Online
An exciting virtual Kings Place has emerged and our audience can now experience events streamed live at home via KPlayer.
For information on how to use KPlayer please refer to our guide or see the KPlayer FAQ.
An exciting virtual Kings Place has emerged and our audience can now experience events streamed live at home via KPlayer.
For information on how to use KPlayer please refer to our guide or see the KPlayer FAQ.
Political commentator and broadcaster, Steve Richards, presents the latest behind-the-scenes guide to the epic dramas and the characters shaping seismic events. How have we got here? What’s going to happen next? Are there any answers to these questions? Come along and find out.
Remembering the past to reimagine the future
Memory Unwrapped is the 18th in the award-winning series from Kings Place. Throughout 2026, the series will invite audiences on a journey with artists delving into the past to reimagine the future, uncovering how memory and music can spark transformation and inspire change.
Featuring Artists in residence Renell Shaw, GBSR Duo and Olivia Chaney, Composer in Focus Steve Martland, and a host of exciting performers new and familiar, Memory Unwrapped will explore the extraordinary power of music to stir innermost recollections, to preserve history and to honour the unforgettable – from vibrant stories rooted in the venue’s home of King’s Cross to tributes to the greats of spoken word and song.
The Brodsky Quartet’s first performance at Kings Place took place during our opening festival in 2008. Even before that moment, however, they played an important role in the project, contributing to acoustic testing and artist consultation while the building was still in development. From those early conversations, the Quartet has been a central artistic voice in shaping our programme. Highlights have included their complete Shostakovich cycle, the much-loved Schubert Hour series, their tenure as Artistic Associates, and a wealth of collaborations that have inspired our artistic direction. For our Memory Unwrapped series, we are delighted to welcome back this iconic British quartet to revisit some of the most treasured programmes from their years at Kings Place.
Kings Place has a creative partnership with d&b audiotechnik to introduce artists and develop new projects using Soundscape in Hall Two. A revolution in the live sound experience, d&b Soundscape is an alternative to the traditional left and right stereo system, using up to 39 loudspeakers to open up a plethora of creative possibilities for artists to reinforce their sound.
The following shows will all be using the d&b Soundscape system. Find out more about the technology in our Magazine.
Bach, the Universe and Everything is back with another season of celestial adventures.
Inspired by the music of JS Bach, composer and intergalactic genius, it is a concert season with a difference that places his cantatas in the context of the amazing cosmic discoveries of the last 350 years.
Exploring the ‘Final Frontier’ has drawn the most extraordinary ingenuity and inventions from humans in that time. Whilst warp travel may still only exist in fiction we can still marvel at extraordinary achievements in our reality. The clocks of John Harrison that solved the greatest scientific problem of his time in telling time on the oceans of our own planet. The John Webb Space Telescope enabling us to see back to the beginning of time. That we are starting to understand the surfaces of Saturn’s icy moons or the environments of exoplanets in distant galaxies. All of these demonstrate how the human spirit is far from earthbound.
Bach, the Universe and Everything brings you all these things alongside the music of JS Bach. In his 200 cantatas, in seeking to go beyond the frontier of the heavens to reach for the divine he also gifted us with one of the most amazing of human achievements.
Future Folk: Contemporary Sounds from Traditional Roots
Kings Place is proud to present the return of Future Folk, our series showcasing emerging artists creating and reshaping music inspired by folk traditions in new, progressive ways for contemporary audiences. Across four events in 2025/26, we will put these talented musicians centre stage in a time when breakthrough acts can easily become lost in the current economic realities of folk music programming.
The series offers an exciting opportunity to discover new music. In 2025, join us and experience Welsh singer songwriter Eve Goodman and the groundbreaking sustainable touring duo Filkin’s Drift. In 2026, we welcome contemporary trio Grace Lemon, Paddi Benson and James Patrick Gavin, whose debut project is a conceptual retelling of the patient ballroom dances that took place at Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam) throughout the 19th century. Concluding the 25/26 series, we have innovator, award winning, multi-instrumentalist Malin Lewis melding Scottish West coast tradition with a newly invented, self-made bagpipe whose work is inspired by European folk traditions, queerness and the universe.
In partnership with Alan Bearman Music.
Grammy-nominated songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney explores tradition, evolution and transformation through her 2026 Memory Unwrapped residency. She opens the year with intimate sets as part of our festival-style launch, A Night to Remember, before unveiling the debut of her new electric folk-rock band, News from Nowhere. In June, Chaney presents a major new project celebrating her lifelong love of Henry Purcell’s music, followed by a programme of original compositions in the autumn. Her residency offers a vivid portrait of an artist in evolution, reshaping history through voice, storytelling and sound.
‘Welcome to Jewish Book Week 2026
This year, we mark Jewish Book Week’s 75th festival. At its heart, it remains a place where our community gathers to explore ideas that are bold, challenging, joyful, and deeply rooted in the Jewish literary tradition. As we reach this milestone, first envisioned by Dr George Webber in 1952, I thank everyone whose support has carried us here.
I warmly invite you to explore the festival programme and discover the many treasures of this anniversary edition, reflecting the distinctive quality that has defined Jewish Book Week: thoughtfully curated, ambitious conversations shaped by curiosity and passion. Our 75th festival is our most ambitious yet.
Over nine days, more than 160 speakers and performers – including Booker Prize winners, historians, novelists, musicians, actors, emerging writers and playwrights, journalists, and scholars – join us. Alongside our home at Kings Place, we host pop-up events across London, including the British Museum, British Library, and Bridge Theatre, as well as an extensive free online programme. I know you will find conversations that inspire, challenge, and move you. At a time when Jewish life feels threatened around the world, let Jewish Book Week be a beacon for everything rich, diverse, resilient, and magnificent about the Jewish experience.
Thank you for joining us in this very special year.’
Claudia Rubenstein, Director
Working in partnership with Oxford Cultural Collective, Kings Place is opening the door to one-of-a-kind experiences with some of the UK’s most inspiring chefs and writers. The first of these unique events are hosted by best-selling authors Yasmin Khan, Julie Lin and Felicity Cloake.
Through an exclusive series of dynamic skills-based masterclasses, participants will gain insider access to the people shaping the nation’s culinary landscape.
Steve Reich has been called ‘the most original musical thinker of our time’ (The New Yorker), and ‘among the great composers of the century’ (The New York Times). Starting in the 1960s, his pieces It’s Gonna Rain, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Tehillim, Different Trains, and many others helped shift the aesthetic centre of musical composition worldwide away from extreme complexity and towards rethinking pulsation and tonal attraction in new ways. He continues to influence younger generations of composers and mainstream musicians and artists all over the world.
Throughout Memory Unwrapped and our Celebration of Reich, you will find ensembles such as the Colin Currie Quartet – Phaedra Ensemble – Carice Singers and Solem Quartet perform some of his most iconic works.
Resident at Kings Place for its 40th anniversary in 2026, I Fagiolini announces three projects, the first in December 2025 and two in 2026, with another special event to be announced later. Three composer portraits of music the group illuminates with its trademark energy and engaged solo-voice delivery. Come and immerse yourself in great works by Charpentier, Purcell and Victoria performed one-to-a-part with I Fagiolini’s ‘wonderfully expressive approach’ creating ‘a little bit of magic’ (Planet Hugill).
In an age of AI, I Fagiolini is a hand-painted original. The group is internationally renowned for its genuinely innovative productions, which are as much online as live, including world premiere recordings, collaborative cross-art projects, education and short (multi award-winning) music videos with Polyphonic Films. Founder director Robert Hollingworth has spent much of his life considering how audiences receive music, instead of just how performers want to deliver it: engagement with audiences both live and on film has always been at the heart of the ensemble’s work.
One of our major focuses this year is on the British composer Steve Martland, one of the most vibrant, unconventional and dynamic voices in British music, until his untimely death in 2013.
Born in Liverpool, he studied composition in Holland with Louis Andriessen. His music is raw, physical, rhythmic and uncompromising, yet his vision extended far beyond sound alone. Steve cared deeply about the role of the composer in society: he was outspoken on issues of access, diversity and challenging the establishment. He also devoted himself to education, leading composition projects in schools across the UK and abroad. Collaboration was central to his practice, often working with musicians outside the classical world and regularly performing with his own ensemble, The Steve Martland Band.
Throughout this series of five performances, we invite the The Colin Currie Group – Carice Singers – Hebrides Ensemble – Riot Ensemble and Artists in Residence, GBSR Duo to tell his story through sound.
This series is generously supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation.
The Kirckman Concert Society was founded by Geraint Jones and Calton Younger in 1963 to promote young artists of exceptional talent.
The Society’s panel of distinguished musicians has developed a reputation for ‘spotting’ tomorrow’s stars in the making. The Society offers its young musicians a London platform as well as the possibility of concerts further afield; and while these artists are not yet household names, concert-goers have a unique opportunity to hear for themselves the exciting promise which these artists offer.
Edition Records and Kings Place present a thrilling new series, as part of Edition’s associateship with Kings Place, featuring the exceptional talent from Edition’s acclaimed artist roster. This partnership embodies a spirit of deep collaboration and bold creativity – creating live experiences that push the boundaries of jazz and showcasing the creativity, skill, and vision of some of the genre’s most exciting artists.
Songlines Encounters returns to Kings Place for its 15th anniversary, this time as an extended series of events across 2026. Dedicated to showcasing music from around the world, Songlines Encounters highlights cultural richness across continents and creates space for extraordinary international artists to be heard. This first wave features music from Mali, Armenia, Burundi, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Occitania and more.
The series opens with British-Burundian singer Muco, reimagining medieval folk songs and poetry with his new project, Book of Voices. Then legendary Malian ngoni lute player Bassekou Kouyaté and his wife, revered griot singer Amy Sacko, perform as part of their first ever tour to the UK as a duo. Winner of Best Group at the Songlines Music Awards 2024, Mostar Sevdah Reunion – decode and represent over 400-year-old traditional music from Bosnia and Herzegovinia. Soon after, French minimalist duo, Cocanha (Caroline Dufau and Lila Fraysse), draw polyphonic songs from the traditional Occitan repertoire. Armenian tar player, singer and composer Miqayel Voskanyan completes the first wave, bringing his modernised jazz-influenced version of the plucked tar to the UK for the very first time.
As ever, the festival is proudly presented in partnership with one of the world’s leading global music magazines, Songlines and will feature more exciting additions to come.
The curation of Songlines Encounters is supported by the 1900 Building 1900bldg.com
Winners of the 2025 RPS Young Artist Award, GBSR Duo (George Barton, percussion, and Siwan Rhys, piano) explore the boundaries of sound, memory and time across Memory Unwrapped. Their residency spans Morton Feldman’s meditative For Philip Guston, immersive new commissions from Beatrice Dillon and Sarah Davachi, and a tribute to Steve Martland as part of the Kings Place Composer-in-Focus series. Using cutting-edge spatial audio technology, they invite audiences to experience music as shifting memory, where resonance, space and recollection merge.
Ivor Novello Award–winning composer, songwriter and producer Renell Shaw explores cultural identity and heritage throughout his 2026 Memory Unwrapped residency. From an electrifying opening-weekend collaboration with electronic duo 2Fox to the live premieres of The Windrush Suite and Echo in the Bones, culminating in the world premiere of Remember Us Tomorrow, Shaw invites audiences on a journey that honours roots, reclaims stories and reimagines the future.