London Sinfonietta Highlights: April 2022

New concert announcements, an Earth Day premiere and a creative day out with families. Take a look back at some highlights from April.

Houses Slide: Earth Day premiere on YouTube

To mark Earth Day, we premiered the performance of Laura Bowler's cycle-powered commission Houses Slide. Performed at the Southbank Centre back in July 2021, this piece addresses the most serious issue of our generation, the climate emergency, through the story of one woman's intimate psychological journey to figure out her response to the climate crisis.

With a text created by Cordelia Lynn using submissions from members of the public, this ground-breaking concert presentation conceived and directed by Katie Mitchell was an industry-first, and even involved the soloist, Jessica Aszodi, performing her part from atop one of the 17 onstage bicycles.

Turning Points returns to Kings Place

We announced a new Turning Points concert at Kings Place, a series that explores major contemporary works that influenced the course of musical history.

In a varied programme of works from the 20th century, this immersive concert experience will explore how in different ways they each explored new ground in this enthralling period of artistic and cultural history.

London Sinfonietta musicians in the 1970s, with a purple pindrop overlayed on top

Turning Points: Organised Sound

Wednesday 18 May, 8pm
Kings Place, Hall 2

From Edgard Varèse to Pierre Boulez, immerse yourself in major contemporary works from the 20th century that influenced the course of musical history.

Find tickets

BBC Proms 2022 - Late Night Prom with Marius Neset

If that wasn't enough to announce, we also revealed our return to this year's BBC Proms. We will reunite with Norwegian jazz saxophonist Marius Neset and his own quintet in a brand new BBC commission Geyser.

Tickets will go on sale on Saturday 21 May at 9am.

2022 BBC Proms event creative featuring saxophonist Marius Neset

BBC Proms 2022: Marius Neset

Saturday 3 September, 10.15pm
Royal Albert Hall

Following up on Snowmelt and Viaduct, Geyser is the third work in which Marius Neset collaborates with the London Sinfonietta.

Find out more

2022-23 season at the Southbank Centre announced

We revealed the first concerts of our new 2022-23 season at the Southbank Centre. From October to December, we will celebrate the centenary year of Iannis Xenakis' birth, reunite with the International Centre for Contemporary Music and premiere a new work that echoes a sleeping human body.

Xenakis: Architect of Sound
Saturday 8 October, 1.30pm

Step into the musical world of Iannis Xenakis in his centenary year: a ferociously intellectual world in which the mathematical forces which govern the atoms and elements making up our physical beings also provide the basis for musical form and understanding.

Penderecki: A Retrospective
Thursday 3 November, 7.30pm

We reunite with the International Centre for Contemporary Music to place the music of Krzysztof Penderecki front and centre. At times deeply Romantic, at times 'liberating sound beyond all tradition', his music is always emotionally expressive.

Sleeping Patterns
Friday 2 December, 7.30pm

Juste Janulyte's Sleeping Patterns echoes a sleeping human body and all the regular but not synchronised sounds of our heartbeat, blood flow, and breathing create in sleep. The piece is woven from seven hypnotically repetitive patterns of slightly different tempos, which intertwine throughout the ensemble.

Principal Violin Jonathan Morton, composer Luke Lewis and Principal Viola Paul Silverthorne performing at the Southbank Centre

2022-23 season at the Southbank Centre

October - December 2022
Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall

Celebrating two giants of contemporary music and a hypnotic premiere - discover the first concerts of our new season at the Southbank Centre.

Explore the new season

Through the Lens: Leaning East

We shined the spotlight on Polish composers past and present in Leaning East, a celebration of Polish contemporary music presented by the International Centre for Contemporary Music.

The night opened with Krzysztof Penderecki's pulsating Sinfonietta per archi, before two world premieres - Wojciech Błażejczyk’s reorchestrated version of Concerto for Electric Guitar and String Orchestra, and Paweł Mykietyn’s playful concerto for chamber orchestra Prank.

Guitarist and composer Wojciech Błażejczyk performing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Leaning East

Through the Lens: Leaning East

Check out some photos and reviews from Leaning East below!

Photos and reactions

Family Concert - photos and recap

We ended the month with a fun and creative day out with families. Presented by Jessie Maryon Davies, we guided the families through an exhilarating programme of contemporary works from La Monte Young to Caroline Shaw, before the young budding composers in the audience joined us to create a new piece together.