Spitalfields Music Festival 2024 ran from 27th June – 10th July. We take a moment to reflect on the performances and programmes we featured this year.
The festival began and ended in the Tower of London
The festival started with ‘In the Shadow of the Tower’, an exploration of the history of cosmopolitan London. Soprano Nardus Williams and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny took us on a journey through medieval London, exploring the influence of immigrants on the shaping of London’s cultural and artistic history. We heard the stories and music of Jewish, Italian and Catholic musicians, including famous immigrant families such as the Ferraboscos and the Laniers, who brought Italian singing techniques to the English scene. The programme explored the legacy of those who ended up in the Tower thanks to miscalculating their ambition and losing the monarch’s favour, and ultimately challenged the idea that the Line of Kings presents as an ‘official’ version of a unified culture, highlighting the influence of immigrants on London’s culture throughout history.
Nardus and Elizabeth finished the programme with a world premiere of The Blacke Songs words by Rommi Smith, music by Roderick Williams. This work centres three Black historical figures of the Tudor period: Lucy Baynham, an abbess (brothel madam) and Shakespeare’s lover; Reasonable Blackman, a silk weaver living in Southwark in 1579; and John Blanke, a court trumpeter working across the royal courts of King Henry VII and King Henry VIII.
Sing Joyfully: Tudor and Jacobean Music for the Chapel Royal
An establishment made up of a body of priests and musicians, the Chapel Royal, played a key role in shaping the music of the Tudor and Jacobean periods, and influencing music for years to come. Byrd, Tallis, Gibbons and Weelkes were all members, and it is said that Byrd and Tallis often visited and perhaps performed in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, where we held our final concert of the festival. Performed by the Choir of the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London, who have been singing this music for centuries.
We entered exciting new venues around East London
As the festival continues each year, we discover new and exciting venues around East London to fill with music.
Frau, That’s What I Call Music! Brought a range of emotions through a programme spotlighting female songwriters from across the musical spectrum. We brought this show to Bethnal Green’s Vagina Museum. Anna Pool, Amy J. Payne and Erika Gundesen covered topics from pregnancy, to protest, to penguins! We also heard Anna Pool’s brand new song cycle Mother Trucker, exploring the experiences of female-identifying truck drivers.
We entered the industrial state51 Factory for Autopsy of an Aberration, the world premiere performance of CHAINES’ new work, performed with champions of new music, GBSR Duo. This 50-minute electro-acoustic performance explored ideas of ritual, and of what makes us human, through undertaking an imaginary autopsy of a somehow othered being.
Our exploration of stunning churches across East London continued, as we brought our first event to the glorious Hawkswmoor church, St Anne’s, Limehouse for Summer Serenade.
The world-renowned Academy of St Martin in the Fields made their Spitalfields Music Festival debut in Summer Serenade with a glorious programme of string music. We heard music from Britten, Walton, and Ruth Gipps alongside Jonathan Woolgar’s Canzoni et ricercari, and Philip Herbert’s Elegy: in memoriam Stephen Lawrence. We also heard Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, which you can see a snippet of in the post below.
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We heard 14 premieres of new works
The incredible Manchester Collective returned to the festival following their 2021 sellout show, and we commissioned composer Jocelyn Campbell to write a piece to be performed in Village Underground. We heard ‘3AM: Lights and places flicker endlessly, passing by alongside old memories that evoke but will not linger…’ alongside an ethereal set of works for string trio, duo and solo instrumentalists.
We heard the world premiere of Néfur’s new album, The Water, The Lover, in Shoreditch’s Rich Mix. This innovative album was produced using Néfur’s vocals over the electronically manipulated sounds of ice melting in Solheimajóküll’s glacier lagoon.
We also gave the new show Me Without You its London premiere. This work combined music, dance, acting and recorded interviews from across the UK to open up a conversation about our relationship with grief. It was a powerful combination of art forms that celebrated the impact that our loved ones have on our lives.
Another world premiere we heard came in the form of Electra Perivolaris’ ‘Brushstrokes of Nightmares and Dreams’, written as a companion piece to Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire‘. The Hebrides Ensemble performed this and another companion work by Helen Grime, before giving their interpretation of Schoenberg’s famous work with leading soprano Stephanie Lamprea.
We celebrated 35 years of NMC Recordings
NMC Recordings was set up to champion recordings of new classical music in 1988. 2024 is their 35th year, so we hosted their birthday in style with a lineup featuring Roderick Williams, Zoe Martlew, the National Youth Choir Fellowship Ensemble, and Slide Action.
We delved into the history of the Cries of London
The Cries of London have echoed on the streets of the capital for centuries as market sellers called out to entice people to buy their goods. Street market sellers have influenced artists, musicians and writers alike, and we celebrated the cries at Spitalfields Music Festival 2024.
We invited The Gentle Author, writer of the popular Spitalfields Life blog, to tell us more about the art that has been influenced by the cries, which he has researched for his book of the same name. Later on, we heard The Carice Singers perform Luciano Berio’s 1974 work ‘Cries of London’ which set music to the text of some of the cries.
We took this idea into our work with our Neighbourhood Schools, working with primary schools around the borough to create their own art installation: an interactive market cart that played the students’ own ‘cries’. Our work in schools across East London continues throughout the year in Tower Hamlets and beyond.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Spitalfields Music Festival 2024!