City of London Festival Celebrates 50 Golden Years: Full Festival programme announced
INVITATION: Breakfast Press Launch
Wednesday 29 February, 9:00 – 11:00
Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, London EC2V 6BN – nearest tube: St Paul’s
Breakfast is provided including golden honey produced from the Festival’s roof-top bee-hives – part of the Festival’s environmental programme.
Ian Ritchie, Festival Director, City of London Festival and BNY Mellon, will be joined by international guitarist, John Williams, renowned composer, Tansy Davies and Wendy Mead, Sheriff of the City of London, to announce the City of London Festival’s Golden Jubilee programme including several world premières across music, dance and visual arts.
The Festival’s theme, City of London – Trading Places with the World, will inspire over 100 events in 55 spectacular locations across the Square Mile and beyond. Landmark performances include:
- The LSO, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, will perform Berlioz’s colossal work Le Grande Mess des Morts.
- English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet and National Dance Company of Wales, who will join forces to transform St Paul’s Cathedral into London’s biggest pop-up dance theatre.
- Internationally acclaimed guitarist John Williams will commemorate the Festival’s jubilee year by giving a recital echoing the performance he gave at the first City of London Festival in 1962.
- New music includes pieces by composers Tansy Davies and Judith Bingham and a new work by Nigel Osborne for tetraplegic former trumpeter, Clarence Adoo and his specially designed new instrument, which has enabled him to perform once again.
- The Sydney Dance Company will perform a series of new works, choreographed by the company’s Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela, in outdoor locations across the Square Mile.
- Full press release and images: http://mediacentre.kallaway.co.uk/city-of-london-festival-press-release1.htm
At the breakfast, guests from LSO, English National Ballet, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and other organisations participating in the Festival will also be present and available for interview.
RSVP
Please confirm your attendance with Maxim Bendall at Kallaway PR maxim.bendalll@kallaway.com by Monday 27 February. Telephone: 020 7221 7883.
The City of London Festival is sponsored by BNY Mellon
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About City of London Festival
24 June – 27 July 2012, www.colf.org
Since its inauguration in 1962 the Festival has been animating the City, bringing the Square Mile’s monumental architecture, wealth of buildings, outdoor spaces, and ancient streets to life with a rich and extraordinary programme of music, performance, events and installations. Ranked among the world’s leading cultural celebrations, City of London Festival is one of the UK’s most significant and highly regarded artistic platforms featuring a dazzling array of luminaries from across the worlds of music, dance, visual art and street performance. Inspired by the history of the City and its communities it has built a reputation for innovative programming, showcasing newly discovered and world-class artists, championing new work and presenting contemporary collaborations in beautiful surroundings.
For half a century the Festival has connected the communities of the City with the world’s most acclaimed musicians and performers, enlivening the City, its inhabitants and visitors through culture. The alumni of contributing artists over the Festival’s lifetime reads like a Who’s Who of the world’s most accomplished artists, featuring the likes of Jacqueline Du Pré, Sir Willard White, Yehudi Menuhin and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf to name only a few. In its 50th year the Festival will continue to add to this outstanding pedigree of performance, as well as building upon its commitment to searching out exceptional emerging talent.
Sponsor: BNY Mellon
BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 36 countries and serving more than 100 markets. BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, offering superior investment management and investment services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has $25.5 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $1.2 trillion in assets under management, services $11.9 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.7 trillion per day. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com
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