Joyce Lam

Tag: Concert

  • LSO Soundhub 2026

    All world premieres

    Composers in conversation (moderated by Zygmund De Somogyi, Founder and Artistic Director of PRXLUDES)
    Sam Longbottom Apricot Green Slip
    Xenia Pestova Bennett Light Echos / Dasson ar gouloù

    Interval

    Cameron Graham Sweet People
    Connie Harris Elegy for my hair

    Xenia Pestova Bennet’s Light Echoes tells an audiovisual story of a dying star through the endangered French Celtic language of Breton. Cameron Graham’s Sweet People unveils the tapestry of cinema, flickering through history from the nickelodeon to today’s modern media. 

    Connie Harris’ Elegy for my hair intertwines dance and the sound-world of shaving, from the bristling to the silky smooth, to address modern beauty standards. Finally Sam Longbottom presents a cybernetic performance in a work for electromechanical clarinets and organ pipes. 

    Michelle Hormin clarinet
    Oliver Pashley clarinet
    Heather Roche clarinet
    Alexander Roberts clarinet
    Chihiro Ono violin
    Colin Alexander cello
    Evangeline Tang double bass
    Sue Blair harp
    Ruth Wall harp
    Sana Abu-Jabir percussion
    Matthew Farthing percussion
    Xenia Pestova Bennett piano
    Cameron Graham sensory percussion / electronics
    Eliza McCarthy keyboard
    Emrys van Seventer narrator
    Ka Ki Christina Lai dancer / choreographer
    Steve Lee video artist

  • Euchar Gravina: ħsejjes iduru, iduru

    Daniele Ghisi I. Blumen from ‘Weltliche’ (UK premiere)
    David FennessyThe room is the resonator
    Daniele Ghisi III. August from ‘Weltliche’ (UK premiere)
    Liza Lim One and the Other (UK premiere)
    Julia Wolfe East Broadway
    Cassandra Miller Daylonging, Slacktide

    Interval

    Clarence Barlow 1981
    Euchar Gravina Dwawar (“ħsejjes iduru, iduru”) (world premiere)

    Memories and fragments of the past take on new forms in this concert curated by Euchar Gravina, with works that reimagine old music, weathered recordings and emotive sounds.

    Daniele Ghisi’s Weltliche transforms Bach’s secular cantatas into something transcendent, while Clarence Barlow refracts music by Clementi, Schumann and Ravel through mathematical structures to create a new work from historical fragments.

    Cassandra Miller and Liza Lim draw on Georgian and Swedish folk traditions, and nostalgia shapes pieces by Julia Wolfe and David Fennessy. 

    The concert finishes with Euchar Gravina’s new work which draws on recently rediscovered 1930s recordings of music and variety sketches, some of the earliest made in Malta. These weathered artefacts – with all their imperfections, quirks and incidental details – become material in transformation, their spinning, whirling human intricacies shaping sound in the present.

    David Alberman violin
    Chihiro Ono viola
    Colin Alexander cello
    Mark Knoop piano

  • Lisa Robertson: Ceòl na Mara

    Tine Surel Lange Flaskepost (London premiere)
    Katherine Balch Responding to the Waves
    Emily Doolittle Social Sounds of Whales at Night
    Lisa Robertson the inimitable brightness of the air

    Interval

    David Fennessy Changeless and the changed
    Kaija Saariaho Vent Nocturne
    Hans Abrahamsen Storm og Stille
    Lisa Robertson Sluaisreadh (world premiere)

    A contemporary chamber concert from LSO Jerwood Composer+ Lisa Robertson, crafted to transport you to the wild Scottish coasts and explore our connection to the sea and changing climate.

    Lange’s Flaskepost connects the Scottish and Norwegian seaway via a message in a bottle, while the Fennessy carries you to the isolation of the remote Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda. Saariaho’s Vent Nocturne and Lisa’s own the inimitable brightness of the air breathe the salt wind of the coast itself and evoke the waves’ connection to the human breath.

    Doolittle’s Social Sounds of Whales at Night immerses us in the hidden life of the oceans, while Abrahamsen floods the hall with the sea’s thrashing danger and its moments of glassy calm.  Lisa’s new work, Sluaisreadh — from the Gaelic for ‘the sound of waves swirling against the shore’ — traces the ocean’s shifting voice, reflecting all of its sonic qualities, from tranquil to damaged and dangerous. 

    Daniel Shao flute
    David Alberman violin
    Chihiro Ono viola
    Valerie Welbanks cello
    Rachael Gibson electronics

  • LSO Soundhub @ Barbican Conservatory

    Omri Kochavi shablulim
    Amy Crankshaw Moonflower (world premiere)
    Nico de Benito No abras nunca esa puerta (world premiere)
    George Frideric Handel Sonatine
    Brian Lynn Posh Duet No 14
    Luke Mombrea Redwood Hymn (world premiere)

    A one-hour lunchtime concert featuring a few works by LSO Soundhub Associates. Audiences were guided by the music as they walked through the Barbican Conservatory.

    Olivia Gandee horn
    Holly Clark     trumpet
    Ben Jarvis trumpet
    Gemma Riley     trombone
    Stuart Beard     tuba
    Jacob Brown     percussion
    Karen Hutt     percussion
    Rachel Leach     presenter

  • LSO Soundhub 2025


    All world premieres

    Hugo Bell Black Box Communion
    Joseph Howard Strobe

    Interval

    Rachael Gibson Into My Heart an Air That Kills
    Sze Ying Chan Love in a fallen city

    This year’s LSO Soundhub Showcase presents a quadruple bill of world premieres exploring the aspects of human experience. Hugo Bell’s Black Box Communion tracks the musician’s heartbeat to create a unique performance exploring the limits of acoustic instruments. Rachael Gibson’s Into My Heart an Air That Kills examines intimacy, connection and voyeurism in a performance that bends and breaks a cello.

    Joseph Howard’s Strobe recreates the emotion spectrum of a nightclub experience; a distillation of contemporary lived experience in the 21st century, when life can be restless, thrilling and overwhelming. Finally, inspired by essays from Xiao Si’s Hong Kong Stories, Sze Ying Chan’s Love in a fallen city immerses audiences in the nostalgic memories and stories of Hong Kong, alongside live drawing and animations.

    Henrietta Cooke oboe / cor anglais
    Michelle Hormin clarinet
    Lois Au bassoon
    Chihiro Ono violin / viola
    Colin Alexander cello
    Gemma Riley trombone
    Jacob Brown percussion
    Darren Bloom conductor
    Sandy Leong live drawing / animation

  • Rufus Isabel Elliot: Waves Crash on Old Street

    David Fennessy ‘The Blue Eyed Lassie’ from Piano Trio No. 2 – In Memoriam Spencer Boney
    Christian Mason Efflorescence
    Barbara Monk Feldman Clear Edge
    Martin Arnold Lutra

    Interval

    Britta Byström Baum in der Stadt
    Ryoko Akama 10 days’ etude
    Stuart MacRae Haroldswick
    Rufus Isabel Elliot A way out (world premiere)

    Composer Rufus Isabel Elliot and artists Miek Zwamborn and Rutger Emmelkamp bring the Isle of Mull’s wild Atlantic rainforest of Tireragan to LSO St Luke’s.

    Archival tape hiss becomes harmonic material in David Fennessy’s transcription of The Blue Eyed Lassie. We hear the unfurling of flowers in Mason’s Efflorescence, and we meet the otter who crosses our path in Arnold’s Lutra. Monk Feldman and Akama present chordal piano sequences, exploring open and closed spaces. 

    Elliot’s A way out for piano trio closes the concert, imagining the wavering songs that belong intrinsically to a bivvy place amongst the cliffs of Tireragan – songs that transform a place in the wild into a sleeping place. Featuring visuals by KNOCKvologan Studies, it hopes to bring that place alive in the hall of LSO St Luke’s.

    David Alberman violin
    Louise McMonagle cello
    Mark Knoop piano

  • Anselm McDonnell: The Expanded Violin

    Anselm McDonnell Rusted Sugar
    Kaija Saariaho Nocturne
    Judith Ring Swept Through the Floods
    Kalevi Aho Lamento
    Leo Chadburn De La Salle (Violins)

    Interval

    Ian Wilson Primavera from ‘Quattro Stagioni’
    Chiyoko Szlavnics Quick Figure (for Marc Sabat)
    Chiyoko Szlavnics This is Only Here. This is Only Now.
    Judith Ring Swept Through the Floods
    Anselm McDonnell Genesis Cradle (world premiere)

    A deep dive into the potential of the violin, expanding and enhancing the instrument through microtonality, electronics, and the sound of multiple violins.

    Rusted Sugar enters the world of intervals smaller than a semitone, taking traditional tonal chord progressions and setting them into a landscape of quartertones, sweet synthesisers and funk rhythms. Swept Through the Floods and Lamento present powerful emotional journeys. Leo Chadburn’s De La Salle (Violins) occupies a calmer environment: a drifting soundscape, merging four violins into one voice.

    Ian Wilson’s Primavera takes creates a texture of agile echoes in a violin quartet and Saariaho’s Nocturne is an intimate tribute to Lutosławski. McDonnell’s new work Genesis Cradle closes the concert, exploring alternative tunings through Just Intonation – intervals that are tuned to fit with the naturally occurring relationships in the harmonic series.

    Mira Benjamin violin
    Larissa O’Grady violin
    Chihiro Ono violin
    Amalia Young violin

  • LSO Soundhub 2024

    All world premieres

    Conversation: Striking Sounds, New Synergies moderated by Jasmin Kent Rodgman
    Jasmine Morris Ca’
    Amy Crankshaw November moon readings

    Interval

    Delyth Field Shoegaze Capsule
    Luke Mombrea Black Gold (Winner – Best Small Chamber Composition, Ivor Novello Award 2025)

    In Amy Crankshaw’s November moon readings, three percussionists explore their entanglement in sound and spirit. Delyth Field blends a cacophony of noise and dreamy texture in her shoegaze-inspired work.

    Luke Mombrea’s audiovisual work Black Gold see’s four players depict Sante Fe Spring’s 1928 oil fire which burned for over two months. We listen between the lines in Jasmine Morris’ Ca’ which explores the noisiness in archival recordings with musical snapshots from an old Celtic folk song.

    Leah Hallinon flute
    Clare Findlater flute
    Colin Alexander cello
    Tom Goodman double bass
    Josie Ellis double bass
    William Puhr double bass
    Helen Tunstall harp
    Laura Bradford percussion
    Jacob Brown percussion
    Matt Farthing percussion
    Darren Bloom conductor

  • Anselm McDonnell: Politics of the Imagination

    Anselm McDonnell Cross-Purposes
    Joel the Custodian Holy Bones
    Ana Sokolović Vez
    Kosyne Whip
    Gráinne Mulvey Arachnid

    Technical reset – 10 minutes

    Barrowclough The Horologist
    Sungji Hong Black Arrow
    Kosyne Church
    Joel the Custodian Ex-Golf Pro
    Barrowclough Boudicca Bap
    Donnacha Dennehy Paddy

    Interval – 30 minutes

    Anselm McDonnell Politics of the Imagination (world premiere)

    With influences from dubstep to Balkan rhythms, and featuring rappers from Birmingham’s hip-hop scene – composer Anselm McDonnell brings together a concert of playfulness, imagination and politics.

    Set 1: Cross-Purposes takes snippets from public figures apologising for breaking their own pandemic regulations and turns them into rhythmic grooves, accompanied by a sarcastic commentary from clarinet and cello. Vez draws us into a world of fast-paced Balkan rhythms and Arachnid unveils an unstable, skittering groove from long, undulating gestures.

    Set 2: Black Arrow uses electronics to manipulate music from the bass clarinet into new shapes, and PADDY builds layers of ostinatos into complex patterns.

    Set 3: McDonnell’s new piece for clarinet, cello, percussion, sampler and rap artists questions: How can imagination and playfulness inform our politics? What if our solutions to problems were more creative, bizarre or ridiculous?

    Louise McMonagle cello
    Heather Roche clarinet
    Matthew Farthing percussion
    Barrowclough rap artist
    Joel the Custodian rap artist
    Kosyne rap artist

  • Rufus Isabel Elliot: holding, breathing, beating

    Playing on Arrival Marja Ahti Coastal Inversion

    Liza Lim Amulet
    Tansy Davies Dark Ground
    Brian Ferneyhough Cassandra’s Dream Song
    Cassandra Miller for mira

    Interval

    James Weeks winterærc (world premiere)
    Rufus Isabel Elliot I knapped the stone til it was gone / I laid it on the forest floor (world premiere)

    An evening of contemporary chamber music around the themes of protection, entrapment, physicality and autonomy, curated by Rufus Isabel Elliot.

    The abstraction of chamber music opens up difficult and co-existent points of view and emotional states. Entering the room, Coastal Inversions by Swedish-Finnish sound artist Marja Ahti immediately takes us to another place, a sonic scene vibrating all around us, widening our sense of what’s inside and what’s out.

    Liza Lim’s Amulet provides music for protection, keeping us safe for the journey into our imagination that is about to follow. Old stories are retold – ancient rituals are beaten out with modern rhythms in Tansy Davies’ Dark Ground, Ferneyhough makes Cassandra stammer again through her story. Kurt Cobain sings us a dark folk story, torn apart and reformed by Cassandra Miller – performed by violinist Mira Benjamin, the piece’s dedicatee.

    Quiet and reflective, James Weeks’ winterærc is a gentle duet between violin and viola, holding together the instruments’ co-operation and freedom. The evening finishes with a new work by Rufus Isabel Elliot; returning to Greek mythology, it explores the image of Daphne running through the forest.

    Mira Benjamin violin
    Chihiro Ono viola
    Daniel Shao flute
    Sam Walton percussion