The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) today announces a 4-concert chamber music series at St John’s Waterloo. The series will showcase members of the LPO in a smaller and more intimate setting. It will bring audiences closer to the music and outside of a concert hall setting.
We are delighted that following two sold-out performances of Gavin Bryars’s Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet earlier in the year, the partnership with St John’s continues. The repertoire will include more contemporary works by living composers, as well as arrangements of the likes of Duke Ellington and Stevie Wonder for surprising instrument combinations. Our partnership also includes joint Education and Community projects, including accessible participatory musical experiences with the local communities we both serve.
Our performances of Jesus’s Blood Never Failed Me Yet were extremely poignant and moving and a major part of this was the setting. St John’s Waterloo creates an atmosphere where smaller chamber works can have the greatest of effects, with audience and orchestra sharing the musical experience more closely than in a traditional concert hall. I’m excited to hear music by living composers such as our new Composer-in-Residence Tania León and John Luther Adams as well as putting the LPO bassoon section centre stage in arrangements of Chaka Khan and Stevie Wonder.
I am thrilled that our historic Grade II* listed church will be hosting this series with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Our recent renovation has transformed St John’s Waterloo into an accessible performance, event and community space on the South Bank, suitable for collaborations like this to flourish. We are thrilled that, through this partnership, we will continue to open our doors further to outstanding performers, diverse programming and local audiences, further enriching our year-round cultural programme.
The first concert is John Luther Adams’s songbirdsongs, a work based on Adams’s own observations and studies of actual bird songs such as the wood thrush and the dove, scoring them for various ensembles of piccolos and ocarinas. Each movement features specific birds, arranged by region and habitat. Rather than having a fixed score, each musician performs their part from the composer’s instructions, but with the unique spontaneity of birds interacting with one another in nature [17 Jan 2024, 6.30pm].
In February, the LPO performs a programme of pop and jazz music, beginning with songs by Duke Ellington arranged by David Schiff for clarinet and string quartet. Simon Bainbridge’s tribute to Miles Davis, For Miles, precedes Carl Davis’s arrangements of George Gershwin classics for clarinet and strings including Summertime; A Woman is a Sometime Thing; Bess, You is my Woman Now; It Ain’t Necessarily So; and Lullaby for String Quartet. Also on the programme are two funk soul songs arranged for four bassoons: Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody and Stevie Wonder’s Superstition [7 February 2024, 6:30pm].
Audience participation is the central element of a concert with music by Alex Ho, Ryan Carter and Ligeti. Ho’s piece, Breathe and Draw (for sinfonietta, two conductors and audience participation) encourages the audience to draw in response to the music. He is an alumni of the LPO Young Composers scheme, which aims to support the profession of talented orchestral composers. The concert will be conducted by LPO Fellow Conductors Luis Castillo-Briceño and Charlotte Politi. This Fellowship has been specifically created to promote diversity and inclusivity in the classical music industry by developing two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds currently under-represented in the profession.
Carter’s Concerto Molto Grosso (for audience and orchestra) puts the audience’s mobile phones centre-stage as soloists. To close the programme, 100 metronomes will be set for Ligeti’s Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes; a piece that is different every time it is performed. All the metronomes are started at the same time and wind down at various different times until all have stopped [12 March 2024, 6:30pm]. This concert is part of the LPO’s The Music in You festival, which celebrates the creativity in everyone, no matter their musical ability or background.
The final concert in the series is part of Streetwise Opera’s Re:Discover festival, celebrating the works of composers of African and Caribbean heritage. It includes two works by the LPO’s new Composer-in-Residence, Tania León: her String Quartet No. 2, and Altwood Songs for soprano and piano. León arrived in the US from Cuba in 1967 as an accomplished pianist, and her big break came a year later when she agreed to fill in for an indisposed pianist at a ballet class in Harlem. There she impressed ballet dancer and choreographer Arthur Mitchell – the first soloist of colour with the New York City Ballet – and soon became resident composer and music director of Mitchell’s newly formed Dance Theatre of Harlem. The rest of the programme will be announced in due course [22 May 2024*].
Tickets start from £12 To book, please visit the LPO website.
*please note that the May concert will go on sale nearer the time
For more information, interviews and images, please contact
Ruth Haines
London Philharmonic Orchestra Press & PR Manager
Email: Ruth.haines@lpo.org.uk
Phone: 07425 151 458
For information on St John’s Waterloo
Euchar Gravina
Email: artisticdirector@stjohnswaterloo.org
Phone: 020 7633 9819
About the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. With every performance we aim to bring wonder to the modern world and cement our position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century. Our home is at the Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour throughout the UK and internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. Each summer we’re resident at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and you’ll find us online, on streaming platforms, on social media and through our broadcast partnership with Marquee TV. We also release live, studio and archive recordings on our own label, and are the world’s most-streamed orchestra, with over 15 million plays of our content each month.
Our Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, and Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his impact as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor and Tania León our Composer-in-Residence.
We’re committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: there’s nothing we love more than seeing the joy of children and families enjoying their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about equipping schools and teachers through schools’ concerts, resources and training. Reflecting our values of collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestral members of the future, so we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme is leading the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, as well as Overture orchestral experience days for younger musicians. Our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We have also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds currently under-represented in the profession.
About St John’s Waterloo
St John’s, the church on the IMAX roundabout at Waterloo, is a historic 1824 Grade II* church that reopened in October 2022 after a major restoration by Eric Parry Architects. It is one of the most inclusive churches in London and provides the best new performance, event and meeting spaces on the South Bank, fulfilling its commitment to be here for everyone.
St John’s produces a year-round programme of arts and culture, including the annual Waterloo Festival, and is co-home to the academy-orchestra Southbank Sinfonia. In the past few years, it welcomed renowned international musicians, including Angela Hewitt, Steven Osborne and Doric String Quartet, as well as played host to professional and amateur orchestras. In partnership with prominent human rights organisations and through visual arts and literature, St John’s is also actively engaged with social justice, addressing issues such as press freedom, censorship, homelessness and climate change.
Beyond the arts, St John’s runs the award-winning churchyard garden and a variety of community projects for people experiencing homelessness and isolation as well as local community members for whom life’s challenges are now even more acute.
