Guildhall School announces free, digital Spring Season of events

Update as of January 2021:

Due to the recently updated government guidance and the country’s move into lockdown, Guildhall School’s teaching has moved online, and some changes have been made to the Spring Season plans. Please read this update for the latest situation.

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Guildhall School of Music & Drama today announces its Spring Season of more than 80 events, which will all be available to watch online and free of charge.

From January 2021, online audiences will be able to enjoy a mixture of live broadcast and pre-recorded content from across departments, all created, performed and filmed at Guildhall School with the required social distancing and broadcast on the School’s website.

Season highlights include a live-streamed Alumni Recital Series concert on 29 January from baritone James Newby with pianist Joseph Middleton, presented in association with the Barbican as part of ECHO Rising Stars. The centrepiece of the concert is the world premiere of a European Concert Halls Organisation (ECHO) commission by Judith Bingham, created especially for this performance and featuring a new witty text based on the memoir of Giacomo Casanova.

Orchestral highlights include Richard Lester directing the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra from the cello in CPE Bach’s Cello Concerto in A minor, and the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra performing a programme of Beethoven, Brahms and Elgar. The latter concert will take place using ground-breaking low latency technology, allowing musicians in different spaces within the School to play with no detectable delay in audio and video. It is believed that Guildhall School is the first institution in the world to use this technology for the rehearsal and performance of a full orchestra.

The Opera department presents Jonathan Dove’s The Little Green Swallow, a work which was given its UK premiere at Guildhall School in 2005, directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and conducted by Dominic Wheeler. The same creative team reunite for this new live-streamed production of the fairy-tale opera based on Carlo Gozzi’s 1765 fable.

Guildhall’s Drama department presents four exciting live-streamed productions: Anne Washburn’s music-filled dark comedy Mr. Burns, a post-electric play directed by Chelsea Walker; Gone Too Far!, Bola Agbaje’s Olivier Award-winning drama exploring identity and culture, directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu; Pooja Ghai’s new production of Caryl Churchill’s celebrated 2012 play Love and Information; and a new version of Maxim Gorky’s Barbarians created by alumni Filter Theatre with Guildhall School students.

Multi-disciplinary artist Paula Varjack curates and hosts a second series of Real Talk in collaboration with BA Performance and Creative Enterprise students. These informal conversations, streamed via Instagram Live, invite practitioners who have made things happen for themselves, and who push for social change through their practice, to share advice, experience and ideas with the next generation.

Guildhall School’s Jazz Department continues its A History of Big Band series with two concerts – one looking at the swing era, and another at the birth of modernism – and Guildhall Jazz Orchestra collaborates with composer/pianist Ivo Neame and presents a celebration of Black British Jazz heritage. Guildhall Studio Orchestra uses the School’s low-latency technology for a performance which draws upon the legacy of the Lennon and McCartney songbook, celebrating alumnus Sir George Martin’s pivotal role in the creation of these timeless songs.

Masterclasses will take place with artists such as saxophonist Naomi Sullivan; violist Jane Atkins; pianist Alexandra Dariescu; mezzo-soprano Ann Murray; and tenor Ronald Samm. The School is also delighted to share highlights from a masterclass given by Artist in Residence Julia Bullock in the Autumn term, and to welcome a host of celebrated artists to curate nine events as part of the School’s popular Songs at Six series.

The School’s Research Works seminars continue online throughout the season, in which staff, students and visiting speakers discuss the findings of their ongoing research.

All content will be available to watch online, for free, via Guildhall School’s website. Staged productions will feature the work of the School’s Production Arts department, created in collaboration with the Opera and Drama departments in accordance with safety and social distancing guidelines.

Event dates and further information will be announced in early January 2021.

Guildhall School of Music & Drama is provided by the City of London Corporation.

For further information and images please contact:

Rebecca Driver Media Relations

Tel: 07989 355 446

Email: rebecca@rdmr.co.uk

rdmr.co.uk

About Guildhall School of Music & Drama 

Guildhall School is a vibrant, international community of young musicians, actors and production artists in the heart of the City of London. Ranked as one of the top ten performing arts institutions in the world (QA World University Rankings 2020), and third in the Arts, Drama and Music Complete University Guide League Table 2021, the School is a global leader of creative and professional practice which promotes innovation, experiment and research, with over 1,000 students in higher education, drawn from nearly 60 countries around the world. The School is also the UK’s leading provider of specialist music training at the under-18 level with nearly 2,500 students in Junior Guildhall and the Centre for Young Musicians as well as a joint Creative Learning division with the Barbican which seeks to create inspiring arts experiences for all.