Southbank Centre’s extravaganza of Easter events

THIS EASTER SOUTHBANK CENTRE HOSTS AN ARRAY OF UNMISSABLE EVENTS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Including a number of free events and performances, spanning the school holiday weeks and into the Bank Holiday weekend celebrations; from 6-22 April 2019

FAMILY  EVENTS

Family events are at the heart of Easter this year. Tabby McTat (QEH, 6-13 April), a magical piece of children’s theatre featuring original songs, based on the book written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler and  presented by Freckle Productions will play for fifteen performances in Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Soundpit (RFH, 13 Feb-2 June), an interactive musical instrument from artist Di Mainstone, comprising of giant sandpits which are brought to life with graphics, sounds, and motion sensor technology, will be a highlight for children, as well as Kaleidoscope; an immersive experience where children are shown a world of colour inspired by research into how a baby’s sense of sight develops (PUR, 9-11 April).

FREE EVENTS

Free music events will be performed around the site every day from 6-22 April, including DJ sets with Anna Greenwood (QEH, 7-13 April), live bands Dizney Rascal (QEH, 13 April) and Boogie Monsters (QEH, 6 April), and an afternoon dance workshop with HomeBros (QEH, 14 April). The accomplished vocalist and songwriter Mellow Baku will captivate with her blend of jazz grooves, soulful reggae, spoken word, blues and world music to an audience in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, creating rich soundscapes as she performs (QEH, 11 April).

A travelling band of space aliens, Captain Avery & the Cosmic Triceratops of Intergalactic Peace will perform their cosmic music in a free, interactive Friday Lunch performance (QEH, 12 April). Megson Family Folk Show will play an infectious mix of heavenly vocals and lush harmonies (QEH, 7 April) while Mrs H and the Sing-Along Band will get the audience moving with music for the whole family, bringing together elements of folk, soul, Afro, Latin and dub (QEH, 10 April). Further free programming for Easter Weekend will be announced on Southbank Centre’s website nearer the time.

FOOD AND DRINK

Over the Easter weekend, the always popular KERB will be bringing a newest selection of London’s 24 top pop-up traders with their inKERBator Weekender to serve delicious food and drink at Southbank Centre Food Market (18-22 April). From 4 April, Southbank Centre’s favourite riverside hideaway; the Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden, will reopen to serve drinks and cocktails in the sun.

PERFORMANCE AND COMEDY

Southbank Centre welcomes a co-creation from multi-award-winning interactive art pioneers Blast Theory and celebrated site-specific theatre company Hydrocracker. Off-site immersive theatre event Operation Black Antler looks at the moral implications of the use of undercover officers, as well as the wider ethical questions of when surveillance is justified creating a unique perspective on the world of police surveillance (Secret Location, 3-13 April). Marc Maron, the stand-up, podcaster and star of Netflix’s Glow returns once again to Southbank Centre with a new live show of his trademark raw, honest and thought-provoking comedy (RFH, 6 April).

GIGS

Six-time Grammy-nominated sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar performs SHIRAZ, her newly composed score for the lavish 1920s epic silent film Shiraz: A Romance of India. Daughter and pupil of the legendary Ravi Shankar, Anoushka will perform the score live to accompany a screening of the film, which tells the intense and unrivalled love story of the Taj Mahal (RFH, 9 April).

James Lavelle, founder of iconic label Mo’Wax, returns to Southbank Centre five years after his triumphant stint curating Meltdown festival. A day ahead of performing with his band UNKLE in the Royal Festival Hall (RFH, 19 April), the trip-hop pioneer headlines a special edition of Concrete Lates, Southbank Centre’s late-night electronic music series, with Living In My Headphones, kicking off the long weekend with a line-up of his favourite and most celebrated DJs until 2am (QEH, 18 April).

The cutting edge contemporary UK band Ill Considered will perform at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room this Easter. Compromising of four of the hottest names in UK jazz, Ill Considered freely improvise music based around simple pre-written themes or compose on the spot, reacting to the audience, the venue, the mood and the moment. (PUR, 12 April)

LITERATURE

Multi-award-winning author of acclaimed novels Atonement and Enduring Love Ian McEwan presents his new novel Machines Like Me which explores the advent of artificial intelligence in an alternative 1980s London in a London-exclusive event (RFH, 15 April).

Southbank Centre is also delighted to present debut novelist Candice Carty-Williams in conversation with TV broadcaster June Sarpong. Carty-Williams will reflect on life, love, race and family as she discusses her highly-anticipated debut novel Queenie, which follows the life of 25-year-old Jamaican-British Londoner Queenie Jenkins, in this exclusive London launch event (PUR, 17 April).

CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERTS

Southbank Centre has a wealth of classical music for audiences to dive into this Easter. Southbank Centre Resident Orchestra Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is joined by conductor Simon Rattle and an all star cast including Mark Padmore, Roderick Williams, Christian Gerhaher, Camilla Tilling, Magdalena Kožená and Andrew Staples to perform JS Bach’s St John Passion directed by Peter Sellars (RFH, 2 April) whilst The Bach Choir conducted by David Hill performs JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion featuring soloists James Gilchrist, Mark Stone, Sophie Bevan, Hilary Summers, Ed Lyon and Neal Davies (RFH, 7 April).

Herbert Blomstedt conducts two concerts with Southbank Centre Resident Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique (RFH, 11 April) and Mozart’s Symphony No.40 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) (RFH, 14 April) whilst Southbank Centre Resident London Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by conductor Edward Gardner and pianist Stephen Hough to perform Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.5 (RFH, 10 April).

Southbank Centre Associate Orchestra National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain joins forces with Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and pianist Xiayin Wang to perform ‘Voices of the Americas’ featuring works by Mexican composers Revueltas and Carlos Chávez alongside American composers Gershwin and Copland in a concert celebrating the power of music to build bridges (RFH, 12 April) and Javier Perianes makes his International Piano Series debut performing works by Chopin, Albeniz and Falla (QEH, 16 April).

Southbank Centre Resident Orchestra London Sinfonietta performs the UK premiere of Richard Ayres’ new semi-staged music theatre piece No.50 (The Garden), inspired by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Dante’s Divine Comedy, conducted by Geoffrey Paterson, with soloist bass Joshua Bloom (QEH, 17 April) whilst Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury under conductor John Wilson, featuring soloists Simon Butteriss and Louise Alder (QEH, 18 April).

Finally, Southbank Centre Associate Orchestra Chineke! Orchestra returns to Queen Elizabeth Hall for a concert to mark the first Stephen Lawrence Day. Held on the anniversary of the teenager’s murder in 1993, the concert features Europe’s first BME majority orchestra, conducted by Anthony Parnther, in works by BME composers including Philip Herbert‘s Elegy, written in memory of Lawrence and featuring an orchestra of 18 string players, one for each year of Stephen Lawrence’s life (QEH, 22 April).

VISUAL ARTS

Hayward Gallery presents a double show, diane arbus: in the beginning and Kader Attia: The Museum of Emotion.

diane arbus: in the beginning includes nearly 100 photographs that redefine the achievement of one of the most prominent and influential artists of the 20th century. The exhibition takes an in-depth look at the formative first half of Diane Arbus’ career, from 1956 to 1962, when the American master developed the direct, psychologically acute style for which she later became so widely celebrated. Presented across the upper floor of the Hayward Gallery, this solo show includes some fifty photographs which have never been shown in Europe, all vintage prints from the Diane Arbus Archive at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Hayward Gallery, Until 6 May).

Across its lower floor, Hayward Gallery presents the first major survey in the United Kingdom of one of today’s leading international artists: Kader Attia. The Museum of Emotion highlights several strands of Kader Attia’s thought-provoking and influential art from the past two decades. Offering a trenchant post-colonial perspective, Attia’s work often pushes the boundaries of traditional museum presentation whilst it raises questions about the hegemony of Western cultural models. Spanning a wide range of media, the works in this exhibition inventively explore the ways in which colonialism continues to shape how Western societies represent and engage with non-Western cultures (Hayward Gallery, Until 6 May)