BBC Symphony Orchestra ends its Composer Weekend

BBC Symphony Orchestra ends its Composer Weekend format after 21 highly successful
years and takes a new direction in collaboration with the Barbican.
 
*        New Composer Days launched in the 2008/2009 Season focusing on the music of
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tristan Murail and Iannis Zenakis

*        Elliot Carter Centenary Concert

*        BBC SO open the Barbican's China Festival 'Beyond the Wall' 

*        BBC SO increases its commitment to 20th and 21st Century

The BBC Symphony Orchestra's January Composer Weekend at the Barbican has become a
firm fixture in the country's - and indeed the world's - musical calendar since its
annual appearances began in 1988.  The variety of 20th and 21st century composers to
have been celebrated is vast, spanning a range of continents, cultural influences
and sound worlds. After 21 years the BBC SO felt it was time for a fresh look and
new direction, and is planning a new flexible format for future celebrations that
will continue to champion and increase its commitment to contemporary 20th and 21st
century music, in close collaboration with the Barbican.

In the weekend's place will be a flexible and varied format which in the 2008/2009
season will consist of three separate days dedicated to three composers, spread
across January, February and March. Two further events will include the celebration
of Eliot Carter's 100th birthday and the opening of the Barbican's China Festival
with a focus on the music of Tan Dun, alongside world premieres throughout the
season by Hayden, Vic Hoyland and Brian Elias and UK premieres of works by
Pintscher, Benet Casablancas and Havelka.

This new flexible format opens up an opportunity to champion a greater number of
composers each year and also offers the chance to explore composers for whom the
weekend format would not have been possible.  It provides a whole range of new
possibilities; including looking at younger contemporary composers who do not yet
have the range and volume of repertory required for the weekend. The new Composer
Days will preserve many of the characteristics of the January Composer Weekends,
with talks, films and concerts including chamber, choral and orchestral works
throughout each day.  The current collaboration with the Guildhall School will
continue; encouraging young musicians to play works by modern and contemporary
composers remains high on the agenda.

The Composer Days planned for 2009 will focus on Karlheinz Stockhausen (17 January),
Tristan Murail (7 February) and Iannis Xenakis (7 March), all major figures in
20th-century music whose works are rarely played for reasons of length, difficulty
or size of forces required. The Composer Days start with Stockhausen because the
very first Weekend - in 1985, before the event became annual, was dedicated to his
music.  Murail is rarely performed in this country, even though he is extremely
influential in France. Xenakis' works are seldom heard in public halls in London
because they are vast and complicated to put on. This new format will build on the
success of the January Composer Weekends bringing new and overlooked music to
audiences but in an innovative way that offers a new range of possibilities.

Elliot Carter's 100th birthday falls on 12 November 2008 and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra celebrates with a special concert on 16 December at the Barbican. 
Following the Carter Composer Weekend in 2006, Oliver Knussen conducts an all-Carter
affair.

The Barbican launches a festival focusing on the music of China, entitled Beyond the
Wall, on 21 March 2008 with the BBC SO performing Tan Dun's The Map for 'cello,
video and Orchestra with the composer himself conducting.  Tan Dun is a conceptual
and multifaceted composer/conductor whose repertoire spans the boundaries of
classical, multimedia, Eastern and Western musical traditions.

BBC SO General Manager Paul Hughes said, 'After 21 years of BBC SO January Weekends
at the Barbican, how, when and with whom to end them and move on has been very much
on our minds. We have worked closely with the Barbican to align our respective
contemporary music programmes and have come up with an adventurous and flexible
series of events combining the familiar in-depth explorations of the BBC SO with a
multi-media collaboration with the Barbican as part of their exciting Beyond the
Wall festival. As a model for the future, I believe we have exciting times ahead!'

Barbican Head of Music Robert Van Leer said, 'It is a very exciting time for both
the Barbican and the BBC SO in that by coming together to build on the great
experiences of both organisations in relation to not only the presentation of, but
also the curation of music of our time, we extend both the scope and the reach of
our work in this important area.  Increasingly new music is no longer viewed as a
challenging niche within the classical music idiom but an integral part of the
living genre of music for both the industry and the public.'


bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra