Barbican Centre News

The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) have announced that they will embark on a two-week tour of North America in April 2019, where they will give eight concerts over 15 days in major cities including New York, Boston, and Stanford.

The ASPECT Foundation for Music & Arts continues its third New York City season of illuminating performances on Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7:30pm with Classical Vienna at Bohemian National Hall. The program features the acclaimed Orion String Quartet in Haydn's String Quartet Op. 50 No. 2 and Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581 performed with clarinetist Alexander Bedenko.

The celebration of Russian composers continues as CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov and the musicians of the Columbus Symphony present a program that juxtaposes Tchaikovsky's passionate, romantic music against Prokofiev's bold symphonic tableaux. The program includes the Suite from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty as well as his Piano Concerto No. 1 featuring special guest pianist Sergei Babayan. The performance will conclude with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5.

Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Martyna Majok's Cost of Living receives its highly anticipated UK Premiere at Hampstead Theatre - making it the 100th premiere since Edward Hall and Greg Ripley-Duggan took charge in 2010.

Writer and Director Che Walker returns to the Finborough Theatre to direct the European premiere of his own play Time Is Love/Tiempo es Amor, opening at the Finborough Theatre for a four-week limited season on Tuesday, 1 January 2019 (Press Nights: Thursday, 3 January and Friday, 4 January 2019 at 7.30pm).

The Yard has announced a new season of work to kick off 2019.

Ibibio Sound Machine return with their first new material since their widely acclaimed second album Uyai arrived in March 2017 on Merge Records. Fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, the UK-based group is a clash of African and electronic elements inspired in equal measure by the golden era of West African funk, disco, modern post-punk and electro. Their new single--the groovesome, strutting “Basquiat”--was written as part of the Barbican's Video Jam, an event inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat that took place earlier this year in the UK. Hear “Basquiat” below! 

The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) have returned from a triumphant first season in-residence at London's Barbican Centre, cementing their international reputation as the world's most dynamic and innovative chamber orchestra.

The Volksbuhne will present a special concert dedicated to the work of Irmin Schmidt and the band CAN on 16 December 2018, as part of The CAN Project. In the first part of the evening, Irmin Schmidt will conduct the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, presenting some of his own compositions for orchestra for the first time in Germany: Irmin Schmidt Filmmusiken I/II/III (orchestral arrangement Georg Schwellenbach) and Can Dialog, a composition for a large orchestra by Irmin Schmidt and Gregor Schwellenbach. The second half features a CAN tribute concert with AUTOMAT, the band from Jochen Arbeit (Einsturzende Neubauten), and guests like Peaches, Gemma Ray, Tikiman, Bettina Koster, Max Loderbauer and Andrew Zammit.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (COP) explores the sound of the pipa alongside familiar European repertoire with works of Mozart and Dvo?ak. These works for strings by master composers are followed by a traditional Chinese tune arranged by COP's own Dirk Brosse. The Pipa is showcased alongside the Chamber Orchestra's sound in Lou Harrison's Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra. Wu Man will also first introduce us to the instrument by playing a solo piece for the Pipa in the intimate setting of the Perelman Theater.

Dorothy thinks she is lost forever when a terrifying tornado crashes through Kansas and whisks her and her dog, Toto, far away to the magical land of Oz. To get home Dorothy must follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and find the wonderfully mysterious Wizard of Oz. Together with her companions - the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, whom she meets on the way - Dorothy embarks on a strange and enchanting adventure.

LA-based music collective, wild Up, returns to the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts with of Ascension, the first Jazz Club performances for the 2018/19 season on November 8 & 10, 2018.  of Ascension, co-commissioned by The Soraya, is a musical journey inspired by John Coltrane's legendary 1966 album, Ascension. 

The acclaimed fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh was commissioned by the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2010 to create a new band. A band the like of which had never been heard before. He settled on three very different musicians – Seán Mac Erlaine – a Dublin jazz musician and composer, Petter Berndalen – a Swedish folk drummer, and Nic Gareiss – an American hard shoe percussive dancer. They were to rehearse and perform once as part of the festival.

By popular demand, Australia's award-winning contemporary circus ensemble, Circa, returns to Bass Concert Hall with a new program, Humans. Ten acrobats take us on a stirring journey of what it means to be human and how our bodies, our connections, and our aspirations all form part of who we are.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage this season, led by Music Director and Conductor Andris Nelsons, for two concerts featuring notable soloists.

The Gish Prize Trust today announced that the inspired Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, has been selected to receive the 25th annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in recognition of his ongoing achievements as a conductor and an advocate for music education. Established in 1994 through the will of legendary stage and screen actress Lillian Gish, known as the First Lady of Cinema, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is one of the most prestigious honors given to artists in the United States and bears one of the largest cash awards, currently valued at approximately $250,000.

Composer Heidi Rodewald, known for her collaborations with Stew on Passing Strange and The Total Bent, strikes out on her own in The Good Swimmer, a "pop requiem" that addresses issues of war, heroism, sacrifice, loss, and idealism. The moody, multi-layered song-cycle for guitar, bass, piano, trumpet, woodwinds, strings, drums, and vocals is performed by a nine-piece band led by singer David Driver. Set in the early days of the Vietnam War among a group of lifeguards, Donna Di Novelli's lyrics are a radical recontextualization of found texts, including a defunct lifesaving manual. A cast of young singers in their teens and early 20s at the start of their professional careers-Jeremy Weiss, Sophia Byrd, Naseer Sleets, Joey LaPlante, Luke Bob Robinson, Papa Holt, and Kennedy Kanagawa-vividly conveys the sense of young people being thrust into a historical moment they have no control of. Their shattering experience brings the audience to a galvanizing realization: we truly honor our fallen soldiers only when we defy the political drumbeat of a senseless war.  

Lea Salonga is going back on tour! The singer, actress and Broadway icon has announced the Lea Salonga: The Human Heart Tour. Check out a full list of tour dates below!

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announces the actors selected for The Wallis Studio Ensemble's 2018-2019 company. This marks the third season of this groundbreaking company for early-career actors producing theater for social change. The San Diego Tribune describes the emerging ensemble as 'hauntingly beautiful' - and by ArtNowLAas 'Mesmerizing ... harrowing and provocative, this is avant-garde theater that sticks with you long after the curtain comes down." The Ensemble also received the Los Angeles Times theater pick of the week in June 2018 and was featured on NPR's KPCC in a piece by Priska Neely in 2016, in its first season.

The Barbican's Framed Film Festival returns for another weekend of screenings and free workshops and events that celebrates the best cinema from around the world for younger film lovers.