Guildhall School announces spring events season 2024

This spring, Guildhall School of Music & Drama presents a varied programme of events for the public to enjoy, including concerts, drama productions, opera and jazz.

Highlights include:

• A Star Next to the Moon, a new opera by Stephen McNeff.
   
• Guildhall Artists in recital at Milton Court Concert Hall before their appearance at Carnegie Hall.
   
• Respighi’s mighty Rome tone poems performed by Guildhall Symphony Orchestra.
   
• Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors directed by Chelsea Walker and Paul Foster respectively.
   
• Jazz performances featuring special guests Callum Au, Rufus Reid and Josephine Davies.
   
• A wide range of events, include over 60 free concerts, recitals and seminars.

Details of the spring season's events can be found below.

Opera

Stephen McNeff: A Star Next to the Moon (World Premiere)
26 February – 4 March, Silk Street Theatre

Stephen McNeff’s new commission, A Star Next to the Moon, is an opera with a libretto by Aoife Mannix based on Juan Rulfo’s iconic novel Pedro Páramo.

Juan Preciado, as a deathbed promise to his mother, sets off to visit the town of Comala and to find his father, Pedro Páramo. Comala is not as he expected; it appears inhabited by ghosts. Not sure who is alive or dead, various characters tell Juan their stories, but their terrifying nature drives him into a feverish loss of sanity. The story of how Pedro Páramo ruthlessly rose to power as a cruel and amoral landowner is told in parallel. Pedro’s one glimpse of humanity is Susana who, despite her long absence and his tyranny, he has loved since childhood. However, her madness and death drive Pedro to despair and his ultimate act of malice.

This new commission and world premiere is directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and conducted by Dominic Wheeler.

Drama

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
12 – 17 February, Milton Court Theatre

Director Chelsea Walker presents one of Shakespeare’s finest and best-loved comedies Much Ado About Nothing. Revolving around two romantic pairings, the battle of wits between Beatrice and Benedick and the plot involving lovers Claudio and Hero, the play combines humour with the themes of jealousy, trust and the importance of separating illusion from reality.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
22 – 27 March, Silk Street Theatre

Shakespeare’s comedy of separated family and mistaken identity, The Comedy of Errors, is directed by Paul Foster in this new production. Two sets of twins are separated by a shipwreck and end up in rival cities. After twenty years apart, both sets of twins accidentally cross paths on a bustling dock, and justice, romance and hilarity ensue. Their chance encounter sets in motion a series of wild mishaps and false accusations as the play hurtles towards its finale.

Music

Guildhall Artists in New York
Friday 12 January, 6pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
Tuesday 16 January, 8pm, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall

Guildhall Artists pianist William Bracken, violinist Kryštof Kohout and soprano Manon Ogwen Parry present a recital at Milton Court Concert Hall before performing the repertoire at Carnegie Hall, New York on Tuesday 16 January. The three artists present the world premiere of Ben Pease Barton’s Fall, alongside works by Janáček, Liszt, Messiaen and Hilary Tann. The evening concludes with William Bracken’s arrangements of two traditional Welsh folk songs: Y Deryn Pur and Suo Gân.

Electronic and Produced Music at The Courtauld Gallery
Thursday 18 January, 2pm, The Courtauld Gallery

Students from the electronic and produced music department have written new compositions inspired by the Great Room in The Courtauld Gallery. Works by Manet, Monet, Degas and Gauguin spark new compositions for flute, viola and harp, written specifically for this collaboration between Guildhall School and The Courtauld Gallery.

Guildhall String Ensemble
Friday 19 January, 7pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

Guildhall String Ensemble returns to the Milton Court stage with a wonderful programme of works under the direction of András Keller, violinist and founder of the Keller Quartet, and director and conductor of Concerto Budapest.

Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony is followed by Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète, a neoclassical ballet in two tableaux. The performance concludes with Schubert’s Death and the maiden, arranged by Mahler after Schubert’s death in 1828.

Song in Sign
Tuesday 23 January, 7:30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

Two opera singers, a pianist and two signing actors join forces in a joyous merging of Song and Sign. Dame Gillian Whitehead’s Awa Herea (meaning ‘braided rivers’) evokes the New Zealand forest, whilst a world premiere by composer Rylan Gleave and librettist Max Chase takes on Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince. The staged concert by formidAbility is BSL interpreted, audio described and captioned throughout.

New Worlds, as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion: Missy Mazzoli
Sunday 25 February, 5pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

For Missy Mazzoli, small ensembles unlock infinite possibilities, and her music for ensemble and electronics finds her exploring the wildest reaches of a boundless musical imagination. The composer introduces her own music and music that inspires her, performed by Guildhall School musicians.

Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
Wednesday 13 March, 7:30pm, Barbican Hall

Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Roberto González-Monjas, performs Respighi’s three tone poems about Rome, including the Pines of Rome, praised for its emotional orchestration and widely considered as the composer’s greatest work. The programme begins with Andrea Torrodi’s Ascent, written in 2014-15, a work in seven movements which begins in the stillness of an ocean trench and ends in the placidity of outer space.

Chamber Music Festival
22 – 24 March, various venues

Guildhall School’s Chamber Music Festival returns this Spring with a weekend of inspiring performances from 22 – 24 March. Further details to be announced soon.

Electronic and Produced Music at The National Gallery
Friday 22 March, 6:30pm, The National Gallery

Inspired by the theme of ‘Time’, students from Guildhall’s Electronic and Produced Music Department have chosen works by Turner, Constable and Gainsborough to inspire new and original compositions for string quartet performed for the first time at The National Gallery.

Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize
Wednesday 3 April, 7pm, Wigmore Hall

The Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize annually awards an exceptional musician from Guildhall School of Music & Drama with a Wigmore Hall recital.

The winner of the 2023 Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize, soprano Ana-Carmen Balestra gives her debut Wigmore Hall recital, accompanied by Aleksandra Myslek.

Jazz

Guildhall Studio Orchestra Plays Bacharach
Wednesday 10 January, 7pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

Callum Au directs Guildhall Studio Orchestra in a programme of Burt Bacharach's finest musical gifts, heard here in brand new arrangements by Au, Guildhall alumnus Richard Balcombe and a team of Guildhall student arrangers. Vocalist Luca Manning joins as a special guest.

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra with Rufus Reid
Friday 23 February, 7:30pm, Milton Court Theatre

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra presents a performance with Rufus Reid, as a tribute to his active presence in the jazz world since the 1970s. The programme features Reid’s tribute to A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, Of Regal Patience, a selection from the 2003 suite, Linear Surroundings, and more recent composition Always in the Moment and a recent arrangement of Victor Feldman’s Falling In Love.

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra: Celtic Year of the Wheel Suite
Monday 25 March, 7:30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

Composer Josephine Davies directs Guildhall Jazz Orchestra for a performance of her latest large-scale work, Celtic Year of the Wheel Suite, a series of eight pieces representing the eight parts of the Celtic Wheel of the Year. A celebration of nature, connection and renewal, Celtic Year of the Wheel Suite begins with Summer Solstice, before moving through the seasons, becoming increasingly dark and tenebrous, finally returning at the end of the cycle back to light and luminosity.

Guildhall Jazz Vocal Ensembles Showcase
Thursday 28 March, 7:30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

A celebratory showcase of Guildhall School’s vocal groups with repertoire by New York Voices, Saje and Paul Simon.

Children and Young People

Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and String Ensemble
Saturday 23 March, 6pm, Milton Court Concert Hall

Junior Guildhall’s Symphony Orchestra and String Ensemble return to Milton Court Concert Hall.

Norfolk County Youth Orchestra (GYA Norwich)
Friday 5 April, Wymondham Abbey

Part of Guildhall Young Artists Norwich, Norfolk County Youth Orchestra comes together to deliver training courses twice a year. Young musicians from across the county age 11–18 get to work with industry professionals and develop skills in preparation for a public concert. Andrew Morley conducts.

Free events

In addition to the above events, Guildhall School offers audiences an array of regular concerts, masterclasses, recitals, competitions and seminars which are free of charge to attend. Highlights this season include Guildhall Improvisers’ Workshops, a Guildhall Big Band tribute to Kansas City, Piano Masterclasses with Julius Drake, Paul Lewis and Imogen Cooper, and a recital by pianist Camille Lemonnier.

Also this season, a wide range of free online ResearchWorks sessions include Clowns and Identity – reinventing clowning from the margins (26 February, 5pm) and Listening, Belonging and Memory: silence, witnessing and connecting listening (11 March, 5pm) with more to be announced.

For more information on Guildhall School’s autumn season visit gsmd.ac.uk/events

Priority booking opens for Guildhall Circle members and Patrons on Monday 4 December at 10am
General booking opens on Monday 11 December at 10am

Please note:
Tickets for Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize will be on sale on Tuesday 23 January