Getting to know conductor Thomas Blunt

Conductor Thomas Blunt is one of the current participants in the International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation, which culminates in a concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall on 13 April 2012. Alongside the other two young conductors, Domingo Hindoyan and Ward Stare, Thomas will conduct the Orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 [...]

Getting to know conductor Domingo Hindoyan

Conductor Domingo Hindoyan is one of the current participants in the International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation, which culminates in a concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 13 April 2012 at Royal Festival Hall. Alongside the other two young conductors, Thomas Blunt and Ward Stare, Domingo will conduct the Orchestra in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with soloist John [...]

Get ‘up close’ with Charles Hazlewood

Take a peek behind the scenes at the rehearsals for ‘Close up with Charles Hazlewood’ – two family concerts taking place as part of the Imagine Children’s Festival. Charles Hazlewood and the Philharmonia Orchestra perform on Saturday 11 February & Saturday 18 February together with 250 Soutwark schoolchildren, the Southwark Youth Orchestra and the David Idowu Choir.

Wrestling with Ravel: Steven Osborne’s diary

Pianist Steven Osborne shares his diary of learning and recording Ravel’s fiendish Gaspard de la Nuit with The Guardian. Read the full article here.   January 2009: Among pianists, Gaspard has a fearsome reputation, one of the contenders for the title of Most Difficult Piano Piece Ever Written, but… I’m quietly confident I can rise to the challenge. [...]

Meet Violinist Henning Kraggerud

Violinist Henning Kraggerud joins Britten Sinfonia as both director and soloist in the opening concert of their 2011/12 season at Southbank Centre on Friday 7 October. Berio’s Duos for 2 violins and the London premiere of Piers Tattersall’s Kreisler l’entre deux guerres rub shoulders with Mozart’s Violin Concerto K.218 and Mahler’s stunning arrangement of Schubert’s [...]

John Cage, composer, philosopher and artist

Composer, visual artist, writer, philosopher, humorist, mushroom expert: the depth and breadth of John Cage’s engagement with art and ideas was dizzying. “Cage was all about simultaneity and multiplicity, those were words that he lived by,” says Laura Kuhn, Executive Director of the John Cage Trust. In this context, she says, presenting a concert of [...]

Get to know… pianist Clara Rodriguez

What do you fear the most and why? A world with no humanity. A moment with no love. I have always loved and have been in love with people and music, if I lost that I would be really empty and saddened. Which mobile number do you call the most? I call my son to [...]

Ardittis prepare for Birtwistle premiere

Even after having hundreds of pieces composed for them, the players of the Arditti Quartet still look forward to the prospect of a world premiere. ‘It’s a challenge to bring a piece to the public, to actually take the dots off the paper and make it sound like something,’ says Irvine Arditti, first violinist and [...]

Ether 2011: Get to know Colin Currie

Colin Currie, photo: Chris Dawes The Colin Currie Group are returning to Southbank Centre this week for Ether 2011 with one of Steve Reich’s most acclaimed works, Drumming. We caught up with Colin to ask him our quick questions. What do you fear the most and why? Struggling to answer this one, so I guess I’m [...]

Pianist Angela Hewitt talks about her forthcoming recitals

There are two chances to catch Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt at Southbank Centre. Tomorrow’s International Piano Series recital includes a Bach Partita, Beethoven’s Eroica Variations and Brahms’ Handel Variations.  Angela writes: “My programme pairs two suites of the Baroque period with two of the greatest masterpieces ever written in variation form. It is well known that Beethoven played a lot [...]

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