MARYLEBONE JOURNAL ISSUE NO.98

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HOWARD DE WALDEN ESTATE AND THE PORTMAN ESTATE

HAPPENINGS

3 IN MARYLEBONE

Events, exhibitions, film, music, shopping, talks, theatre and walks

IN PROFILE: 14 ALEXANDER GIFFORD

The artistic director of the Marylebone Theatre on modelling for Gaultier, seeking spirituality, and opening a significant new venue in the heart of London

BORN TO RUN 20

Matt Taylor of the US sportswear brand Tracksmith on feeding the obsession of committed amateur runners

THE DIFFERENCE 31 MAKERS

Lena Choudary-Salter, founder and CEO of The Mosaic Community Trust

A CLOSER 34 LOOK Food, style, home, wellbeing and healthcare

Q&A: 34

YASMINE LARIZADEH

The co-founder of The Good Life Eatery on learning on the job, becoming part of a community, and selling London’s best coconut water

Q&A: 42

TRACEY NEULS

The owner of the eponymous footwear brand on moving across the road, channelling emotion into design, and enjoying the ageless scent of plasticene

ANATOMY OF 52 A DESIGN

Jake Hobson, co-founder of Niwaki, on the work that went into creating the company’s signature secateurs

Happenings In Marylebone Events Exhibitions Film Music Shopping Talks Theatre Walks

MUSIC

Violinist Rachel Podger, who in 2015 became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music Kohn Foundation Bach Prize, is renowned for her skilled interpretations of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Purcell and more. For this intimate performance, she presents a typically compelling programme of Baroque and Classical music.

23 FEBRUARY, 7.30pm

RACHEL PODGER

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

TALK

22 FEBRUARY

JOSEPH O’CONNOR IN CONVERSATION

Daunt Books

83-84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW dauntbooks.co.uk

The acclaimed author of Shadowplay and Star of the Sea discusses his latest work, My Father’s House, a powerful novel of resistance and rescue during the Second World War, as an Irish priest prepares a daring mission in the Vatican City.

WALK

23 FEBRUARY, 12pm

PUBLIC ART WALK IN MARYLEBONE

Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

This free guided walk, led by a professional guide, takes in the many monuments, statues, fountains and modern art installations hidden in plain sight around the Baker Street Quarter. The walk sets off from 55 Baker Street at midday. Booking is required.

FILM

23 FEBRUARY, 7PM

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: OTHELLO

Everyman Baker Street

96-98 Baker Street, W1U 6TJ everymancinema.com

Streaming live from the National Theatre, this extraordinary new production of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy is directed by Clint Dyer, with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwan (The Alienist) and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance).

Music

23 FEBRUARY, 7.30pm

ANGELA HEWITT & ANNA BONITATIBUS

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Pianist Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall’s current artist in residence, collaborates with mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus, one of the most remarkable singers of our day, on a striking set of songs from Berlioz, Liszt, Rossini and Viardot.

Theatre

UNTIL 25 FEBRUARY

MACBETH: A GOLDEN COUPLE, DESTINED FOR GLORY

The Cockpit

Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk

Admired and feted by all, Macbeth leads King Duncan’s forces to a huge military success. The witches, however, can smell his ambition and mendacity. In this provocative treatment of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, they intervene to test his character and loyalty.

MUSIC

COMEDY

27 FEBRUARY, 8pm

QUIP SHED COMEDY Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

The Marylebone Theatre plays host to monthly comedy shows featuring some of the brightest talents on the stand-up circuit. Hosted by Lyle Barke, February’s line-up includes Russell Hicks, Ivo Graham and Helen Bauer, with a headline appearance by Phil Wang.

This year’s visiting professors curate three programmes reflecting their passion for creative and innovative chamber playing. Academy students perform alongside musicians from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, including pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste.

28 FEBRUARY, 2 MARCH, 3 MARCH, 1pm A KALEIDOSCOPIC CHAMBER CELEBRATION

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

MUSIC

1 MARCH, 7.30pm

TRISH CLOWES & MY IRIS Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saxophonist Trish Clowes and her My Iris ensemble are joined on the Wigmore Hall stage by a rollcall of guest musicians to perform a programme of music created in England by artists as diverse as Henry Purcell and Jimi Hendrix, adapted to their own unique style of performance.

MUSIC

2 MARCH, 7pm QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME

The Hellenic Centre 16-18 Paddington Street, W1U 5AS helleniccentre.org

The Waldstein Piano Trio and clarinettist Benjamin Mason perform Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, written by the French composer while he was interned at the Stalag VIIIA prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany.

THEATRE

2 – 8 MARCH

STEINWERK

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

This experiential artwork from performance/sound artist Steve Boyland and poet Sean Borodale unfolds across six standalone evening performances and two daytime workshops, for which a staged rock acts as a prompt for a discussion on the nature of animacy.

MUSIC

10 MARCH, 1pm

LORENZA BORRANI DIRECTS THE ACADEMY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

In this free lunchtime performance, Lorenza Borrani directs a programme featuring excerpts from Ottaviano Petrucci’s Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, followed by Haydn’s Symphony No 56.

MUSIC

11 MARCH, 7:30pm

WILL LIVERMAN: EL CIMARRÓN

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Accompanied by Adam Walker (flute), Sean Shibe (guitar) and Owen Gunnell (percussion), the extraordinary American baritone Will Liverman sings Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarrón (1970), a “recital for four musicians” which tells the true story of the runaway Cuban slave Esteban Montejo.

MUSIC

16 MARCH, 7.30pm

NOVUS STRING QUARTET

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

One of Korea’s leading chamber ensembles performs Janácek’s Kreutzer Sonata (a work inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s novella of the same name and by the composer’s passionate love for the much younger, and married, Kamila Stösslová), alongside pieces by Britten and Shostakovich.

New

The Brown Collection

MUSIC

17 MARCH, 6.30pm

ACADEMY MANSON

ENSEMBLE: VERDALA

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

This free concert features ensemble works by the Academy’s composer in residence Hannah Kendall and a new work by student Oran Johnson, together with Thomas Adès’s Living Toys and his reimagining of Couperin’s Les baricades mistérieuses.

Glenn Brown, a contemporary British artist famed for technically exquisite paintings that plunder the images and language of art history and use them to create something new, rich and strange, has opened a gallery in Marylebone. The space, which was originally two mews buildings and had been used as a furniture workshop and showroom, took four years to restore. It is now open to the public, without the need for appointments. The gallery will display a collection of Brown’s own paintings, sculptures and drawings that he has held on to throughout his storied career, alongside which he will gradually begin to hang paintings, drawings and prints by historic artists from his private collection, but in a way that mixes them in rather than setting them apart as discrete shows.

MUSIC

A highly regarded saxophonist and composer, Josephine Davies blends classical, jazz and folk music, creating an intensely dynamic sound infused with influences from her Shetland roots. This concert is her debut project with the Academy Jazz Orchestra.

10 MARCH, 7.30pm

ACADEMY JAZZ ORCHESTRA: JOSEPHINE DAVIES

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

The gallery’s proximity to the Wallace Collection has particular resonance, as the rococo masterpieces in Hertford House have been the source of inspiration for many of Brown’s best-known works. These include Searched Hard for You and Your Special Ways, in which Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s A Boy as Pierrot is turned upside down.

The Brown Collection

1 Bentinck Mews, W1U 2AF glenn-brown.co.uk

EXHIBITION

24 FEBRUARY – 17 MARCH

NOT BLACK OR WHITE

SoShiro

23 Welbeck Street, W1G 8DZ soshiro.co

This exhibition features over 60 works, including paintings, textiles, sculptures and design pieces in glass, metal and wood, created by artists in London, South Africa, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and other African countries. What unites them is a sense of raw storytelling and palpable emotion.

1. Will Liverman, Wigmore Hall

2. Josephine Davies, Royal Academy of Music

3. Let There Be Calm, by Lesego Seoketsa, SoShiro

4. Le Nozze Di Figaro, Royal Academy of Music

5. We’ll Keep On Dancing Till We Pay The Rent, by Glenn Brown, The Brown Collection

EXHIBITION

2 – 18 MARCH

NEWMHAIRI MCGREGOR: ACROSS THE POND

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

Mhairi McGregor has gained acclaim for her highly abstracted, contemporary Colourist landscape paintings, captured ‘en plein air’. This exhibition, which follows in the wake of a trip to the United States, includes images of Midwestern barns and Lake Michigan lighthouses.

MUSIC

21 – 24 MARCH, 6pm

ROYAL ACADEMY OPERA: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

Mozart’s genius was to portray the innermost desires and anxieties of human beings, regardless of their gender or social class. His extraordinary gift for characterisation through music makes The Marriage of Figaro the ideal vehicle for opera students to hone their craft.

THEATRE

14 – 26 MARCH

GRENFELL: SYSTEM FAILURE

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

Reconstructing the final phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, this hard-hitting performance, interrogates why manufacturers promoted flammable cladding, why the testing regime failed to warn of the danger and why government regulations were either insufficient or ignored.

Q&A: ANDREA HARARI

The co-founder of jaggedart on her gallery’s 21st anniversary

Interview: Mark Riddaway

Images: Alun Callender

You’re celebrating a special anniversary this year. Tell us about that.

It is 21 years since we started jaggedart. We opened our first space in Westbourne Studios in 2002. It was like a storeroom that people could come and browse, not a gallery. We were there for three years, but it naturally evolved that we needed a space to have shows. I came here with a friend one Sunday, because I loved Marylebone. I saw these premises to let, peeked through the window, then called the following day. We’ve been here ever since. This is our home.

How did you come to start the business?

I’m originally from Argentina. I used to curate shows there and run an art fair called Arteba. When I was 29, I decided to take a year off and come to London for an ‘abroad experience’. I studied contemporary art at Christie’s, and it was there that I met Janeen, who’s the other half of jaggedart. My year away never ended. I worked in a gallery on Cork Street, then went to work as the art editor of a dot com. It was really a great idea, but as with most of those dot coms, it didn’t last. When that finished, I said: “Okay, I’m going to start my own business.” After managing the Cork Street gallery for four years, I really didn’t want to run my own gallery. You become a slave to a gallery. You have to be there all the time. Now here I am, 21 years later, a slave of a gallery. But I love it.

When you started, did you always have a clear idea of the art that you wanted to show?

No, not at all. It evolved organically. Janeen and I are from very different backgrounds – she’s English, I’m from Argentina – but we both like the same things. We look at something and we both say: “Yes!” It’s amazing. There are lots of things that make a good partnership: it’s our way of working, it’s our ethos, it’s a moral thing, but we also just love the same art.

So, is the primary condition for showing work that it resonates with you on a personal level?

Yes, that’s basic. If it doesn’t resonate with me, I won’t show it. I would never, ever show something that I don’t like, because I wouldn’t be able to sell it. Most of the things in the gallery, I would love to have in my home. Of course, there are some that you like more than others, but I love all the works I show.

Do you need to feel an affinity for the artist as well?

When you start showing an artist, there has to be a good understanding and a lot of trust. It’s a bit like a marriage. You’re going to be representing that person. You’re going to be telling their story. The artist needs to feel comfortable with you and with the way that you’ll put their work into conversation with that of other artists – that’s what the galleries do. You have to work with people that you like. We’re too old to deal with people we don’t like.

What is the role of a physical gallery in this online era?

The kind of work that we show, you need to see it in the flesh. There is something about the textures, the volumes, the three-dimensionality. Nothing replaces that experience of coming and looking at a show and making the connections and seeing the work in dialogue. Nothing replaces that. Having a gallery is also about making a relationship with the client, telling them about the artists, about the art. There’s no one who walks through that door that we don’t go out and talk to and that’s what makes it very special. If they buy a work at the end of that conversation, that is, for me, quite magical. The cycle is complete.

Who are your clients?

It’s very broad. At the beginning, when we first started selling threedimensional works, the British public was more used to buying paintings and landscapes and still lifes, so our work seemed very different. But I think people’s tastes have evolved. A lot of young people buy art here for the first time and that’s really nice. We also work a lot with interior designers.

Do you still get excited at seeing pieces for the first time?

Yes. When the works arrive in the gallery, it’s like Christmas. I really never know exactly what’s going to come for the show. I have an idea. You plan, obviously, but it’s never quite the same as when you have them there in front of you and you’re going to put them together and see for the first time how they’re going to dialogue with the other pieces. It’s a lot of physical work, but it’s fun. I’m like a kid in a candy store when I’m putting a show up.

So, what are you doing to celebrate your gallery’s coming of age?

We are producing a very beautiful publication to reflect what jaggedart is and celebrate many of our artists. In April, we’re having an anniversary show and this special book. That’s very exciting. A headache too, but very exciting!

JAGGEDART

28A Devonshire Street, W1G 6PS jaggedart.com

2.

FOOD

The Baker Street Quarter’s fortnightly food market in the covered atrium of 55 Baker Street gathers together a small but diverse range of independent street-food stalls, offering a mouthwatering alternative to the usual workday lunch.

23 FEBRUARY, 9 MARCH, 23 MARCH FOOD MARKET AT 55 BAKER STREET Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

MUSIC

26 MARCH, 7.30pm

AVI AVITAL & KSENIJA SIDOROVA

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Two gifted exponents of unusual instruments – Avi Avital’s mandolin and Ksenija Sidorova’s accordion – come together for a programme of arrangements ranging from the 18th to the 20th centuries, visiting France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Romania and Brazil along the way.

MUSIC

30 MARCH, 7.30pm

DUNEDIN CONSORT: HANDEL IN ROME

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Between 1706 and 1709 Handel travelled around Italy, imbibing the latest musical fashions. Directed by Benjamin Bayl with Nardus Williams singing soprano, the Dunedin’s programme concentrates on the Italian-inspired compositions he created in Rome.

Food

The Marylebone Food Festival returns to cast a spotlight on the area’s diverse and ever-changing food scene. Visit the website for updates on dozens of culinary events taking place across the neighbourhood throughout the festival, which is organised and funded by The Howard de Walden Estate and The Portman Estate. Highlights include a gala dinner hosted by Jay Rayner, with each course cooked by a different chef from the area’s best restaurants.

25 – 30 APRIL

MARYLEBONE FOOD FESTIVAL marylebonefoodfestival.com

THEATRE

30 MARCH – 1 APRIL

TROLLS ONLINE

The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk

Tim Thomas’s sparky, satirical musical tells of the blossoming romance between a young coder who is trying to save the planet’s wildlife and an asylum-seeker who has been to hell and back. An unusual bond grows as they try to negotiate their way through the many pitfalls of social media.

EXHIBITION 24 FEBRUARY – 8 APRIL

HAROON MIRZA: |||

Lisson Gallery

67 Lisson Street, NW1 5DA lissongallery.com

Haroon Mirza presents a collection of new works, entitled |||, based around the so-called ‘holy’ or ‘divine’ frequency of 111 Hz, which permeates the gallery spaces creating a sonic bathing experience. Individual pieces incorporate light, moving image, sound and sculpture.

EXHIBITION 3 MARCH – 8 APRIL

JULIAN OPIE: OP.VR@LISSON

Lisson Gallery

52-54 Bell Street, NW1 5DA lissongallery.com

Julian Opie introduces a new series of works including a ground-breaking virtual reality experience that invites visitors to journey through a new dimension wearing portable headsets. The presentation also includes a dance sequence, large-scale portraits, landscapes and architectural works.

EXHIBITION

21 MARCH – 8 APRIL

ANDREW TOZER

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

Thompson’s Gallery presents an exhibition of new and unseen paintings by the esteemed artist Andrew Tozer, who comes from a Cornish farming family and is inspired by the county’s roaming cliffs, beaches, woodlands and creeks, which he remembers as being the backdrop to his childhood.

THEATRE

13 – 16 APRIL

WIZARD OF OZ: THE PANTO

The Cockpit

Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk

Written by Tom Whalley and presented by Starcatcher Productions, this lively, allsinging, all-dancing Easter pantomime is based on L Frank Baum’s much-loved fairy tale and the familiar film it inspired. Join Dorothy and her pet dog Toto on a magical adventure for all the family.

EXHIBITION

The Gloucester Room gallery presents a richly varied selection of works from four very different artists: oil paintings by Dragica Carlin showcasing her signature swirl motifs; lithographs from Jean Cocteau’s plays and David Hockney’s 1991 Alphabet project; and new pastel and oil works by Sam Wood inspired by Kew Gardens and Chiltern Firehouse.

UNTIL 30 APRIL

DRAGICA CARLIN, JEAN COCTEAU, DAVID HOCKNEY, SAM WOOD

Gloucester Room

5 New Cavendish Street, W1G 8UT gloucesterroom.com

THEATRE

31 MARCH – 6 MAY

THE DRY HOUSE

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

In the Irish border town of Newry, Chrissy promises her sister Claire that after one final drink she will go to the Dry House to get sober. Does she mean it this time? An all-female cast perform this powerful new play by Eugene O’Hare about love, loss and the potential for hope.

EXHIBITION

Through carefully selected paintings, sculptures, drawings, works of art and even taxidermy, this exhibition highlights the unique bond between humans and their canine companions across many centuries. Dog portraiture, which emerged as far back as the earliest cave paintings, flourished in Britain from the 17th century onwards. Bringing together over 50 works of art at Hertford House, the Portraits of Dogs exhibition presents a broad range of artworks showing dogs in all their different shapes and sizes.

29 MARCH – 15 OCTOBER

PORTRAITS OF DOGS: FROM GAINSBOROUGH TO HOCKNEY

The Wallace Collection

Manchester Square W1U 3BN wallacecollection.org

EXHIBITION

25 APRIL – 8 MAY

THEMBALETHU MANQUNYANA

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

A vibrant collection of works by Thembalethu Manqunyana, who hails from Gqeberha, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and has a distinctive, highly colourful approach to portraiture. His paintings take inspiration from the boundary-breaking approach of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Blessing Ngobeni.

EXHIBITION

UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2023

WIGMORE HALL: PORTRAYING OUR PEOPLE

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Photographer Christopher Jonas spent several months behind the scenes at Wigmore Hall, capturing candid shots of everyday life at one of the country’s most important musical venues. His fascinating exhibition shows a side of the Hall usually hidden from the public.