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What’s On Festivals & Series Scotland UnwrappedSonglines Encounters FestivalNoh ReimaginedEFG London Jazz Festival

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Scotland Unwrapped

A weave of words and music

Welcome to Scotland Unwrapped, the 16th edition of our award-winning year-long series. Celebrating Scottish music and spoken word culture, the series will highlight both its traditional and regional riches but also explore the diverse contemporary scene and the writers and composers which give Scotland its distinctive voice. As well as covering a wide range of musical genres from cutting-edge contemporary composers, folk musicians and Scottish classical ensembles, Scotland Unwrapped also embraces the heady literary scene and wealth of Scottish festivals.

Scotland Unwrapped features Artist in Residence Karine Polwart and Guest Curators Aidan O’Rourke and Jackie Kay.

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Songlines Encounters Festival

Kings Place is delighted to present an eclectic new programme for this year’s Songlines Enounters Festival, featuring music from Argentina, Mongolia, Morocco, and Sudan, with more to be announced.

Celebrating the vibrancy of traditional and contemporary music from across the world, we welcome the foremost female ambassador for Gnawa music, Asmâa Hamzaoui and her group Bnat Timbouktou for their UK debut, Argentinian ‘shaman-poet’ Soema Montenegro off the back of her new album Círculo Radiante, Sudanese funk outfit The Scorpios with a sneak preview of their forthcoming new album, and rising Mongolian singer Enji who brings her the traditional influences of her heritage together with jazz improvision for a unique combination. As ever the festival is proudly presented in partnership with one of the world’s leading global music magazines Songlines, and will feature more exciting additions to come.

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HebCelt Festival Spotlight

HebCelt Festival Spotlight

HebCelt takes place annually on the picturesque Lews Castle Green in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. Over its 26-year history, the festival has grown from a small event attracting less than 1,000 fans to an international showpiece for roots, Celtic and traditional music, with record attendances of over 19,500 in 2023.

In that time, it has generated more than £34 million for the local economy. It was crowned Best Cultural Event or Festival at the 2018 Scottish Thistle Awards and it won a Highly Commended accolade at A Greener Festival Awards. It also scooped the Festival of the Year award and the Grand Prix prize at the 2018 Scottish Event Awards and has twice been named Best Cultural Event or Festival in the Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards, as well as being named Event of the Year at the 2022 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.

HebCelt Chair of the Board, Gayle Findlay, said: “It’s fantastic that HebCelt is going to be part of the Scotland Unwrapped series at Kings Place, with some wonderful artists who have previously played the festival representing us. It’s a great opportunity for music lovers in London to get a taste of HebCelt and see how we do things here in Stornoway, and to celebrate the amazing music and rich culture on offer.”

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Master Series

‘We shall never become musicians unless we understand the ideals of temperance, fortitude, liberality and magnificence’ Plato

In our annual Master Series, we present renowned artists in recital in the radiant acoustic of Hall One, an intimate space expressly designed for the purpose. We invite them to play the music they love best, the greatest works of the classical canon.

The 2023/24 season opens with acclaimed baroque violinist Rachel Podger – recently announced as Kings Place’s Artist in Focus – on 21 September with her BBC Music Magazine Award-winning project Tutta Sola.

The Diotima Quartet – one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world – returns in October to perform modern masterpieces for string quartet by Janácek and Ligeti.

In November star soprano Danielle de Niese, joined by pianist and frequent collaborator Matthew Fletcher, presents an American songbook-inspired programme, interspersed with arias from operas by Mozart, Handel, Bizet, Dvořák and Gounod, displaying the versatility of de Niese’s.

Internationally-renowned guitarist Xuefei Yang collaborates with cellist Johannes Moser for a varied programme celebrating music from across the centuries in March next year.

And finally Chiaroscuro Quartet returns to close series, performing Beethoven’s Razumovsky quartets along with Haydn’s String Quartet in D Minor Op.9, June 2024.

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d&b Soundscape System Events

We are thrilled to have d&b audiotechnik’s state-of-the-art d&b Soundscape system in our flexible Hall Two space. A revolution in the live sound experience, d&b Soundscape is an alternative to the traditional left and right stereo system, using up to 28 loudspeakers to open up a plethora of creative possibilities for artists to reinforce their sound. The following shows will all be using the d&b Soundscape system.

d&b audiotechnik has a creative partnership with Kings Place to introduce artists and develop new projects using Soundscape. Find out more about the technology on our Magazine.

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The Guilty Feminist

Ever felt you should be better at feminism? Join comedian Deborah Frances-White for her comedy podcast, recorded in front of a live audience. Each episode Deborah and her guests discuss topics ‘all 21st century feminists agree on’ while confessing the insecurities, hypocrisies and fears that underlie their lofty principles. The podcast has been a huge success with over 20,000,000 downloads since it started in December 2015.

Previous guests have included Jo Brand, Andi Osho, Sarah Millican, Jenny Eclair, Susan Wokoma, Sara Pascoe, Jessamyn Stanley and Gemma Arterton.

‘Screamingly funny. Everyone is talking about them talking.’ Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Guardian
‘Presenters and guests set themselves challenges with invariably hilarious outcomes.’ The Economist

Deborah is an award-winning writer, comedian and corporate speaker. Her comedy series Rolls the Dice has had two series on BBC Radio 4 and she wrote the screenplay for the movie Say My Name.

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Kirckman at Kings Place

The Kirckman Concert Society was founded by Geraint Jones and Calton Younger in 1963 to promote young artists of exceptional talent.

The Society’s panel of distinguished musicians has developed a reputation for ‘spotting’ tomorrow’s stars in the making. The Society offers its young musicians a London platform as well as the possibility of concerts further afield; and while these artists are not yet household names, concert-goers have a unique opportunity to hear for themselves the exciting promise which these artists offer.

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Noh Reimagined

Noh Reimagined 2024: Sumidagawa and Kinuta – Classics of Noh Tragedy 

Noh Reimagined festival returns in June celebrating two masterpieces of traditional Japanese theatre, Sumidagawa and Kinuta. Curated and produced by Akiko Yanagisawa (Mu Arts) in partnership with Kings Place, the biannual festival unwraps the art of Noh, the iconic theatre tradition that originated in fourteenth-century Japan, and offers a creative platform for genre-defying, cross-cultural collaborations, connecting tradition with contemporary life and culture.

Sumidagawa by Kanze Motomasa (c. 1394-1432) is one of the most renowned Noh plays and has inspired countless artists over the years, including Benjamin Britten for his opera Curlew River. This performance at Kings Place is one of only two in the UK and the only performance in London, with the other taking place at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival. It also features a newly written English re-telling of the story by Xanthe Gresham Knight. Kinuta is believed to be the last and greatest work by Zeami Motokiyo (c.1363 – c.1443), who established Noh of the current style almost 600 years ago.

Starring some of the most esteemed Noh performers from Japan, including Mikata Shizuka as the mother in Sumidagawa and the wife in Kinuta, Noh Reimagined 2024 offers a unique opportunity to experience the enduring power of classical drama alongside workshops, talks and more.

What is Noh? Learn the basics here.
Read ‘Noh, an art of contrasts’ feature by Diego Pellecchia
Photo gallery on Noh Reimagined website.

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Aurora Orchestra - Far, Far Away

Combining live instrumental performance of the highest calibre with original storytelling and a playful, multi-sensory approach to concert presentation, Far, Far Away is the perfect way to introduce young children to music.

Each concert explores a particular composer or style of music, weaving together stunning live performances with an original story from Aurora Orchestra’s Writer-in-Residence Kate Wakeling and a beautifully designed set built around the audience and musicians. Audiences are invited to step inside each story through guided listening, singing, dancing, holding props and much more, becoming immersed in a magical world of music, language, discovery and play.

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Online

An exciting virtual Kings Place has emerged and our audience can now experience events streamed live at home via KPlayer.

For information on how to use KPlayer please refer to our guide or see the KPlayer FAQ.

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Politics

Political commentator and broadcaster, Steve Richards, presents the latest behind-the-scenes guide to the epic dramas and the characters shaping seismic events. How have we got here? What’s going to happen next? Are there any answers to these questions? Come along and find out.

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IGF Guitar Summit

IGF Guitar Summit 

Live the ultimate guitar experience! 

IGF Guitar Summit is back at Kings Place for three days of concerts, workshops, and masterclasses with the world’s greatest guitarists! We welcome the return of one of the greatest jazz guitarists in the history of the form: Biréli Lagrène, master classical guitarist David Russell and young Flamenco Duo. There are also lunchtime concerts by extraordinarily talented young classical guitarists on our Young Artist Platform.

Come and feast your ears on the world’s most popular and versatile instrument the guitar! And don’t forget to bring your own guitar and take part in our unique workshops and masterclasses.

Tom Kerstens
Artistic Director

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Sing to the Dark Weekend

The Gaelic festival Samhain was once widely marked across Scotland, Ireland and beyond as a threshold into winter and the darker half of the year. A liminal time of fire and feasting, magic and mischief, and the ritual remembering of the dead, it finds echoes in Halloween and All Saints/Souls.

Singer, songwriter and storyteller, and Kings Place Artist in Residence Karine Polwart programmes a weekend of events that explores darkening and light, myth and divination, and the supernatural.

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EFG London Jazz Festival

The EFG London Jazz Festival is the capital’s biggest pan-city music festival, taking place annually in November, which has long been acclaimed for showcasing a heady mix of talent from around the world. Widely acknowledged for delivering world-class artists and emerging stars, the festival continues to take jazz to a massive audience, in one of the UK’s landmark music events.

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