New Music for New Music Biennial on its 10th anniversary
How would you respond to the many challenges currently facing individuals and communities around the world? Through music? In no more than 15 minutes?
That’s the challenge set to 10 of the UK’s most exciting composers and music creators for this year’s New Music Biennial. The contemporary classical festival produced by PRS Foundation and the Southbank Centre offers a unique snapshot of contemporary music in an easily accessible form.
Initially launched as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad – as New Music 20x12 – New Music Biennial has given us a myriad of new critically acclaimed compositions from artists including Anna Meredith, Mica Levi, Hannah Peel, Errollyn Wallen, GoGoPenguin, and Shiva Feshareki.
With 2022 marking 10 years of New Music Biennial, 10 new pieces have been commissioned especially for the 2022 edition of the festival. These will be performed for free at the Southbank Centre, alongside existing pieces from the festival’s first decade, on 1 – 3 July. Here’s an introduction to each of these new works.
New works for 2022
‘The Moon Has Become’ by Yazz Ahmed
Conceived as a response to Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon installation, Yazz Ahmed’s ‘The Moon Has Become’ showcases new sound palettes and studio techniques explored by the composer during the pandemic. This composition is presented as a surround-sound sonic artwork and performed live by Ahmed's 11-piece ensemble.
Composer and trumpeter Ahmed is known for blurring the lines between jazz and electronic sound design, bringing together the sounds of her mixed heritage. This piece has been commissioned by WOMAD, with Jerram’s installation having appeared at this year’s WOMAD festival.
‘Tape Music’ by Paul Purgas
Enjoy a celebration and exploration of Tape from artist and electronic musician Paul Purgas in this new commission. In the footsteps of Delia Derbyshire's trailblazing work with the Radiophonic Workshop, and inspired by the traditions of musique concrète, Purgas explores the past and future of analogue tape composition.
Originally trained as an architect, Purgas has presented projects with Tramway, Tate Modern, Camden Art Centre and Spike Island and is currently a resident at Somerset House Studios.
‘He Sings Over Me’ by Afrodeutsche
Afrodeutsche, Manchester Camerata and Robert Ames give the London premiere of a bold new work commissioned by NEWFORM, which represents the cutting edge of Manchester’s cultural and musical language. Otherwise known as Henrietta Smith-Rolla, Afrodeutsche, is a composer, producer and DJ based in Manchester. At the forefront of the city’s cultural scene for 50 years Manchester Camerata combines touring internationally with running a groundbreaking community-focused social impact programme at home. They will be led in this event by conductor Robert Ames, co-Artistic Director and co-Principal Conductor of the London Contemporary Orchestra.
‘Split the Air’ by Martin Green
The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain plays music from Ivor Novello-winning composer Martin Green, who harnesses the raw power of brass in new commission ‘Split the Air’. known for pushing sonic boundaries, Green leads this new generation of brass band players into unknown territories to bring scale and excitement, and present brass in its purest form. The NYBBGB is the UK’s leading brass band charity for children and young people, and they, along with Lepus Productions, have commissioned this piece.
‘It’ by Rakhi Singh, Vessel & NYX
Rakhi Singh, Vessel and NYX combine in this new work of violin, electronics and vocal ensemble, which explores Danish poet Inger Christensen’s masterpiece ‘It’. Co-founder of our current Resident Artists, Manchester Collective, Rakhi Singh is a violinist, collaborator and composer. For this piece she is joined by her frequent collaborator Seb Gainsborough, also known as Vessel, whose work has recently shifted from strictly electronic into more wider instrumental realms. And, NYX, a collaborative electronic drone choir which looks to reshape the role of the traditional female choir.
‘Bog Body’ by Keeley Forsyth
Commissioned by Sound UK, ‘Bog Body’ is an innovative audiovisual performance piece crafted around the drama of Keeley Forsyth’s voice, in collaboration with composer Ross Downes. The work explores our relationship with the ancient ritualistic role, and the environmental importance, of peat bogs. Forsyth is a composer, singer and actor whose music is centred around a singular, emotionally raw and magnetic vocal delivery. Musician and fine artist Downes composes darkly ambient, electronic, instrumental music; his recordings are filmic meditations which combine atmospheric sound design with influences from minimal, industrial and contemporary classical music.
‘From the Vestry’ by Coby Sey
This new acoustic work from Coby Sey and the London Contemporary Orchestra builds on their Purcell Sessions collaboration at the Southbank Centre earlier this year. It represents a radical departure for Sey, a vocalist, musician, DJ and producer who is better known for his electronic work which delivers a disorienting vision of club music. Not one to shy away from collaboration, before working with LCO he had partnered with artists including Tirzah, Mica Levi and Lafawndah. ‘From the Vestry’ was commissioned for New Music Biennial by Serious.
‘The Crossing’ by Roopa Panesar
Commissioned by Opera North, ‘The Crossing’ sees sitarist Roopa Panesar and pianist Al MacSween improvise their way through the changing emotional states generated by an Indian classical raga. Taking its name from the crossing and re-crossing of the improvisatory lines of sitar and piano ‘The Crossing’ surrounds listeners to create an intimate environment inspired by traditional Hindustani Baithak concerts. Panesar has toured extensively in the UK and Europe, including previous appearances at the Southbank Centre, and has collaborated with artists including Laura Wright and Talvin Singh.
‘Breathlines’ by Toby Young
Hypnotic and reflective, energetic and rhythmic, the varied colours of the saxophone are combined with a focus on our breathing in Toby Young’s immersive saxophone concerto. ‘Breathlines’ takes its inspiration from baroque music infused with crossover-classical vibes, and is performed by classical saxophonist Amy Dickson alongside an ensemble of baroque strings, recorders, electronics and solo voices from Armonico Consort who commissioned the piece. The audience are encouraged to listen to the music, and think about their own breathing, under the guidance of Dickson.
‘Towards Renewal’ by Philip Herbert
Commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra, this new orchestral piece from Philip Herbert navigates a tapestry of sound-worlds. Herbert’s score features dark, reflective, agitated and sometimes introspective moments, as well as much more animated, joyous, hopeful and positive visions. Drawing on a wide range of musical influences, Towards Renewal’s episodic construction considers the recent global pandemic and how we chose to deal with it, as well as imagining futures without Covid-19.
Returning works at New Music Biennial
As well as these newly commissioned works, a number of pieces from the 10 years of New Music Biennial will also be performed at the Southbank Centre as part of the 2022 edition of the festival. Here’s where and when you can see these pieces.
Saturday 2 July
Commissioned for the 2019 New Music Biennial by the BBC Concert Orchestra, The Power and the Glory was written by composer, producer and musician Gazelle Twin in collaboration with composer Max de Wardener. You can experience this blend of traditional musical concepts and futuristic pop in our Queen Elizabeth Hall at 2pm. In the same venue at 4.30pm you’ve the chance to enjoy Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes’ 365, which was inspired by James Robertson’s project of writing a 365 word story every day for a year. 365 is the result of O’Rourke applying the same discipline to composition, with tunes in response to each of Robertson’s stories.
Beyond the Queen Elizabeth Hall, in the Purcell Room at 1pm, you have the chance to relax in a world of birdsong with Arlene Sierra’s Urban Birds. This work sees three pianists flock together as international soloists Xenia Pestova Bennett, Sarah Nicolls and Eliza McCarthy imitate and answer samples of birdsong. Offering something of a contrast to this piece is Jason Yarde’s Skip, Dash, Flow, a huge explosion of sound performed in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer at 6.30pm by Wonderbrass. Composed to celebrate the London Olympics of 2012, the piece ploughs a musical journey from the pentatonic music of 2008 Olympic host city Beijing, to the samba style of the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
Sunday 3 July
Starting Sunday’s Queen Elizabeth Hall programme is Errollyn Wallen’s Mighty River, performed by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Written for orchestra, this piece takes its inspiration from William Wilberforce, the English politician and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade, and combines contemporary classical techniques with spirituals pioneered by the African-American a capella choir, the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
The NYO relocate to the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer at 2.30pm to perform HandsFree, the 2012 instrument-free composition by Anna Meredith. Back into the Queen Elizabeth Hall at 4pm, for Daniel Elms’ Bethia, a tribute to the composer’s hometown of Hull, which combines acoustic and electronic instruments to reimagine sea shanties and maritime hymns.
All back out into the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer at 5pm for Jessica Curry’s She Who. Commissioned by the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, this innovative choral work celebrates the power of the female. Written by Brian Irvine and Jennifer Walshe for ensemble, improvisers, conductor and voice, 13 Vices melts the boundaries between various disciplines including theatre, opera, poetry and contemporary music. See it in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at 6.30pm.
And New Music Biennial concludes in the same space at 7.30pm with Philip Venables and David Hoyle’s Illusions. Fusing music and performance art, this is part anarchic party political broadcast, part brash musical commission, which tackles themes of power, greed, emotion and sexuality.