It’s almost here – the big weekend, 9-11 June, when BBT celebrates its 20th anniversary at two hugely contrasting London performance spaces – a former municipal car park in Peckham and Wigmore Hall, one of the world’s most revered chamber music venues. Along with BBT founding trustee Mitsuko Uchida, BBT award winners from across the decades feature in three days of concerts, premieres and films.
Full details here
ILARIA BORLETTI BUITONI
Reflections on a life in music and philanthropy
As Chair and Co-Founder of BBT with her late husband Franco Buitoni, Ilaria Borletti Buitoni has kept a low profile over the two decades of the Trust’s existence, having always maintained that the focus should be on the young musicians it supports. For this 20th anniversary landmark, in a conversation with Nick Breckenfield, she reveals her deep commitment to philanthropy, culture and music and the joy they bring to her life. She talks candidly about her childhood in Milan, decades of travel and work in Africa with AMREF, her love of Franco and her belief in music for wellbeing.
MULTI-STORY ORCHESTRA YOUNG CREATIVES
BBT Communties 2023
Premiere Performance of a BBT COMMISSION
Verified at Bold Tendencies, Peckham, London 9 June
“This is the most collaborative work we have ever done”
Kate Whitley BBT Award 2014
BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations kick off with Verified, a large-scale work for choir and orchestra that explores the complexities of social media and its impact on young lives experiencing crises of identity and acceptance. Comprising four movements and featuring three original songs, Verified blends orchestral instrumentation with R&B, reggaeton and rap under the musical leadership of songwriters Abimaro Gunnell, Frances Lobo and trombonist Yusuf Narcin, performing alongside BBT award-winning soloists Ruby Hughes, Hyeyoon Park and Simone Rubino with soprano Francesa Chiejina.
Multi-Story Orchestra received a BBT Communities grant in recognition of its mission to demonstrate that orchestral music can be inclusive and accessible for everyone. Following on from the award-winning production of The Endz about gang culture, Verified is the latest in a growing portfolio of powerful works created by young people that enables them to develop into leaders and tell stories, through music, that have relevance to their own community and generation.
SIMONE RUBINO percussion, counter tenor BBT Fellowship 2020
Il Ritmo della Terra (The Rhythm of the Earth)
Lamberto Curtoni composer/solo cello • Maria Gualtieri text
Release date 16 June 2023
on First Hand Records
Video (streaming /download) on Amazon Prime and Naxos Video Library
Audio (digital release) on Spotify, Apple Music and Presto Classical
Il Ritmo della Terra is a chamber work for voice, vibraphone, solo cello, percussion, harpsichord and strings and is presented as a 40-minute film that combines inventively staged musical performance with arresting footage of sea, forest and landscapes in rhythmic flux. As such, it becomes a work that embraces the visual beauty and power of nature, as well as the joy and mesmerising intensity of music making. In addition to commissioning Il Ritmo della Terra for Rubino, BBT has supported the release of the film and audio (including extra movements not heard in the film).
The premiere screening at London’s Wigmore Hall is part of BBT’s 20th anniversary weekend and Rubino will also feature in both Verified with Multi-Story Orchestra and in the solo Bach Coffee Concert at Wigmore Hall.
On the very same weekend as BBT20, Amatis Trio celebrates its 10th birthday in Berlin with a special residency at the Konzerthaus, supported by funds from its BBT Fellowship. The Trio’s first concert features simply two of the greatest masterworks in the piano trio canon – by Schubert and Mendelssohn. For the second concert they are joined by clarinettist Ib Hausmann for a musical adventure steered by Beethoven, Liszt, Horovitz, Milhaud and Piazzola.
View a web version of the eNewsletter here