Press Release Date: Thursday 28 February 2019 ​ Contact: Sophie Cohen, [email protected] / 020 7921 0973 ​ ​ ​ For press enquiries about Actress x Stockhausen Sin {x} II please contact: ​ ​ ​ Alexandra Shaw [email protected] / 020 7921 0676 ​ ​ Press Images available to download HERE ​

Southbank Centre presents Stockhausen: Cosmic Prophet ​ 14 May - 2 June 2019

Photo credits: Karlheinz Stockhausen photo Werner Scholz; Donnerstag aus Licht production photo Meng Phu; Actress photo Pete ​ ​ Woodhead; Pierre-Laurent Aimard ⓒ Marco Borggreve

● First UK performances of epic Stockhausen opera Donnerstag aus Licht since 1985 ​ ​ Royal Festival Hall, 21-22 May ● Stockhausen weekend with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Apartment House and London Voices Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, 1 & 2 June ● Actress x Stockhausen Sin {x} II. World premiere of Stockhausen-inspired work by ​ ​ contemporary electronic artist Actress, and his artificial intelligence recording and ​ performance group Young Paint, featuring recordings of real-life debates on the subject ​ ​ ​ of love by members of the UK Parliament Royal Festival Hall, 14 May ​ ​

Southbank Centre celebrates the pioneering music of Karlheinz Stockhausen with the first ​ ​ UK performances in over 30 years of his epic opera Donnerstag aus Licht, the world ​ ​ premiere of Actress x Stockhausen - Sin {x} II, a new work inspired by Stockhausen’s ​ ​ ​ Welt-Parlament and a weekend which features Stockhausen piano works played by ​ Southbank Centre Artist-in-Residence Pierre-Laurent Aimard and guests, as well as ​ ​ Stockhausen vocal and chamber rarities performed by London Voices and Apartment ​ ​ ​ House. ​

DONNERSTAG AUS LICHT Royal Festival Hall, 21-22 May Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) spent decades rebuilding the basic elements of music, ​ discovering a new kind of music for traditional instruments and creating unheard worlds of

electronic sound in a Cologne studio. When he finally turned to opera, aged 50, his ambitions reached new heights. He spent 26 years developing his seven-part epic, the Licht ​ cycle, which explored the story of mankind as a cosmic saga, and linked each opera to a day of the week, a celestial body and a colour.

Donnerstag (Thursday, Jupiter, bright blue) is the fourth opera in the cycle (though the first to ​ be composed) and follows the story of Michael, an angel in human form. Michael draws heavily on the composer’s traumatic childhood: he lost both his parents at an early age (Stockhausen’s mother, who suffered from depression, was institutionalised and became a victim of the Nazi enforced euthanasia policy and his father was lost, presumed dead on the Eastern Front); aged 16, Stockhausen witnessed first-hand the horrors of the second world war as a conscripted stretcher bearer. In the opera, Michael learns music, grows up, falls in love, travels around the world and overcomes the forces of evil before ascending again to heaven. Donnerstag is, put simply, the story of someone who uses art to try to transcend a ​ ​ brutal reality.

Fresh from critically-acclaimed performances in Paris, recipients of the Fondation ​ ​ Stockhausen first prize in 2013, Le Balcon and their founder and conductor Maxime Pascal ​ ​ ​ (winner of the 2014 Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award) make their UK ​ ​ ​ debut with two performances of the opera. They combine forces with Southbank Centre Resident Orchestra London Sinfonietta, the New London Chamber Choir and the Royal ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Academy of Music Manson Ensemble in a new production, directed by Benjamin Lazar. ​ ​

ACTRESS X STOCKHAUSEN SIN {X} II Royal Festival Hall, 14 May ​ ​ Welt-Parlament, the opening scene of Mittwoch, the third opera of Stockhausen’s Licht ​ ​ ​ ​ cycle, provides the inspiration for the world premiere of a new work, Actress x Stockhausen ​ Sin {x} II, by British contemporary electronic artist, Actress (alias of Darren J. Cunningham) ​ ​ ​ ​ and his Artificial Intelligence recording and performance group, Young Paint. ​ ​ Co-commissioned by Southbank Centre and Holland Festival, this new composition for choir, AI, piano and electronics sees Actress present his reimagining Welt-Parlament (1995). In the ​ ​ original, members of a fictional parliament in the sky discuss the meaning of, and pass legislation on, love. This one-off live performance includes recordings of real-life debates on the subject of love by members of the UK Parliament, held at venues in the House of Lords during the Brexit negotiations. Joined on stage by the Netherlands Chamber Choir and ​ ​ Italian pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell, a former pupil of Stockhausen, and led by conductor ​ ​ Robert Ames, co-founder of London Contemporary Orchestra, Actress and the Young Paint ​ AI will manipulate the parliamentary recordings live to deliver a multidisciplinary performance about the transcendent property of love in a world striving to assert borders.

STOCKHAUSEN WEEKEND Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, 1 & 2 June ​ ​ ​ A June weekend of Stockhausen concerts features Southbank Centre Artist in Residence Pierre-Laurent Aimard with Tamara Stefanovich (piano), Dirk Rothbrust (percussion) and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Marco Stroppa (sound) in two Queen Elizabeth Hall concerts that feature seminal ​ Stockhausen piano works Klavierstücke and Kontakte for piano, tape and percussion (1 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ June) and transcendental, electronic infused works Zyklus for percussion and Mantra for two ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ pianos and percussion (2 June). The weekend also features Apartment House in Für ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

kommende Zeiten (For Times to Come), Stockhausen’s rarely-heard collection from the late ​ 1960s of seventeen text compositions, termed ‘intuitive music’ by the composer and produced primarily from the intuition rather than the intellect of the performer (2 June). ​ ​ ​ ​ London Voices perform Stockhausen’s 1968 vocal work Stimmung; the composer shaped ​ ​ ​ 51 repeatable models - from vowel sounds, the overtones and timbral changes - performed by six singers intoning on one perpetual chord, inserting words, names and poems among the intonation. Each new model brings on a different, changed mood, according to its meaning and character. Robert Worby leads a study day examining Stockhausen’s life, ​ ​ works and influence (1 June). ​ ​

Stockhausen: Cosmic Prophet will also include a number of creative learning opportunities ​ via Composers Collective, launched by Southbank Centre in April 2018 as a free ​ ​ ​ learning resource for anyone with an interest in composition, and with members of ​ Streetwise Opera.

#Ends#

Please find full event listings below.

For further press information, please contact: Sophie Cohen, [email protected] / 020 7921 0973 ​ ​ Or Alex Kemsley [email protected] / 020 7921 0888 ​ ​ For press enquiries about Actress x Stockhausen Sin {x} II please contact: ​ ​ ​ Phoebe Gardiner [email protected] / 020 7921 0967 ​ ​ Or Alexandra Shaw [email protected] / 020 7921 0676 ​ ​

For press ticket requests: [email protected] / 020 7921 0888 ​

Please find press images available to download HERE ​

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Event Listings

ACTRESS X STOCKHAUSEN SIN (X) II Tuesday 14 May 2019, 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £20 - £25 Witness the world premiere of the latest large-scale work from the contemporary electronic musician Actress and his artificial intelligence project, Young Paint.

STOCKHAUSEN: DONNERSTAG AUS LICHT (THURSDAY FROM LIGHT) Tuesday 21 May & Wednesday 22 May 2019, 6:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15 - £70 (NB: Early start time) ​ Opera in 3 acts, a greeting, & a farewell. Feat: Le Balcon; London Sinfonietta; Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble; New London Chamber Choir; Maxime Pascal conductor, ​ Benjamin Lazar director ​ Henri Deléger Michael, trumpet; Safir Behloul Michael, tenor; Emmanuelle Grach Michael, dancer; ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Iris Zerdoud Eve, basset horn; Léa Trommenschlager Eve, soprano, (Act 1) ;Elise Chauvin Eve, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ soprano, (Act 3); Suzanne Meyer Eve, dancer; Mathieu Adam Lucifer, trombone; Damien Pass ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Lucifer, bass; Jamil Attar Lucifer, dancer; Alphonse Cemin piano; Alice Caubit clarinet, (Act 2); ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Ghislain Roffat clarinet, basset horn, (Act 2); Simon Guidicelli double bass, (Act 2); Florent Derex ​ ​ ​ ​ sound projection; Augustin Muller computer music design; Yann Chapotel video design; Christophe ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Naillet lighting design ​

STOCKHAUSEN WEEKEND: Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 June 2019

STOCKHAUSEN IN DEPTH Saturday 1 June 2019, 12pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £25 Study day with Robert Worby

PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD: STOCKHAUSEN’S KLAVIERSTÜCKE & KONTAKTE Saturday 1 June 2019, 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15 - £25 Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano; Dirk Rothbrust percussion; Marco Stroppa sound ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Repertoire: Stockhausen: Klavierstück I; Klavierstück II; Klavierstück III; Klavierstück IV; Klavierstück V; ​ Klavierstück VI; Klavierstück VII; Klavierstück VIII; Klavierstück IX; Klavierstück X; Klavierstück XI. Stockhausen: Kontakte for piano, tape & percussion ​

STOCKHAUSEN: STIMMUNG Saturday 1 June 2019, 10pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Performed by London Voices Repertoire: Stockhausen: Stimmung (Tuning) for 6 vocalists ​

STOCKHAUSEN: FÜR KOMMENDE ZEITUNG Sunday 2 June 2019, 2:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Performed by Apartment House Repertoire: Stockhausen: Für kommende Zeiten (For times to come) ​

STOCKHAUSEN: ZYKLUS AND MANTRA Sunday 2 June 2019, 5pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15 - £20 Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano; Tamara Stefanovich piano; Dirk Rothbrust percussion; Marco ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Stroppa sound ​ Repertoire: Stockhausen: Zyklus for percussion; Mantra for 2 pianos & electronics ​

NOTES TO EDITORS About Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of ​ London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk. ​ ​ ​