School’s out: Time to be a tourist in your City of Culture
Summer in the City is the best time to dive into the rich and diverse cultural scene. Here’s our monthly round-up of all the best goings on.
The LSO have a series of Summer Shorts on Friday mornings including 6 August Ayanna Witter-Johnson and the LSO Percussion Ensemble in the Jerwood Hall, LSO St Luke’s at 1pm. For more info click here. Other artist in this Summer Shorts series are the LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies and pianist Michael McHale on Fri 7 August, while on 20 August you can catch LSO violinist Naoko Keatley and pianist Zeynep Özsuca.
Live from London Summer Series is back with Chineke! and Voces 8 with Matthew Lynch as conductor on 7 August, on the 8 August is Star Soprano Mary Bevan in ‘Hero’s & Heroines’ with The Illyria Consort featuring Barnaby Smith at 2pm. For tickets click here.
Ensemble, Games London’s acclaimed exhibition of Black, Asian and marginalised ethnicity UK video games talent in games, returns with an outdoor exhibition in partnership with the Canada in the Guildhall Yard. Curated by Sharna Jackson,
Ensemble showcases BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) UK video games talent and champions game developers from a broad spectrum of roles and a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures.
Pop Up Screens are then moving into Guildhall Yard for six nights of relaxed cinema screenings under the stars. There is a great selection of films for you to enjoy in the heart of the City complete with a bar, some of London’s best street food vendors and comfy deck chairs. Kicking off on Monday 16 August at 8.30pm with The Greatest Showman.
Blooming City Quilt workshops
Join Culture Mile’s free drop-in workshops and make your own flower design textile pieces to symbolise your identity or culture. The workshops are led by Madhumita Bose from Forget Me Not Charity and form part of Culture Mile’s Blooming City Quilt project. All materials will be provided.
The workshops take place from 2-18 August at Barbican Library and Portsoken Mansell St. Visit the website here for more information.
Barbican Outdoor Cinema
This summer, head along to a week of open-air screenings, all set within the spectacular architecture of the Barbican. Be amazed by Pina Bausch’s unique choreography in Wim Wenders’ Pina; immersive yourself in a double-bill by Floating Points, featuring the work of visual artist Julie Mehretu and filmmakers Trevor Tweeten and Anna Diaz Ortuño, and get invested in the vital works of eco-art including pieces by Himali Singh Soin, David Soin Tappeser and Mexico’s Colectivo Los Ingrávidos.
If that wasn’t enough for you, then the a weekend of many romances will kick off with Sally Potter’s Orlando starring the impeccable Tilda Swinton, followed by the stylish obsession of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, concluding with a holiday romance that’s just the right amount of bittersweet, in David Lean’s gorgeous Summertime, with Katharine Hepburn.
Tickets are £15 and can be purchased from the Barbican website.
Fidelio Orchestra perform Mahler 1 at St Andrew’s Church, EC4 on 7 August. It’s not strictly in the Square Mile but definitely worth a mention here not least because their conductor Raffaelo Morales founded and runs the inimitable Fidelio Cafe in Farringdon where there is a brilliant line up of concerts in August. On 3 and 4 August, Guy Johnstone and Mishka Rushdie Momen perform Mendelssohn, Shostakovitch and Beethoven, August 11th Italian pianist Gabriele Carcano plays 3 Beethoven Sonatas, the “Pastoral”, the “Waldstein” and Sonata Op.79. The “Waldstein” Sonata is perhaps the biggest work for piano from Beethoven’s middle period and the piano acquires a voice that had never been heard up to that point in its history.
On 11 August, still at the Fidelio Cafe, Up Close & Musical present Chloë Hanslip and the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group and on 15 August it’s your chance to meet and hear author and music journalist Jessica Duchen giving a book reading followed by Heloise Werner performing a selection of the newest and most cutting edge vocal explorations For tickets for these concerts and more info click here.
City Music Foundation continue to support young talent with career development, performance opportunities and financial support. The upcoming performance on 18 August in the Great Hall, St Bart’s, Smithfield’s, is with talented Tenor Richard Robbins who will perform a lunchtime recital to include Sondheim, Roger Quilter and Herbert Howells. To book tickets to see it in person click here.