Celebrating the Earth with Rachel Portman, Julie Brook and Nick Drake
| Rachel Portman | Extracts from Earth Song, Tipping Points, Ask the River |
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| Rachel Portman | piano |
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| Nick Drake | poet |
| Julie Brook | chair |
A three-way conversation about the creative process, inspiration and collaboration between artist Julie Brook, composer Rachel Portman and poet Nick Drake, with music extracts, film and poetry readings that celebrate and honour the Earth and the Elements.
‘Music, to me, is always suggesting images or stories or emotions’ Rachel Portman
In conversation with artist Julie Brook, award-winning composer Rachel Portman, and poet Nick Drake will expand on their collaborations, Earth Song and Tipping Points, that draw inspiration from the environment and elements. In their discussion, they will explore with Brook her elemental work, Firestack, and the connections and differences between process and expression across the three disciplines, and how this is presented to an audience.
This event will last approximately 70 minutes without an interval.
Continue the conversation around art and the natural world at Tracing Light Film Screening. Explore parallel responses to place in Different Worlds at Pangolin London, housed in the same building as Kings Place.
Concessions & Under 30s tickets
Kings Place Concessions Tickets
We want to ensure that people who may be struggling financially to purchase a ticket can still enjoy visiting Kings Place. A limited number of tickets are allocated for certain events (if the ticket type does not show in the booking pathway, it means they are not available for this event or have all been sold). Concessions tickets are accessible for people on the following criteria (for more information visit our FAQs)
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit
- Disability Benefit
- Income Support or Job Seekers allowance
- Students
£10 ‘Under 30s’ tickets
A limited number of £10 tickets for attendees aged under 30 are available for certain shows. To purchase an ‘Under 30s’ ticket, please choose the ‘Under 30s’ price type when selecting your ticket(s). If the option does not appear, this means all ‘Under 30s’ tickets have sold out or are not available for this performance. Please note that proof of age may be requested at the venue. The £10 offer does not apply to premium price categories.
Plan your visit
Getting here
Kings Place is situated just a few minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, one of the most connected locations in London and now the biggest transport hub in Europe.
Our address is:
90 York Way, London, N1 9AG.
The Venue
Our performance spaces are situated on the lower ground floor. Hall One, Hall Two and St Pancras are located in level -2, reached by stairs, escalator and lift from the ground floor entrance level.
Event Times
Door times indicate auditorium entrance times only. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the Kings Place seating areas, gallery-level art, canal-side terrace, café, restaurant and bar throughout the day and evening.
- Our events begin promptly at the advertised start time. Typically, there is no support unless otherwise stated.
- We recommend arriving in good time before the performance. The Hall doors will open 30 minutes before the performance to allow time to take your seats, or to choose a space for standing shows.
- Latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance where possible
Access
We aim to make your visit to Kings Place as comfortable as possible. For more information about the accessibility of Kings Place, including details about our Access Scheme, please visit this page.
If you would like to discuss your access requirements with a member of our team, please get in touch with the Box Office team at info@kingsplace.co.uk.
Food & Drink
Rotunda Bar & Restaurant
Rotunda, situated on the ground floor of Kings Place, offers a unique dining and drinking experience alongside Regent’s Canal. The concert bar in the venue foyer will also be open for select events.
Green & Fortune Café
Recently re-furbished and now open with a new look, the Green & Fortune Café is open for selected concerts. Serving hot and cold food and drinks, including sandwiches, salads, soup, stew and a pie of the day, alongside a choice of cakes made by the on-site bakery team. See here for selected concert dates and standard opening hours.
About Julie Brook
British artist Julie Brook makes sculptural work in the landscape including the deserts of Libya, Syria and Namibia; Hoy, Orkney, Mingulay, Jura, in Scotland.
Her recent work includes projects in stone quarries in Japan and Carrara, on a wild Hebridean coastline, and in the Upper Mustang desert, Nepal. In 2023/24, she had major solo exhibitions at Abbot Hall, Kendal; Komatsu City Museum, Japan, and Pangolin, London and a new publication, What is it that will last?
In 2025, Brook created a public commission, Tide Line, on the Fife Coastline.
About Rachel Portman
Composer Rachel Portman, of London, has written over 100 scores for film, television and theatre. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award for her original score for Emma.
Her works for the stage and concert hall include an opera based on Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, The Water Diviner (BBC Proms), Earth Song (BBC singers), Endangered (NCPA, Beijing), Tipping Points (violin concerto), Another Eve (song cycle, Joyce Di Donato), Dolomites (Sudtirol Festival Merano), The Gathering Tree (BBC Proms) and The Darkling Thrush (Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College).
Rachel has released two piano albums – Ask the River and Beyond the Screen. A third solo album is set for release on Sony Classical.
About Nick Drake
Nick Drake’s poetry collections include The Man in the White Suit (Waterstone’s/Forward Prize for Best First Collection), From the Word Go, The Farewell Glacier (performed at COP 26 by Peter Mullan and adapted for BBC Radio 3) and Out of Range.
He has collaborated with Rachel Portman on Earth Song, Tipping Points and The Gathering Tree (Last Night of the Proms).
He co-wrote the screenplay for One Life (BBC Films). Plays include All the Angels (Faber) at the Globe Theatre and Smock Alley, Dublin. He has written for radio and created Message from the Unseen World, a permanent installation celebrating Alan Turing.
Reviews
‘The Firestacks possess a vast echoing power in the landscape and mind’ Robert Macfarlane
On Nick Drake’s The Farewell Glacier ‘Works of gentle genius and astonishing insight into the voices of those who have visited this vanishing world since ancient times’ Ann Funder