From the Vestry
Hear a new acoustic work from Coby Sey and the London Contemporary Orchestra, building on their Purcell Sessions collaboration.
Coby Sey is a vocalist, musician and DJ who offers a shifting, disorienting vision of club music.
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.
Commissioned by Serious
Need to know
This event is free, but ticketed. Seating is unallocated and tickets don’t guarantee entry: admission is on a first come, first served basis for those with tickets. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
This 15-minute piece is performed twice, with a short Q&A session with the composer between the performances.
Dates & times
Price
- Standard entryFree, but ticketed
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Venue
Purcell Room
Our number one priority is the health and wellbeing of our visitors and staff.
Open 90 minutes before an event until the end of the event. Closed at all other times.
Our address is: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. The nearest tube and train stations within 5-7 minutes walk are Waterloo (Northern, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Waterloo & City lines) and Embankment (District & Circle lines). There are also lots of bus routes with stops 2-5 minutes from our venues. For more information on getting here by road, rail or river.
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More information
Find out all you need to know about tickets, including concessions, group bookings, returns, credit vouchers and more, via the link below.
Get an overview of the seating layout of the Purcell Room by downloading our seating plan.
Toilets
An accessible toilet is located in the foyer.
A Changing Places toilet is located on Level 1 Royal Festival Hall next to the JCB Glass Lift, for the exclusive use of disabled people who need personal assistance to use the toilet.
The facility includes a height-adjustable bench, tracking hoist system, a centrally-placed toilet, a height-adjustable basin and a shower. The phone outside the Changing Places toilet will connect you with a member of staff, who can provide you with the key. The facility is open daily 10am – 11pm.
Cloakroom
The Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room cloakroom is closed. You won’t be able to bring any bags over 40 x 25 x 25cm into the venues, so please leave large bags at home.
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Purcell Room is located in Queen Elizabeth Hall. For step-free access please use Royal Festival Hall JCB glass lift to Level 2 and enter via Riverside Terrace.
Talk to a member of staff at the auditorium entrance if you have a disability that means you can’t queue, or you need extra time to take your seat. They can arrange priority entry for you as soon as the doors open.
Please bear with us while we update our access map to reflect the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall’s Level 2 foyer spaces. The step-free routes remain the same.