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Aldeburgh On Tour at King’s Place: London, Monday 3rd to Friday 7th November 2008 (BK)


For five nights starting on Monday 3rd November, London audiences will be able to sample highlights from recent Aldeburgh Festivals when Aldeburgh Music takes up residency at Kings Place, London’s brand new concert hall. On offer is a recital with Thomas Adès and Anthony Marwood, a concert performance of the Rape of Lucretia, evenings with vocal group EXAUDI and the Aronowitz Ensemble, and Faster Than Sound - Aldeburgh’s contribution to the meeting of classical contemporary and electronica, with interactive visual arts.

In different ways, each evening reflects the Aldeburgh ethos of providing a haven for artists to develop ideas, and a platform from which those ideas can be introduced to a broader public. The opening concert on Monday 3 November features Aldeburgh Festival’s outgoing artistic director, Thomas Adès and violinist Anthony Marwood, for whom Adès recently wrote his violin concerto. The Stravinsky and Dushkin programme that they will perform at Kings Place first featured at the 2005 Aldeburgh Festival and will be recorded for release by Hyperion in 2009.

The following evening (4th November) Aldeburgh will present a concert performance of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, cast entirely from singers and instrumentalists who have taken part in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. On Wednesday, the Aronowitz Ensemble - an Aldeburgh-nurtured chamber ensemble will perform Benjamin Britten, Shostakovich, Mozart and Mahler. The penultimate concert features Aldeburgh Festival regulars EXAUDI who will perform a wonderfully contrasted programme of works from the sixteenth to twenty-first century, ranging from Responsories by Lassus to Rihm’s sacred songs. EXAUDI has very strong ties to Aldeburgh, having participated in numerous Aldeburgh Residencies and having been a frequent guest at the Festival.

The week in London ends with Faster Than Sound, Aldeburgh’s sonic experiment fusing classical contemporary and electronica music genres with interactive visual arts. The line-up on Friday includes Aldeburgh Residency alumni Mira Calix and Camberwell Composers’ Collective as well as Hauschka and an exclusive screening of a new film by PANASONIC.

Since Benjamin Britten first put Aldeburgh on the musical map in 1948, the flourishing seaside town has become as well-known as the home of an internationally acclaimed summer festival, as it is for its pebbled beach and glorious light. Host to some of the world’s most famous singers and musicians, behind the scenes Aldeburgh has been building its reputation as an international centre for artistic development, nurturing young talent and providing a platform for emerging artists and offbeat ideas.

From its modest beginnings in 1972, when Peter Pears initiated workshops for singers, Aldeburgh Music has matured into a year-round organisation with a network of artist training schemes, including the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme, opera-writing workshops, education and community projects and artist residencies, underpinning its internationally acclaimed performances.

As Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music, Jonathan Reekie comments: "A week of concerts at Kings Place is a fantastic opportunity to show a London audience the wide variety of music and talent generated at Aldeburgh. The five events encapsulate many facets of Aldeburgh Music life - the Aldeburgh Festival, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Aldeburgh Residencies and the bold experimental meeting of genres Faster than Sound. A vast repertoire is performed by established artists and emerging talent, from early music through classical style to Britten and the new; opera, chamber music and electronics."

Aldeburgh Music is currently undertaking a major capital development that will extend the existing Snape Maltings complex and create a music campus to rival that of Banff and Tanglewood. The new buildings will be unveiled in Spring 2009.

Bill Kenny

<sup>The King's Place web site is Here

Aldeburgh Music's site is Here

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