This April 22 - 24, PRS Foundation and the Southbank Centre will bring their critically acclaimed free festival, New Music Biennial 2022 to Coventry. Presented in partnership with Coventry UK City of Culture, BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings with support from Arts Council of England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, New Music Biennial 2022 will comprise of 20 pieces of music: ten brand new works selected from an open call and ten pre-existing New Music Biennial works from across the last 10 years to mark its launch back in 2012.
With pieces from across all genres: from classical and chamber opera to jazz, folk and electronic, each work is no longer than 15 minutes in duration to create a pop-up, interactive way for audiences to discover new music by some of the most exciting composers and music creators in the UK today.
New Music Biennial 2022 will comprise two festival weekends of exceptional music featuring brand new pieces by Yazz Ahmed, Paul Purgas, AFRODEUTSCHE, Martin Green, Rakhi Singh / Vessel, Keeley Forsyth, Coby Sey, Roopa Panesar, Toby Young and Philip Herbert.
These will be presented alongside previous outstanding work by Anna Meredith, Brian Irvine and Jennifer Walshe, Daniel Elms, Errollyn Wallen, Philip Venables and David Hoyle Aidan O'Rourke and Kit Downes, Jason Yarde, Jessica Curry, Arlene Sierra and Gazelle Twin (See more info below)
The festival weekends will take place both in Coventry across three locations - Coventry Cathedral, Drapers’ Hall and HMV Empire as part of the UK City of Culture celebrations before heading to London’s Southbank Centre. The festival dates are as follows:
● Friday 22 – Sunday 24 April, Coventry (Free tickets available now)
● Friday 1 – Sunday 3 July, Southbank Centre (Free tickets available now)
Shows such as Philip Herbert’s new piece of work “Towards Renewal” commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra performing at Coventry Cathedral have already started to sell out. Due to popular demand, festival organisers will be making arrangements to release further tickets but advise the public to sign up to these free events now to avoid disappointment.
In addition to the performances, all the works featured in this year’s New Music Biennial will be broadcast across BBC Radio 3 New Music Show at 10pm every Saturday evening.
New works recorded in Coventry will be featured in the shows on 30th April and 2nd July. Previously commissioned works featured in this year’s New Music Biennial can be heard on Saturday evenings from 10pm throughout May and June. The New Music Show programmes will also be available on BBC Sounds.
Pieces from the New Music Biennial will also be available through NMC Recordings. As well as releasing the new pieces at this year’s festival, and to celebrate this milestone in the partnership, NMC is re-issuing the ten existing works being performed this year. This special re-issue bundle entitled “Celebrating 10 years of New Music Biennial”, will be available to download digitally from the NMC online shop from 22nd April at a discounted price, providing a lasting legacy for this new music.
The track being re-released include a flashmob-style body percussion piece for choir by Anna Meredith, an orchestral work exploring themes of slavery and freedom by Errollyn Wallen, Jason Yarde’s Olympics-inspired piece for brass including Chinese style pentatonic music and London grime, Philip Venable’s provocative, political chamber work story-telling and folk fiddle from Aidan O’Rourke and Kit Downes, and sampled birdsong merging with keyboard from Arlene Sierra.
NMC also share five curated playlists themed by genre consisting of all the tracks that they have released across the festival’s lifespan, available on Spotify and Apple Music. The playlists are Choral / Vocal, Folk / World, Jazz, Electronic / Experimental, and Contemporary Classical. Listen to them here.
To ensure the New Music Biennial can be experienced by all, the Southbank Centre will also be hosting a range of free-to-attend public events which will be announced closer to the summer.
Music and the arts have never been more important with so many universal challenges facing individuals, communities and the world. This year's New Music Biennial invited composers and commissioning organisations to create a response - exploring the fantastical, imaginative and transformational shift music can affect in confronting these threats and challenges whilst bringing joy and excitement.
2022 will mark the tenth anniversary of the New Music Biennial since its launch as New Music 20x12 as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Since 2012 the initiative has seen critically acclaimed pieces by composers and music creators including Anna Meredith, Mica Levi, Hannah Peel, Errollyn Wallen, GoGo Penguin, Jessica Curry, Shingai Shoniwa, David Okumu, Mark Simpson, Eliza Carthy, Gavin Bryars, Mark Anthony Turnage, Shiva Feshareki and Sam Lee with many pieces receiving award nominations.