Your Supporter News / Autumn 2018
INSIDER
Like you, we believe that everyone should have access to the arts. Thank you for helping us make this possible.
A MASSive success Raising the rooftops with powerful song, our spectacular production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS took over the Royal Festival Hall stage on 6 and 7 April this year. Only eight members of its 500-strong cast were professional musicians, with the rest of the stage packed with talented artists at all stages of their careers, including a children’s choir made up of 100 pupils from local schools.
‘The majority of our students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, live locally, and haven’t had the opportunity to attend or take part in an arts event. It is clear how much they have learnt not just about MASS, but about themselves too.’
Headteacher of Lilian Baylis Technology School
Thank you for supporting this extraordinary production, which The Guardian called ‘a blast’.
Click here to watch a short film by students who took part in the project A MASSive success 3
A child’s eye view of Hayward Gallery This July, we welcomed local school children into Hayward Gallery to explore Lee Bul: Crashing, and become exhibition guides for the day.
‘The thing over there looks like a massive monster. It has three hands and its legs are attached to the wall.’
the most deprived boroughs in London, where provision for the arts has been cut in many classrooms.
Thirty-two children aged nine to 11 are sitting on the floor in Hayward Gallery, describing the artworks displayed around them in the Hayward’s summer show.
‘The Schools Day is a really important project for us because it gives local children the chance to explore artwork on their own terms,’ enthuses Southbank Centre’s Education Manager Alice Chesterman. ‘They find out Hayward Gallery is a place that welcomes them to have an opinion.’ She explains that at this point, the children know nothing about the artworks except the artist’s name; they’ll be equipped with more facts on the second day.
Art Explorers introducing the exhibition
Daniel sends groups of children off to look at different artworks, and they return full of ideas: ‘It’s like being underwater in the bath’; ‘I thought of the story of Rapunzel.’
‘Did everybody hear that?’ asks facilitator Daniel Wallis. ‘A massive monster.’ His gentle question is a reminder to the adults in the room of the challenge the children are preparing for. At the end of the week, this shy group of Year 5s and 6s will be acting as guides, or ‘Art Explorers’, leading an introduction to the exhibition for visiting schools.
‘They learn a vast number of new skills and gain so much confidence. We couldn’t offer an opportunity like this without the support of Hayward Gallery.’
Hayward Gallery isn’t far from where the children live, but for many of them this is the first time they’ve stepped inside an art gallery. The school groups are from Lambeth, one of
‘Nine out of ten times they’re bang on the exact meaning the artist intended, but from a child’s perspective,’ comments Alice. ‘The children explore art for themselves and then translate
4 A child’s eye view of Hayward Gallery
Emily Harvey, teacher
A child’s eye view of Hayward Gallery 5
Art Explorers oversee sketch responses from students
it into what they think their peers might be interested in. It’s also a wonderful way for the young people visiting to see that not everybody who’s an authority on art has to be an adult.’ A week later, the Art Explorers greet 120 visiting pupils from four local schools. They lead half the children in activities they’ve created around the themes of the exhibition, including making monsters from socks stuffed with newspaper. The other half are taken on a tour during which the Art Explorers present an introduction to some of the artworks, explaining the main themes of the show and encouraging the other children to share their reactions. The visiting pupils become more vocal with their opinions as the day goes on, delving deeper into the meaning of each piece. They giggle with delight when lost in the maze of Lee Bul’s interactive artwork, Via Negativa II.
‘They enjoy it so much that we have to remind them to get out,’ says Tosin, an 11-year-old Art Explorer. ‘Why is the exhibition called Crashing?’ Raven, aged 10, asks the visiting schools at the end of the tour. ‘Because of many different ideas crashing together,’ responds a child from Gainsborough Primary School. ‘The Schools Day is an invaluable experience for the children,’ says teacher Emily Harvey. ‘They learn a vast number of new skills and gain so much confidence. We couldn’t offer an opportunity like this without the support of Hayward Gallery.’ ‘It’s about nurturing a love of art,’ says Alice Chesterman. ‘A sense that they are welcome in galleries for the rest of their lives.’
You can make a world of difference.
Donate £30 and give three children the opportunity to become Art Explorers for the day. DONATE TODAY 6 A child’s eye view of Hayward Gallery
I discovered I loved classical music
here Capture the moment. Name a seat at Southbank Centre. To name a seat or for more information, visit southbankcentre.co.uk/nameaseat, call 020 7921 0801 or email nameaseat@southbankcentre.co.uk
Composers take notes 8  Composers take notes
In April 2018, Southbank Centre gave young composers a chance to meet, network and learn from great musical minds at our Composers’ Collective weekend. We asked one participant, 19-year-old Jack Pepper, what it was like to take part in the Composers’ Collective, and about the opportunities he’s taken throughout his musical life. ‘It’s funny, my family aren’t particularly musical – my mum’s a physio and my dad’s a vinyl graphics designer. I started learning the piano at seven and was writing music quite quickly after that; little melodies, and rudimentary pieces for piano, and it developed from there. ‘I was at a comprehensive school which had people who were very dedicated to music, but the actual material provision was really, really small. I’ve always applied for everything, believing that it’s the 10% of people who say yes who help you develop yourself. Really what started my composing off for me professionally was the Fanfare competition at the Royal Opera House which I won, alongside nine other young composers, in 2016. I wrote a piece for four instruments and then a few months later it was played by a full orchestra. ‘I think with composing it’s quite easy to just lock yourself in a room and sit and write. But it’s equally important to get out into the world. The Composers’ Collective was a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded musicians of all ages and backgrounds, and professionals at the top of their game. I particularly enjoyed seeing the conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and the composer Unsuk Chin in conversation. If you’re sat in the back of a concert hall and you see a tiny dot on the rostrum on the other side of the room, it’s a bit impersonal! But we were all in a relatively small room and you felt comfortable
speaking to people. When you’re starting out you see these big names and hear huge symphonies and vast orchestras and think oh gosh, how on earth am I going to graduate to that level, but meeting them face to face, you realise they’re normal people and there is a way forward.
“The Composers’ Collective was a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded musicians of all ages and backgrounds” Jack Pepper, composer ‘I haven’t done anything else similar. When you get to all meet as a group with different experiences, that really fires off creativity. I’ve kept in touch with some of the composers I met, or I’ve just bumped into them at concerts, and picked up where we left off – and they’ve been able to offer a lot of support and advice. It was such a worthwhile experience.’ Southbank Centre Director of Music, Gillian Moore, says, ‘I started the Composers’ Collective to strengthen our commitment to young composers from diverse backgrounds and to nurture the creation of new music. It’s so thrilling to work with Jack and others like him at this early stage of their careers, when everything is possible. Who knows who we might discover next?’
Inspired by Jack’s story?
You can give an aspiring composer a place at the next Composers’ Collective to network with their peers and learn from some of the greatest musical minds.
DONATE NOW Composers take notes 9
Chineke!, Southbank Centre Associate Orchestra gives the reopening concert in Queen Elizabeth Hall
Thank you Thanks to the incredible support of over 53,000 generous individuals, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room triumphantly reopened to the public in April after 31 months of refurbishment.
Having performed Queen Elizabeth Hall’s closing concert in 2015, our Associate Orchestra Chineke! gave the inaugural concert on the evening of 10 April, to a rapturous reception.
In the first week alone, we welcomed back over 6,000 concert goers and over 100 musicians performed on the Queen Elizabeth Hall stage.
Thank you for the part you have played. We couldn’t have done it without you.
‘Queen Elizabeth Hall has reopened, looking fresh and classy inside, its 1960s style carefully preserved... The eye is on the future and the fast-improving Chineke! might well feel this is home. As the first majority black and minority ethnic orchestra, it has its own eye on change for the next generation.’ Financial Times review 10 Thank you
If you would like to make a donation or want to talk to us about your support of Southbank Centre, please contact Rebecca Macdonald on 020 7921 0801 or email supportus@southbankcentre.co.uk Southbank Centre is a registered charity no. 298909
Image credits: Page 2 © Cesare De Giglio Page 3 © Mark Allan Page 5 &6 © Pete Woodhead