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What’s On Festivals & Series Memory UnwrappedSteve Reich at 90FolkEast in the CityEating, Drinking, Thinking

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Memory Unwrapped

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.

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Composer-in-Focus: Steve Martland

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.

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Eating, Drinking, Thinking

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.

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Edition Records and Kings Place presents

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.

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Folk Weekend: The Stories We Carry

Folk traditions are immersed in the stories of the common people, touching on universal themes affecting the human condition, of struggles and dreams, and the potential to affect change. Our singers carry the stories of everyday life, whether delving into contemporary concerns or chanelling voices from the past; ghosts on their shoulders connecting us to a rich seam of history and cultural legacy. From “trad. anon” to contemporary creators, tunes uplift, make us move and express ourselves, connecting us with people, and continuing a thread from previous generations whose dancing feet would have similarly stepped and whirled in kitchens and shared community spaces.

In a weekend celebrating that connecting thread, we showcase some of the finest contemporary musicians from a living tradition. They are singers and players who not only draw from an oral tradition, linking us back in time, but who also drive forwards with their own bold creative visions to create a body of work for the present, and for the future canon. Orcadian singer Kris Drever and English fiddler Sam Sweeney will both present sets which offer a retrospective of their own illustrious musical careers, as well as sharing brand new music. ‘All-singing, all-dancing folk polymath’ Ellie Gowers and The Shackleton Trio, whose ‘songs glide across land and water, history and the present,’ and timeless  songwriting of Amelia Coburn show us that the future tradition is in safe hands.

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Songlines Encounters

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

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Artist in Residence: GBSR Duo

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.

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d&b Soundscape

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.

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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.

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Politics

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.

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Steve Reich at 90

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.

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Platoon Presents at Kings Place

Platoon Presents at Kings Place is a creative partnership forged by two pioneering organisations – the Platoon label, and Kings Place. Together they will present a series of imaginative live performances, showcasing the Platoon roster through contemporary, classical and spoken word genres, from both internationally-celebrated artists and emerging new voices.

Listen to the Platoon Presents at Kings Place playlist – exclusively on Apple Music Classical, the app designed for Classical music.

Watch the Platoon Presents at Kings Place trailer on YouTube.

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I Fagiolini at Kings Place

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.

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Artist in Residence: Renell Shaw

Renell Shaw

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.

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Brodsky Quartet at Kings Place

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.

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Artist in Residence: Olivia Chaney

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.

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IGF Guitar Summit

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EFG London Jazz Festival

Every November, the EFG London Jazz Festival takes over the city, with a diverse line-up showcasing global stars and emerging talent.
As the biggest pan-city music festival in Europe, it brings over 100k audience members together at 300+ live shows at venues across the city, from basement jazz bars to the world’s finest concert halls, including Kings Place.

The festival is the highlight of the jazz calendar in the UK, with a long history of programming a wide variety of talent from around the world.

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