2023 in 10 events

Fri 20 – Sun 29 Jan

‘I cannot wait for the opening of Sound Unwrapped, a showcase of the myriad ways we are exploring spatialised listening. Dive into the new d&b Soundscape system in Hall Two with our Moonbathing installation, or experience the way the system interacts with exquisite live performance with a late-night from Liam Byrne (20 Jan). Colin Currie Quartet will perform a once-in-a-lifetime set using all the spaces of Hall One, a thrilling percussive explosion (20 Jan). Sharpen your senses with spine-tingling Storytelling in the Dark (Crick Crack Club 21 Jan), travel through time with The Sixteen with Julian Joseph (27 Jan), immerse yourself in the seductive sound collages of Space Afrika (28 Jan) or simply lie down and listen (Inner Landscape 29 Jan). We’ll cater for every dimension and perspective!’

Fri 17 Feb, Fri 16 Jun

‘I have to pinch myself that Hannah Peel is one of our Artists in Residence this year: she’s truly one-of-a kind, a restlessly creative composer and performer, a captivating communicator and alchemist of sound. Don’t miss the first-ever live version of her Fir Wave album ‘a feast of pulsating organic techno’, or her brand new project with Beibei Wang, and look out for an exciting venue take-over in the autumn… ‘

‘We are so privileged to host Jewish Book Week at Kings Place, a festival that fizzes with ideas, luminated by the most eloquent of speakers and writers. Inked into my diary already are: Nicholas Hytner’s conversation on Arthur Miller with the legendary theatre critic John Lahr (5 Mar), plus Matti Friedman on Leonard Cohen’s 1973 experiences in the Yom Kippur War (26 Feb), and Adam Wagner’s urgent review of our post-Covid lost freedoms, Emergency State (26 Feb).’

Fri 24 Mar

‘Manchester Collective came up with a typically riveting programme for Sound Unwrapped: a unique, amplified, spatialised performance of George Crumb’s indelible Black Angels with a new work from Moor Mother, who always has something important to say, capped off with Schubert’s coruscating masterpiece, Death and the Maiden.’

D&B SOUNDSCAPE PERFORMANCE

Fri 14 Apr

‘Here’s a stunning programme that interrogates sound through the minds of some of the greatest living composers: Rebecca Saunders’s murmurs is a mesmerising spatialised meditation, while Cat Lamb’s irridescent Parallaxis Forma coalesces around the celestial soprano of Lotte Betts-Dean. Beat Furrer’s electrifying Spur is followed by Beatrice Dillon’s first-ever acoustic work, Seven Reorganisations. Who but Explore Ensemble could deliver all this?’

20 Apr, 17 Jun, 4 Oct

‘Laura Van der Heijden, our Artist in Focus for 2023, embodies all that’s best in a new generation of classical musicians: she’s a dazzling cellist, of course, but she’s also curious, collaborative and communicative, and engaged with the most urgent issues of our times. Don’t miss her recital, featuring George Walker’s amazing sonata (20 Apr), her concert with Aurora Orchestra (17 June) or Duos and Dances (4 Oct) which sees her kicking off her heels with Misha Mullov-Abbado and friends.’

‘As Voices Unwrapped reminded us, we are blessed with superb vocal ensembles in the UK, not least our beloved Associate Artists, The Sixteen, but a performance from Lionel Meunier’s Belgium-based Vox Luminis is never less than sublime. Here they return to their core repertoire, Tallis, Sheppard, Byrd and Weelkes in a moving spatial & spiritual sequence that surround the audience in Hall One.

Fri 19 May

‘Songlines Encounters Festival 2023 is shaping up to be a vintage edition, with a line-up that takes in a rare visit from the Tibetan Tashi Lhunpo Monks, the Estonian National Male Choir and headliner, the legendary Vieux Farka Touré. His latest project Les Racines is a riot of molten guitar playing and intricate, hyper-mobile rhythms, a tribute to the rich Songhai tradition of northern Mali, and to his father, Ali. Unmissable.’

Fri 22 Sep

‘Each year, with the support of Parabola Foundation, Kings Place commissions a major new work. This year the composer is the free-spirited, mercurially inventive Caroline Shaw, and Aurora Orchestra and Kit Armstrong will be giving the first UK performance of her new concerto for harpsichord and strings, part of a concert showcasing Anna Meredith’s gorgeous Anno, inspired by Vivaldi, and Bach’s own harpsichord Concerto in D minor.’

Fri 29 Sep

‘A long-held dream of mine to present Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers at Kings Place will be realised this September, thanks to the enterprising I Fagiolini and its director Robert Hollingworth. As he points out, we may think of this music swimming in the vast spaces of St Mark’s Venice, but Monteverdi suggested it was for the more intimate ‘chapels or chambers of princes’, with which Hall One shares many characteristics. A chance to hear every single note of this Renaissance masterwork.’