BBC Radio 3 “Tearing Up the Rule Book” for Free Thinking Festival 2015 Sage Gateshead: Friday 6 November – Sunday 8 November Booking opens Monday 5 October Event and Ticket Information The Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead from Friday 6 November – Sunday 8 November Tickets available from Monday 5 October from 10am at sagegateshead.com and from 12:00 from the Sage Gateshead Ticket Office on 0191 443 4661 Standby tickets will be available on the day To request a free festival brochure email: [email protected] More information on the Free Thinking Festival can be found at bbc.co.uk/freethinking and sagegateshead.com. For free tickets call Sage Gateshead Ticket Office on 0191 443 4661 or visit sagegateshead.com/freethinking. FULL LINE UP FRIDAY 6 NOVEMBER IN TUNE 16.15 – 18.30 Live from the NORTHERN ROCK FOUNDATION HALL (live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 begins at 16.30) Suzy Klein and guests launch this year’s Free Thinking Festival with live music from Newcastle folk trio Bridie Jackson and The Arbour. Free Thinking guests will give a taste of what’s to come over the weekend including the American poet Claudia Rankine who’ll discuss her opening Free Thinking Lecture, and novelist and political film maker Tariq Ali. Former Radio 3 New Generation Artist soprano Elizabeth Watts and some of the Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers 2015 share their musical choices. THE FREE THINKING LECTURE 19.00 – 20.15 SAGE TWO This year’s Free Thinking Lecture is given by the American poet Claudia Rankine. Her book, Citizen: An American Lyric is a New York Times best seller and has become an instant classic. At one of the most volatile moments in American race history, her meditations on the language used to describe tennis star Serena Williams and on events such as the Ferguson riots and the shooting of the teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida provide the vehicle for an incisive interrogation of justice and injustice, exposing the myth of a ‘post-racial’ 21st century. A professor of English at the University of Southern California and a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Claudia Rankine grew up in first in Kingston Jamaica and then New York City and has also lived in England. Citizen has been called ‘the book of a generation’ and one which ‘throws a Molotov cocktail’ at the idea that the struggle against racial injustice has been won. The winner of this year’s Forward Prize for Poetry, the PEN Open Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award comes to Sage Gateshead to talk to Free Thinking presenter Matthew Sweet about the power of language and what it means to be black in the new millennium. RADIO 3 IN CONCERT 19.30 HALL ONE Royal Northern Sinfonia Exulte, Jubilate MOZART & STRAUSS arias (25’) STRAVINSKY Concerto in D for string orchestra (12’) SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Barshai) Chamber Symphony (19’) MOZART Exsultate, Jubilate (16’) Kyra Humphreys director Elizabeth Watts soprano Royal Northern Sinfonia Originally written for a castrato, but now for soprano, the Exsultate, Jubilate is a fine example of Mozart’s genius: it was written in a day, and most likely without a keyboard to assist, as the teenage composer did what came naturally. Tickets for this can be booked via sagegateshead.com. They cost £34.50, £28.50, £20.50, £11.50 and concessions are available. Per ticket handling fees and postal charges may apply. WORLD ON 3 20.30 – 22.30 NORTHERN ROCK FOUNDATION HALL (broadcast on BBC Radio 3 begins at 23.00) For the first time Radio 3’s world music programme presented by Mary Ann Kennedy comes to Sage Gateshead. Guests playing live include folk legend Peggy Seeger performing with Callum MacColl and Neill MacColl, veteran a cappella group The Wilson Family and folk quintet Project Jam Sandwich, discovered through BBC Introducing. SATURDAY 7 NOV BREAKFAST 07.00 – 09.00 LIVE FROM RADIO 3’S STUDIO ON THE FOYER The weekend begins at Sage Gateshead with Martin Handley presenting a live edition of BBC Radio 3’s Breakfast programme. CD REVIEW 09.00 - 12.15 LIVE FROM RADIO 3’s STUDIO ON THE CONCOURSE Andrew McGregor presents an edition of BBC Radio 3’s CD Review including a seasonal Building a Library discussion about the best recording of Handel’s Fireworks music with Mark Lowther . BOOKS AT BREAKFAST: MAKING MISCHIEF In Association with New Writing North 10.15 – 11.15 NORTHERN ROCK FOUNDATION HALL Joanne Harris, the multi-million selling author of Chocolat, comes to Sage Gateshead to discuss her new novel, The Gospel of Loki, inspired by the Norse god of trickery, mischief and deception, a shape-shifter whose cultural manifestations range from 13th century legends to Marvel comics and video games. She’s joined by Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. They discuss the enduring power of Norse mythology in conversation with Free Thinking presenter Anne McElvoy. RULE BREAKERS OR RULE MAKERS? 10.30 – 11.30 SAGE TWO Does Britain need more people like Russell Brand, Vivienne Westwood, Richard Branson and Boris Johnson? In business people talk of the power of the ‘disruptive influence’, but is the route to success actually based on discipline and obeying rules - or should we emulate those mavericks prepared to take risks and think differently? Free Thinking presenter Philip Dodd asks which institutions should consider ripping up their rule books and starting again. Joining this debate about law, politics, business and the history of our relationship with rule- breaking are: Tariq Ali, novelist , film maker, editor of the New Left Review and author of more than 30 books on world politics and history including his latest - The Extreme Centre, A Warning. Simon Heffer, historian, Daily Telegraph columnist and author of Strictly English: The correct way to write... and why it matters and High Minds. Vera Baird QC, the current Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria and a visiting law lecturer at Teesside University is a former Labour MP who served as Solicitor General for England and Wales 2007 – 2010. NEW GENERATION THINKER ESSAY: Catherine Fletcher 11.40 – 12.00 THE BARBOUR ROOM The Moor of Florence: A Medici Mystery For over 400 years it's been claimed that the first Medici Duke of Florence was mixed-race, his mother a slave of African descent. Catherine Fletcher of Swansea University asks if this extraordinary story about the 16th century Italian political dynasty could be true. Or do the tales of Alessandro de' Medici tell us more about the history of racism and anti-racism than about the man himself? The New Generation Thinkers are the winners of an annual scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics at the start of their careers who can turn their research into fascinating broadcasts. MUSIC MATTERS 12.00 – 13.00 NORTHERN ROCK FOUNDATION HALL (live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 begins at 12.15) Classical music’s rule-breakers Tom Service hosts a panel of some of the leading musicians of today, to discuss the ways in which classical musicians break the rules, from both contemporary and historical perspectives. The debate will include a discussion of some standout moments in music history when composers who we think of today as the mainstream establishment figures such as Mozart or Beethoven broke the musical ‘rules’ of their day and asks whether we remember these names today precisely because they challenged conventions of the time. Tom will tackle thorny questions such as: How much do composers consciously seek to develop new ideas and go beyond the established rules? Do you need to have a thorough knowledge of the historical rules of composition in order to break them? Is there always a pressure to be innovative?’ And there will be debate around what it means to take an individual path in classical music today. WORK AVAILABLE. NO HUMANS NEED APPLY In association with CAFÉ CULTURE 12.10 – 13.15 SAGE TWO “By 2029 computers will have emotional intelligence and be as convincing as people”. Ray Kurzweil, Google’s Director of Engineering, predicts this scenario – also explored in Channel 4’s recent hit drama, Humans. So what are the skills needed for the 21st century workplace and do humans have them? According to Paul Mason, TV journalist and author of PostCapitalism, we face seismic change in part due to the revolution in information technology. Paul Mason joins Richard and Daniel Susskind, authors of The Future of the Professions, who argue we will no longer need doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers and others to work as they did in the 20th century. Chaired by Free Thinking presenter Rana Mitter. SATURDAY CLASSICS 13.00- 15.00 LIVE FROM RADIO 3’s STUDIO ON THE CONCOURSE A special edition of Radio 3’s Saturday Classics where the multi-million selling author of Chocolat Joanne Harris chooses music which has inspired and moved her. NEW GENERATION THINKER ESSAY: PETER MACKAY 13.25– 13.45 THE BARBOUR ROOM Kilts, Celts and Clearances in WWI Thousands of soldiers fought in kilted regiments during the First World War. But what kind of cultural identity was adopted with the kilt? How far was it pervaded by a fatalistic sense of the Celt who ‘went forth to the war but … always fell’, or by the memory of the Highland Clearances? Peter Mackay of the University of St Andrews explores poetry and first-hand accounts from the war to find out. The New Generation Thinkers are the winners of an annual scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics at the start of their careers who can turn their research into fascinating broadcasts.