Southbank Centre Adds New Names For SoundState Festival

The Southbank Centre has today announced a new addition to its programme for the pioneering festival of new music, SoundState. Taking place over five days from 30 March until 3 April, SoundState will exclusively champion new works with paid-for and free concerts by performers and composers who are radically reimagining what it means to make music in the 21st century.

Joining the festival on Sunday 3 April, GBSR Duo and Eva-Maria Houben will deliver Houben's evocative work for piano, percussion and organ, 'together on the way'. Performed for the first time in 2021, the piece is full of shifting segments which explore how time and music intertwine as the three instruments respond to one another.

SoundState kicks off on Wednesday 30 March with the London Philharmonic Orchestra: Visions & Utterances. A collection of works performed by one of the Centre's Resident Orchestras, conducted by Edward Gardner, the evening will include the UK premieres of Missy Mazzoli's sweeping 'River Rouge Transfiguration' and Rebecca Saunders' formidable 'to an utterance'. The London Philharmonic Orchestra will also debut Mason Bates' water-inspired conceptual work 'Liquid Interference', a rushing mix of orchestral sounds and electronica which invokes the devastating impact of rising temperatures.

The following day, on Thursday 31 March, fellow Southbank Centre residents the London Sinfonietta will perform a varied programme including the world premieres of 'Deformation of Mastery' by George Lewis and 'Candyfolk SpaceDrum' by Alex Paxton. This kaleidoscopic and frenetic work is inspired by the paintings of Bosch and Bruegel, and features a children's choir as well as an improvising soloist and live electronics.

A true titan of contemporary vocal talent, Meredith Monk will take to the Royal Festival Hall stage on Friday 1 April to perform the UK premiere of 'Memory Games'. Drawing on her creative fluidity as a filmmaker, choreographer and composer, 'Memory Games' is a remarkable arrangement of previously unrecorded works. It will include fragments from her award-winning sci-fi opera The Games, as well as new versions of several pieces originally released on records Do You Be (1987) and impermanence (2008). Monk, who has inspired a generation of artists and become a potent touchstone for cultural figures as diverse as the Cohen Brothers to DJ Shadow, will be joined by genre blurring ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars, who have achieved international stardom for their ultra-dynamic live shows.

Saturday 2 April, meanwhile, features an action-packed bill of performances. At 2pm, acclaimed string ensemble the Arditti Quartet, champions of contemporary chamber music for over 40 years, will showcase their prowess with UK premieres from Betsy Jolas, Tansy Davies and more. Later in the day in the Purcell Room, pianist Mark Knoop will apply his versatile technique and individuality to a world premiere from Akiko Ushijima.

Bringing Saturday to a thrilling climax, celebrated flautist Claire Chase will give a very special in-the-round performance of Liza Lim's 'Sex Magic' in the Queen Elizabeth Hall - not once, but twice. Co-commissioned by the Southbank Centre and Chase as part of her epic 24-year long project Destiny 2036, 'Sex Magic' will be performed at 5pm and 8pm. The piece explores the power of the female body, from the cycles of the womb to life-making powers of childbirth, through a unique combination of contrabass flute, electronics and installed kinetic instruments.

Finally, closing out SoundState on Sunday 3 April, Southbank Centre residents the Philharmonia Orchestra continue their much loved free-to-attend Music of Today series. Members of the Philharmonia Orchestra will be joined by Wu Wei, the world-renowned master of the sheng, a Chinese mouth organ, in the Purcell Room for Liza Lim's compelling 'How Forests Think'. Anna Thorvaldsdottir's 'Entropic Arrows' completes the programme.

Gillian Moore CBE, Director of Music and Performing Arts at the Southbank Centre, said: "The success of 2019's inaugural edition of SoundState made it clear there was an appetite for bold new music that interrogates our understanding of music and the world. 2022's five-day programme will confirm the essential importance of these artists and composers, engaging with universal issues from climate change to the female body, and further elevate the Southbank Centre's status as an unparalleled home for boundary breaking creativity that is open to all."

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