Guildhall School of Music & Drama announces autumn events season 2022

Dennis of Penge company

Concerts, drama productions, opera and jazz coming up in the Autumn 2022 Events Season

Highlights include:

Principal of Guildhall School, Professor Jonathan Vaughan says:

“It is wonderful to welcome another season of events at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, with a programme featuring plays, opera and collaborations with prominent ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. We look forward to welcoming audiences to the performances and showcasing all Guildhall School has to offer.”

Details of the autumn season’s events can be found below.

Music

OrchestRAM: An orchestral rendition of 30 years of RAM Records
8–10 September, Milton Court Concert Hall

Taking place from 8-10 September, OrchestRAM will feature a number of highlights from the RAM Records archive performed by a live orchestra. With 35 players, percussionists, vocalists and DJs, this concert will feature lights, lasers and projection mapping to make for a visually stunning and truly immersive musical event. Over three days, Guildhall School musicians will be performing 90 minutes of music and orchestral arrangements. The concerts will also see performances from Guildhall Session Orchestra, the School’s professional alumni ensemble. Guildhall School’s Electronic and Produced Music Department, as well as the Production Arts Department who have also contributed to the performances, producing the unique hybrid sounds that are associated with RAM Records.

Debussy, Boulanger & Ravel, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
30 September, Barbican Hall

In their first concert of the year, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus invite audiences to experience work at its most evocative. The programme explores the familiar magic of Debussy’s l’après-midi d’un faune, the daring drama of Boulanger’s Psalm 130, Du fond de l’abîme and Ravel’s masterful love story Daphnis et Chloé. The ensembles will be under the baton of conductor Lionel Bringuier, and joined by mezzo-soprano Alexandra Pouta and tenor Steven van der Linden.

BBC SO Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller
9 October, Milton Court Concert Hall

Exploring the real and legendary forests that nourished Sibelius’ imagination, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, alongside Guildhall musicians delve deeper into our understanding of the composer. Looking into the factors that formed the foundation of his musical vision, Total Immersion will present the words, landscapes, colleagues and traditions that inspired him. Alongside events throughout the Barbican, Guildhall School musicians will perform Sibelius’s songs and melodramas at Milton Court, telling tales of nature, the supernatural and love, sung in both Finnish and Swedish.

Looking West, Vaughan Williams’ 150th Birthday
12 October, Milton Court Concert Hall

A concert-theatre work created by Head of Composition at Guildhall School, Professor Julian Philips, and librettist Rebecca Hurst, commissioned by the Nova Music Trust and Presteigne Festival to mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth. The piece will receive its London premiere on the date of Vaughan Williams’ birthday. Featuring Guildhall musicians alongside soprano Rebecca Bottone, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones and actors Alex Knox and Maddie Purefoy, under the baton of conductor George Vass and the direction of Sally Ripley.

Indies and Idols, Australian Chamber Orchestra & Guildhall musicians
29 October, Milton Court Concert Hall

As part of their Barbican International Associate Ensemble at Milton Court residency for 2022, Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) are joined by musicians from Guildhall School to bring music by pop-cultural icons Jonny Greenwood and Bryce Dessner face-to-face with the sounds of post-World War Two Poland – Szymanowski, Penderecki and Lutosławski. Providing a programme of neo-classic works, Polish folk tunes and avant-garde melodies in stark contrast to contemporary cult classics, creating a concert experience that is dizzying, mesmerising and energising.

Guildhall Symphony Orchestra play Messiaen
23 November, Barbican Hall

The only symphony written by Olivier Messiaen, Turangalîla-Symphonie, is often described as a tribute to life, love and death. This performance will feature Ondes Martenot played by Cynthia Miller, and William Bracken on solo piano. Guildhall Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Nicholas Collon. In addition to this concert, there will be a number of free events on 23 November celebrating Messiaen, including a research event and performance of Harawi.

BBC SO Total Immersion: Discovering George Walker
26 November, Milton Court Concert Hall

In this, the centenary year of George Walker, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, alongside Guildhall School musicians will tell the full story of the first African-American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize. As a modernist of formidable intellectual power, Walker was a true American individualist, who followed no artistic agenda but his own, and in doing so, created music of urgent and uncompromising integrity. Total Immersion will see a number of events across various venues at the Barbican dedicated to George Walker, including a performance at Milton Court featuring an exploration of his songs and chamber music by Guildhall School musicians.

Drama

Everyman by Carol Ann Duffy
24–29 October, Milton Court Studio Theatre

Everyman is at his peak; successful and loved by everyone, when suddenly Death comes calling. Deserted by friends, family and everything he’s built for himself, Everyman sets out on a final frantic search for a friend, anyone, to speak in his defence.

Everyman asks whether it is only at the end that we can truly understand our lives, exploring ‘both the frantic dizziness of a money-driven world and the beckoning finality of death’ (Guardian). Award-winning poet and playwright Carol Ann Duffy’s thrilling contemporary adaptation of the fifteenth century play The Summoning of Everyman, is directed by Katherine Nesbitt.

Hyde & Seek by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu
24–29 October, Milton Court Theatre

Who are we? And who do we want to be? Set in and around the Azazel Housing Estate in London in the not too distant future, Hyde & Seek is a radical re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel Jekyll and Hyde, exploring tensions that exist within our idea of selfhood. This gripping new thriller, told with dynamic lyricism, takes us on a journey through the dualities of light and dark that exist within us all. A world premiere commissioned especially for Guildhall School actors by writer and director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.

Our Town by Thornton Wilder
2–7 December, Silk Street Theatre

This Pulitzer-winning drama is set in the fictional American small town of Grover’s Corners; it is a play about mortality, a story told through the everyday lives of its citizens. Our Town is timeless three-act play, it asks questions about the meaning of love, life and death by exploring the relationship between George and Emily, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance. John Haidar returns to direct his fourth play at Guildhall.

Opera

Last Days, composed by Oliver Leith
7–11 October, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House

'Rejoice because there’s nothing left on a morrow-less day.' Blake, a musician, has recently escaped rehab to return home. But he is haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose – self-destruction. Adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film based on the final days of Kurt Cobain, this new opera plunges into the torment that created a modern myth. Music by ROH/Guildhall School Composer-inResidence Oliver Leith, libretto by Matt Copson, directed by Matt Copson and Anna Morrissey. The Royal Opera co-production with Guildhall School.

Opera Triple Bill
7–14 November, Silk Street Theatre

Guildhall School will present works from Massenet, Smyth and Rota for their autumn Opera Triple Bill. All following the arc of love and identity, the three rarely performed works will feature designs by Simon Corder and Laura Jane Stanfield. The triple bill will be conducted by Dominic Wheeler and directed by Rodula Gaitanou. Le Portrait de Manon is Jules Massenet’s one-act sequel to his beloved work Manon. Centred on love, regret and hierarchy, the work is a heart-warming tale of longing and perseverance. First performed in 1894, the opera only enjoyed six-years of success before falling out of the repertory.

Dame Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante is the fifth of her six operas, based on the themes of mistaken identity and disguise. First performed in 1923, Smyth’s neoclassical work features libretto written by herself in collaboration with war poet Edward Shanks.

Though known best for his film scores, composer Nino Rota penned 10 operas in his life, I due timidi is a one-act opera originally written for radio and first performed in 1950. Best described as a romance gone wrong, this surprising and comedic work features moments of tenderness, shyness and everything in between.

Autumn Opera Scenes
1–6 December, Milton Court Studio Theatre

Singers and repetiteurs from the first year of Guildhall School’s Opera course perform classical and contemporary operatic excerpts with piano accompaniment.

Jazz

The Nightfly, Guildhall Induction Jazz Orchestra & Choir
28 September, Milton Court Concert Hall

Forty years on from its release, Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly is performed for big band and choir, in an arrangement by Guildhall’s Head of Jazz, Malcolm Edmonstone. The concert will feature some of Fagen’s best-loved compositions including Maxine, IGY (What a beautiful world) and Walk between the raindrops. This performance will be the first opportunity for the new cohort of jazz students at Guildhall School to collaborate and perform together on the Milton Court Concert Hall stage.

Yahael Camara Onono Masterclass
29 September, Milton Court Concert Hall

Guildhall is delighted to welcome the Barbican’s 2022-23 Milton Court Artist in Residence, Yahael Camara Onono bandleader, lead djembe player, composer, and arranger of Balimaya Project – whose 2021 debut-album Wolo So, was referred to as ‘one of the most ’significant releases of 2021’. Yahael Camara Onono will present an interactive workshop involving musicians from Guildhall’s Jazz department. This masterclass will comprise of a talk and presentation on Mande, the griots and the djembe, focussing on the role the latter two have played in society. Featuring a live demonstration with musicians to accentuate each part of the lecture and a walk through of how different musical components work harmoniously.

Birth of Cool & Art Pepper + Eleven
8 December, Milton Court Concert Hall

Two landmark suites share the bill in a programme that defines “cool”, framing ground-breaking soloists in beautifully written vessels. Miles Davis’s 1949 recordings presented the results of months of undercover work by a young group of nine musicians - Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and John Lewis among them - who met together in Gil Evans’ New York basement flat. Collected together under the Birth of the Cool title, their influence was immense in an exciting period when new music was evolving out of the bebop era. That "cool" sound became particularly associated with the west coast, and a few years later Hollywood writer Marty Paich created another classic, assembling an all-star team of LA players to feature star saxophonist Art Pepper in his sumptuous arrangements.

Further event highlights

Guildhall School will also be welcoming the return of free events. Highlights include:

  • Girls in Jazz Day, 2022: a celebration of young women in music on 3 November for female instrumentalists and vocalists aged 11-18
  • Alumni Guitar Concert: Guildhall School alumni return for a special concert on 3 November to celebrate music written for guitar
  • Open Your Eyes: led by Iain Burnside, this special musical event highlights the effects of climate change, and what we can do as citizens to become more eco-aware
  • Guildhall Jazz Festival 2022: gamerjazz: On November 14 Mark McQuillan leads his band gamerjazz in a concert of discovery between video game music and jazz
  • Concerts at Six: regular short concerts throughout the year designed for commuters and locals alike to enjoy classical music following a day of work
  • Masterclasses: free masterclasses throughout the year from talented musicians including Kyoko Hashimoto, Richard Goode, Jean Saulnier and Ilya Poletaev

ResearchWorks

Research at Guildhall School explores fundamental questions about the creative arts. It embraces a wide range of disciplines within music and drama including composition, performance, pedagogy, institution studies, historical musicology, cultural history, theatre studies and music therapy. In partnership with the School’s Institute for Social Impact Research, it also looks at the ways in which performing arts can have a positive impact on a wide variety of societal issues. Throughout the year, the department runs a regular series of online ResearchWorks events that are open to all. Topics this term include Venanzio Rauzzini: The castrato who fathered a generation of English singers (3 October, 6pm) and Mapping Prison Music from the Periphery (31 October, 6pm) with more to be announced.

Tickets and more information

For more information on Guildhall School’s autumn season and to book tickets, visit gsmd.ac.uk/events

Priority booking for Guildhall School members: Monday 1 August*
Public booking: Monday 8 August

*Find out more about becoming a member of the Guildhall Circle at gsmd.ac.uk/circle