’s Tales of Us, in its entirety, as well as a selection of other Goldfrapp favourites.

A sumptuous body of work, Tales Of Us was two years in the crafting and is their most narrative, cinematic and intimate recording so far. All the album’s songs, bar the haunting Stranger, are named in the first person with a cast list of evocative character sketches.

Support for the performance came from singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle.

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Manchester

Imogen Heap’s Reverb

Howard Skempton Lento
Delia Derbyshire The Delian Mode (electronics)
Nick Ryan Synaes (world premiere, Roundhouse commission)
Edmund Finnis Between Rain (world premiere, LCO commission)
Kaija Saariaho Verblendungen

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

There Will Be Blood: Live – Roundhouse

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning There Will Be Blood with Jonny Greenwood’s score performed live by the LCO

Jonny Greenwood (ondes Martenot)
Daniel Pioro (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

More info >>
The Independent review (5*) >>

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Roundhouse

InTRANSIT Festival: Across White Air

*Robert Ames (viola)
^Oliver Coates (cello)
**Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Erik Nyström (sound design)

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Farnborough

James Lavelle’s MELTDOWN

UNKLE play a specially created, audiovisual show for Meltdown, presented by James Lavelle and Mara Carlyle.

This one-off show features the LCO (conducted by Robert Ames), Goldsmiths Vocal Ensemble, Mark Lanegan, DJ Shadow, Rosie Lowe, Liela Moss, Keaton Henson and Michèle Lamy. Visuals are provided by Nathan Coley, Doug Foster, Jonathan Glazer, UVA, Toby Dye, The Light Surgeons and Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones.

More info >>

Mirepoix Musique

A programme of English string music including John Woolrich’s Capriccio and Ulysses Awakes

Daniel Pioro (violin)
Charlotte Bonneton (viola)
Robert Ames (conductor)

More info >>

LCO Soloists: Liam Byrne

Harmonic Series: LCO Soloists

Laurence Crane Raimondas Rumsas
Laurence Crane Sparling 2000
Howard Skempton Tendrils
Éliane Radigue L’isle re-sonante

LCO Soloists: Mr. Underwood / Kit Downes

Mr. Underwood / Kit Downes / Sasha Koushk-Jalali

Jonny Greenwood and LCO Soloists: Wapping

Lower room
Jonny Greenwood Reiko (Norwegian Wood)
Jonny Greenwood Miniature (new material)
Edmund Finnis Brother
Jonny Greenwood Fight with Cudgels (new material)
Xenakis Kottos
Jonny Greenwood Prospectors Arrive (There Will Be Blood)
Parsons In Nomine III a 5
Jonny Greenwood Application 45 Version 1 (The Master)
Messiaen Vocalise-Étude
Jonny Greenwood Microtonal Sketches (new material)
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (There Will Be Blood)
Jonny Greenwood Mata Aini Kuru Kara Ne (Norwegian Wood)
J.S. Bach Cello Suite. 5 in D minor: III Courante
Jonny Greenwood Future Markets (There Will Be Blood)
Jonny Greenwood Loop (new material)
Jonny Greenwood Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers (new material)

Jonny Greenwood (electric guitar / ondes Martenot / tanpura)
Daniel Pioro (violin)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Charlotte Bonneton (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Jonathan Byers (cello)
Dave Brown (double bass)
Antoine Françoise (piano)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Erik Nyström (sound designer)

LCO would like to thank:

Baxter & Bailey
Maxim Bendall
Viviana Bianchini
Grace Cole
Drambuie
Bryce Edge
Faber Music
Edmund Finnis
Timothy Greaves
Jonny Greenwood
Amy Hinds
Joe Hyames
Shin Katan
Rosanna Lowton
Point Source
Emma Reynolds
Harry Ross
UK Real Estate Ltd.
W Communications
With Associates

LCO Soloists: Antoine Françoise

Pianist Antoine Françoise presents a 4-hour meditation on unknown material.

Silent Shakespeare

Sunday 1 December 2013
St James Theatre, London

Screening of Silent Shakespeare with live accompaniment (score by Laura Rossi)

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

LCO Soloists

Friday 29 November 2013
LimeWharf, London

Rozalie Hirs Bridge of Babel
Edmund Finnis Brother
W.A. Mozart Duo in Bb for Violin and Viola, K. 424
Taking Time – a film by Anne Harild with live electronic soundtrack by Edmund Finnis

Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Charlotte Bonneton (viola)

LCO Soloists

Friday 25 October 2013
LimeWharf, London

La Monte Young Composition No. 7
J.S. Bach Two-part Invention No. 6 in E major
Edmund Finnis Sister
Martin Suckling Nocturne
Laurence Crane Raimondas Rumsas
Jennifer Walshe The Book of Tamworth

Daniel Pioro (violin)
Oliver Coates (cello)

Nike: FEEL LONDON

Edmund Finnis Sister
Edmund Finnis Brother
Gregor Riddell Whirl (LCO commission)

Daniel Pioro (violin)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Christopher Graves (cello)
Harry Cameron-Penny (clarinet)
Ric Elsworth (percussion)

Nike: FEEL LONDON

Thursday 17 October 2013
Shoreditch Studios, London

Edmund Finnis Sister
Edmund Finnis Brother
Gregor Riddell Whirl (world premiere, LCO commission)

Daniel Pioro (violin)
Galya Bisengalieva (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Christopher Graves (cello)
Harry Cameron-Penny (clarinet)
Ric Elsworth (percussion)

Imagined Occasions: Oval Space

Robert Ames (conductor)

Micachu aftershow DJ set

Imagined Occasions: Primrose Hill – Roundhouse

Primrose Hill
Vivier Zipangu*
Edmund Finnis Colour Field Painting (world premiere, LCO commission)

Roundhouse
Stockhausen KLANG – Die 24 Stunden des Tages
21st Hour: Paradies (world premiere, 8-track version)
9th Hour: Hoffnung (London premiere)
7th Hour: Balance (UK premiere)
13th Hour: Cosmic Pulses

*Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Kathinka Pasveer (sound projection)

Co-production with the Roundhouse
Part of Bloomberg Summer at the Roundhouse – Conrad Shawcross Timepiece

Photos: © Bruce Atherton / Jana Chiellino 2013

Imagined Occasions: Aldwych Underground

Cage Excerpts – 7pm to 8pm
Philippe Manoury Dickinson Studies
Feldman The Viola In My Life 3
Thomas Adès Darknesse Visible
Gregor Riddell Det Usynlige (world premiere, LCO commission)
Øyvind Torvund Neon Forest Space (UK premiere)
Cage Imaginary Landscape No. 1
Harvey The Angels
Vivier Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele
(London premiere)
Brothers Quay/Stockhausen In Absentia

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

LCO Soloists

Saturday 27 April 2013
The Victorian Vaults, London

Gerald Barry Triorchic Blues (solo violin)
Jonathan Harvey Chant (solo viola)
György Kurtág Signs, Games and Messages (solo cello)
Oliver Knussen Secret Psalm (solo violin)
Benedict Mason String Quartet No. 1

Post-concert screening: Andrzej Krauze The Flying Lesson

Daniel Pioro & Galya Bisengalieva (violins)
Robert Ames (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)

LCO Soloists

Wednesday 6 – Friday 8 March 2013
LimeWharf, London

Music by Howard Skempton, Purcell and Jonathan Harvey

PRS for Music Foundation – New Year Party 2013

Performances from Kwes, Sam Lee, LCO, Ayanna and Hatcham Social (DJ set)

Southbank Centre: Meltdown Festival

Sunday 12 August
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London

William Basinski (arr. Maxim Moston) Disintegration Loop 2.1 (World premiere)
William Basinski (arr. Maxim Moston) Disintegration Loop 1.1 (European premiere)

Ryan McAdams (conductor)

BT London Live 2012: LCO Soloists

Thursday 2 August
Victoria Park (Main Stage), London

Eckhart Kopetski Canned Heat
Steve Reich Nagoya Marimbas
Mara Carlyle Bowlface En Provence; King; I Blame You Not; The Devil And Me

Mara Carlyle (singer)
Daniel Pioro & Beatrice Philips (violins)
Robert Ames (viola)
Peteris Sokolovskis (cello)
Nick Ramm (piano)
Jack Fawcett & Samuel Hoile (percussion)

Latitude Festival: LCO Soloists

Friday 13 July
Latitude Festival (Film & Music Arena), Henham Park, Suffolk

Xenakis Rebonds B
Steve Reich Nagoya Marimbas
Mara Carlyle Bowlface En Provence; King; I Blame You Not; The Devil And Me

Mara Carlyle (singer)
Daniel Pioro & Beatrice Philips (violins)
Robert Ames (viola)
Peteris Sokolovskis (cello)
Antoine Françoise (piano)
Ric Elsworth & Jack Fawcett (percussion)

Royal Albert Hall: LCO Soloists

Tuesday 10 July
Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room), London

Thomas Adès Darknesse Visible
Jonathan Cole Simulacrum
Berio Sequenza IXa
George Benjamin Three Miniatures for Solo Violin
Cage Excerpts – 7pm to 8pm
Feldman The Viola in My Life III
Jonathan Harvey Homage to Cage
Xenakis Psappha

Scott Lygate (clarinet)
Daniel Pioro (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Antoine Françoise (piano)
Joley Cragg (percussion)

Union Chapel: Dixon Clark Court Symphony

Thursday 21 June
Union Chapel, London

A unique, site-specific sound installation with a hundred and sixty-five sounds identified, collected and curated from the neighbouring Islington towers of Dixon Clark Court and Union Chapel. Arranged by Sarah Strang, composed by Nathaniel Robin Mann and Daniel Merrill with live performance by the LCO.

Roundhouse: Reverb 2012

Saturday 3 March 2012
Roundhouse, London

Xenakis Metastasis
Gabriel Prokofiev Concerto for Bass Drum and Orchestra (European Premiere)*
Stockhausen Studie I (Elektronische Musik)
Jonny Greenwood Doghouse
Vivier Orion

Joby Burgess (bass drum)
Daniel Pioro (violin) | Robert Ames (viola) | Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Spitalfields Music: Winter Festival

Monday 12 December
Shoreditch Church, London

Vivier Pulau Dewata
Martin Suckling de sol y grana (world premiere, commissioned by London Music Masters)
Grisey Vortex Temporum

Agata Szymczewska (violin)
Antoine Françoise (piano)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Royal Opera House: Deloitte Ignite 2011

Sunday 4 September
Royal Opera House, London (Paul Hamlyn Hall)

Mike Figgis’s Just Tell The Truth

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Roundhouse: Curtain Call

Tuesday 23 August
Roundhouse, London

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Tallis Sancte Deus
John Adams Shaker Loops
Tallis O Nata Lux
John Woolrich Ulysses Awakes
Tallis Salvator Mundi
Arvo Pärt Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten

London Contemporary Orchestra & Choir
Robert Ames (viola)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Latitude Festival: LCO Soloists

InTRANSIT Festival

The Old Vic Tunnels: LCO Soloists

Friday 13 May 2011
The Old Vic Tunnels, Waterloo

Jonathan Cole/Colin Alexander Forum for ensemble (world premiere)
Feldman The Viola In My Life II for viola and ensemble
Colin Alexander Transmission for trumpet (world premiere)
Laurence Crane Three Pieces for Solo Cello
John Woolrich 5 Scherzi for violin (world premiere)
Xenakis Rebonds B for percussion
Jonathan Cole Simulacrum for viola (world premiere, revised version)
Thomas Adès Catch for clarinet, piano, violin and cello

Aftershow:
Shiva Feshareki
Micachu

Hannah Grayson (flute)
Harry Cameron-Penny (clarinet)
Huw Morgan (trumpet)
Antoine Françoise (piano/celeste)
Sarah Cresswell (percussion)
Daniel Pioro (violin)
Robert Ames (viola)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Sebastian Durkin (sound design)

Belle and Sebastian: UK Tour

The Sage Gateshead Sunday 5 December 2010
Symphony Hall, Birmingham Monday 6 December 2010
O2 Apollo Manchester Tuesday 7 December 2010

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Roundhouse: Frank Zappa

Roundhouse: Metropolis

Latitude Festival: Belle and Sebastian

Saturday 17 July 2010
Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk

Belle and Sebastian & LCO

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Latitude Festival: Aldeburgh Music’s ‘Faster Than Sound’

Spitalfields Music: Summer Festival

Friday 25 June 2010
Village Underground, Shoreditch

Vivier Zipangu
Schnittke Concerto Grosso No. 1
Brothers Quay Street of Crocodiles

Daniel Pioro & Charlotte Bonneton (violins)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Aldeburgh Music: Faster Than Sound

Saturday 15 May 2010
Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk

Tristan Brookes Ur (world premiere)
Emily Hall & Toby Litt Songs (world premiere)
Jonathan Cole burburbabbar za (world premiere, revised version)
Jonny Greenwood smear

Mara Carlyle (singer)
Oliver Coates (cello)
John Reid (piano)
Cynthia Millar & Valérie Hartmann-Claverie (ondes Martenot)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Call for Scores Workshop

Saturday 23 January 2010
Roundhouse, Camden (Studio Theatre)

Jaime Hamilton one pile of inseperable ashes…
Lina Tonia Prismatic
Daniel McCallum Fading Sunlight

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Panel: John Woolrich, Marcus Davey and Rolf Hind

Roundhouse: Reverb

Saturday 23 January 2010
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)

View photos >>
Watch video >>

Jonathan Cole: burburbabbar za

Saturday 27 June 2009
Village Underground, Shoreditch

Jonathan Cole simulacrum
Jonathan Cole burburbabbar za (LCO commission, world premiere)

Robert Ames (viola)

Matmos & LCO

Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 May 2009
Village Underground, Shoreditch

Headline:
Matmos – Drew Daniel & M.C. Schmidt (orchestrations by Anna Meredith)
Listen to clip >>

Support:
Howard Quin & Micromattic (LCO commission, world premiere)
Sarah Nicolls

Call for Scores Workshop

Sunday 11 January 2009
The Warehouse, Waterloo

Tristan Brookes Fragments for Hypatia
Steven Daverson Elusive Tangibility IV: O-Tsukimi
Ruaidhri Mannion He broke from them, and then he broke from himself
Camilo Mendez 3 Constellations

Baldur Brönnimann (conductor)

Panel: Jonathan Cole, Richard Barrett, Rolf Hind

United Visual Artists & LCO

Monday 17 November 2008
Covent Garden Market

Covent Garden Christmas Lights Launch

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

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LSO St Luke’s: 2008 Season

Friday 10 October 2008
LSO St Luke’s, Old Street

Britten Serenade for tenor, horn and strings
Emily Hall Put Flesh On! (LCO commission, world premiere) Listen to clip >>
Jonny Greenwood Popcorn Superhet Receiver Listen to clip >>
Messiaen Les Offrandes Oubliées

Andrew O’Brien (tenor)
Nicholas Ireson (horn)
Oliver Coates (cello)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)
Sound Intermedia

LSO St Luke’s: 2008 Season

Saturday 6 September 2008
LSO St Luke’s, Old Street

Colin Alexander Potential Fracture Lines (world premiere)
Simon Holt a second box of brief candles
Simon Holt Lilith
Jonathan Cole Assassin Hair (world premiere, revised version)

Amy Moore (soprano)
Mark Simpson (clarinet)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

LSO St Luke’s: 2008 Season

Sunday 15 June 2008
LSO St Luke’s, Old Street

Erkki-Sven Tüür Searching for Roots (Hommage à Sibelius) (London premiere)
Kaija Saariaho Nymphea Reflection
Thomas Adès Violin Concerto ‘Concentric Paths’
Sibelius Tapiola

Thomas Gould (violin)
Hugh Brunt (conductor)

LSO St Luke’s: 2008 Season (Inaugural Concert)