Southbank Centre News

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert honoring Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

The Apollo Theater announced today that Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Alice Smith will headline the Apollo's WOW – Women of the World Festival. The performance, featuring new music from her upcoming Full LP Mystery set to release at the end of 2018, is a part of the 3rd annual gathering of artists, activists, and leaders from around the globe at the Apollo Theater beginning March 12 and running through March 17, 2019.  Smith will bring her intoxicating mix of R&B, pop and rock along with a special musical tribute to the world famous Apollo Theater stage on Friday, March 15, 2019 at 8pm.

Josie Lawrence and Joe McGann lead the cast in the first UK production of American literary icon Don DeLillo's Love-Lies-Bleeding. The Print Room rounds off a year of bold and innovative theatre, dance, poetry and film with this perceptive and surprisingly witty story about a family trying to take death into their own hands.

Today, The Old Vic announces the Guardians Network - a collaboration between organisations committed to eliminating abuses of power in the workplace.

The Big House, a charity which enables care leavers and at risk young people to fulfil their potential through drama, wraparound support and long term mentoring, today announces new premises in Islington and the world premiere of Bullet Tongue by Andrew Day and Sonya Hale, a promenade piece through the new building, which will be developed with and performed by a group of young people at risk of social exclusion. The new building's inaugural production, directed by Artistic Director and CEO of The Big House, Maggie Norris, opens on 16 November, with previews from 14 November and runs until 8 December.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2018-2019 season with a concert titled Phenomenal Women presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:30pm. The performance, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan, will feature the world premiere of Valerie Coleman's Phenomenal Women performed by the Imani Winds with ACO; as well as the world premiere of Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, director Amber Treadway, and costumes by Storm Garner. Grammy and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Joan Tower's Chamber Dance from 2006, which treats the orchestra as a chamber ensemble, completes the program.

CIRCUS 1903 will have its European premiere at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall this winter, playing 19 December to 5 January - book tickets here. Get a sneak preview in our video below!

This fall, cello soloist Maya Beiser and composer/conductor Evan Ziporyn embark on a U.S. tour with Ziporyn's Ambient Orchestra, bringing Bowie Symphonic: Blackstar to the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA (Friday, October 12); the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT (Saturday, October 13), Bass Concert Hall presented by Texas Performing Arts in Austin, TX (Thursday, November 1), and Bing Concert Hall presented by Stanford Live in Stanford, CA (Wednesday, November 7). Bowie Symphonic: Blackstar is a startling and soaring new version of David Bowie's entire last album Blackstar for solo cello and orchestra. Arranged for Beiser by Ziporyn, who will also conduct Ambient Orchestra, Bowie Symphonic: Blackstar has been performed to capacity audiences in Boston, Barcelona, and New York City's Central Park SummerStage. For the fall tour, Ambient Orchestra is joined by musicians from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. 

Truth is a spellbinding fusion of song and choreography. Personal stories collected from individuals from across the globe, Hackney to Norway, from Manchester to Mexico describe a moment when someone told a truth or a lie, and the impact of doing so on their life. These testimonies that are by turns devastating, hilarious and touching. The vocal and gestural world created by performers Victoria Couper, Krystian Godlewski, Liz Kettle and Helen Chadwick charges the power of the material with emotion and beauty, inviting us to reflect on our own truth and lies.

Winner of 19 major accolades, including multiple Tony, Olivier and Drama Desk Awards, Stephen Daldry's (Billy Elliot, The Crown) multi award-winning production of J.B. Priestley's classic thriller An Inspector Calls will kick off a four-city U.S. tour at Shakespeare Theatre Company from November 20 through December 23, 2018.

Internationally acclaimed Australian pianist, Sarah Grunstein, returns to the Sydney Opera House by popular demand, to perform two concerts in 2018. While Grunstein is distinguished for her interpretation of Bach's works, described as 'tempestuous' and 'imbued with a luminous calm', the praise she has received is not limited to her performances of this composer.

Brooklyn Music School (BMS) announces a Reunify - A Benefit Concert for Displaced Children today, September 15, 2018 at 6pm. Tickets are $15 - $25 and are available at https://reunify.eventbrite.com.

American-Lithuanian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Abraham Brody has released the first single 'Judith' on the 31st of August from his most compelling body of work yet, titled 'Crossings' scheduled for release on the 16th of November via Bedroom Community.

In the 2018-2019 season, American Composers Orchestra's Commission Club will support Pulitzer Prize Winner Du Yun as she creates Where We Lost Our Shadows (co-commissioned by ACO, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Southbank Centre, and Cal Performances) which will receive its New York premiere on April 11, 2019 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. A new multidisciplinary work for orchestra, film, and vocalists, Du Yun is composing Where We Lost Our Shadows with film captured by Ramallah-based Palestinian visual artist Khaled Jarrar, which documents the refugee crisis in Europe. The piece will be performed by ACO with singer Helga Davis, Pakistani Qawwali singer Ali Sethi, and percussionist Shayna Dunkelman.

Madani Younis announces his departure from the Bush Theatre as he is appointed Creative Director of the Southbank Centre.

Southbank Centre's Chief Executive, Elaine Bedell, today announces the appointment of Madani Younis to the new role of Creative Director. He will take up the post in January 2019.

Chinese Arts Now (CAN) is delighted to be working with  Southbank Centre's China Changing Festival, which runs from Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th October, showcasing contemporary Chinese culture and its connection to the UK.

DIRECT CURRENT, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's two-week celebration of contemporary culture, returns for a second season. Training its focus on new works, interdisciplinary creations in which artistic worlds collide, and creative responses to topical concerns, the 2019 spring immersion showcases some of the most provocative, original, and pioneering voices in the arts today. DIRECT CURRENT takes place on March 25-April 7 at the Kennedy Center and beyond, extending throughout the District of Columbia through collaborations with a number of alternative venues, to expand the growing audience for contemporary culture in the nation's capital.

Dracula is one of the most universally iconic novels ever written. A monumental, genre defining classic that is known the world over. Dracula remains the father of all vampire tales and this autumn an all new production sees the bloodthirsty tale resurrected as part of a nine-week tour, set to receive its most terrifying staging ever when it opens at Cheltenham's Everyman Theatre on Friday 28th September 2018.