10 LSO St Luke’s 10TH BIRTHDAY
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‘If any building could be said to encapsulate the hopes, the ambitions and the dreams of not just a single orchestra but an entire profession, this is it. It is not only a landmark in LSO history, but also a lantern lighting the path into the future.’ Richard Morrison, The LSO: A Century of Triumph and Turbulence
Celebrating a decade of music-making with TWELVE days of festivities LSO St LUKE’s 10th Birthday, 21 MARCH – 1 APRIL 2013 Imagine a ruined church with a vast hole where a roof should be, naked and flung open to the sky. Wind whistles through gaping doors and windows; weeds cling greedily to cold stone. Once upon a time it was glorious: a gleaming jewel with a spire so quirky – a fluted obelisk – it could only have been designed by one of Christopher Wren’s most promising students, Nicholas Hawksmoor. It played a pivotal role in the neighbourhood, supporting some of London’s poorest families and schools, alongside local businessmen and their workers. The church was full to the rafters, flooded with the chatter of a diverse local community against a backdrop of stirring hymns and life-altering liturgy. Then, in 1959, this great building fell silent. 27 March 2013 marks exactly a decade since the LSO took on one of the biggest challenges of its life: to transform the crumbling 18th-century church within view of their home at the Barbican Centre into a thriving music education centre and state-of-the-art performance venue, with community at its heart. Ten years on, the founders’ dreams have come true: LSO St Luke’s stands as a physical embodiment of the Orchestra’s core mission to engage the broadest mix of people in evocative music-making. Every day LSO St Luke’s welcomes people of all ages and from all walks of life to experience a rich diet of music, in a myriad of innovative ways. The past decade has seen some truly outstanding music-making take place at LSO St Luke’s. The building has welcomed Lang Lang as Artist-in-Residence for a week; seen Sting perform on the lute as part of the Eclectica series; presented a free LSO Discovery lunchtime concert with violin superstar Midori; hosted BBC sessions with James Brown,
Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Norah Jones and Annie Lennox (to name but a few); acted as a base for countless LSO rehearsals, many open to the public; and opened its doors to the community with a plethora of performances from local children and adults, one of the most memorable being a specially commissioned oratorio (Alasdair Nicolson‘s Two Sisters, A Rose, A Flood and Snow). In celebration of all these achievements and more, LSO St Luke’s flings open its doors for twelve days of festivities from 21 March to 1 April, around the theme of ‘Rites of Passage’. True to form, there’s a huge range of events to get involved in: BBC Radio 3 will broadcast daily lunchtime concerts, featuring outstanding chamber artists, live from the building presented by Fiona Talkington. The LSO’s renowned education and community programme, LSO Discovery, will be toasted in style with a series of showcases, interactive events, masterclasses and open days. And it wouldn’t be a birthday party without a few special guests, so we’ve invited the awardwinning and utterly unique Aurora Orchestra and middle-eastern jazzer, singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef along for the ride. Now, over half a century since the church closed, it’s plain to see that St Luke’s has been well and truly resurrected. Find out more and book online at lso.co.uk/lsostlukes10