The Barbican at 30: creating the arts centre of the future
For immediate release: 8 March 2012

A utopian vision for the arts when it opened its doors to the public in March 1982, the iconic Barbican Centre remains at the forefront of the arts as it celebrates its 30th anniversary . With a world-class arts and learning programme spanning and often combining theatre, art, architecture, design, film, music, opera and dance, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms for its diverse audiences. To mark this milestone, the Barbican today looks to major future developments, and announces programme highlights from its 2012-13 season.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director, said:
“This is a defining moment for the Barbican Centre. Thirty years ago the City of London opened the Barbican as a model of the arts in a residential estate, and since then it has become a beacon locally, nationally and internationally for the adventurous arts. Now as our major exhibition on Bauhaus re-examines that concept of all the arts being at the heart of an enlightened life, we are about to launch our first new venue since 1982. The new two-screen cinema, opening this autumn on the corner of Beech Street, will complement our existing venues and provide local cinemas for the City and arts projects for an international centre.

“The Barbican is at the heart of the London 2012 Festival celebrations with a rich programme featuring Cate Blanchett, Peter Sellars, Wynton Marsalis, Einstein on the Beach, and a Pina Bausch season which is selling out fast. We are working ever more closely with the ‘alliance for creative excellence’, recently praised as a model by the Henley Report on Cultural Education, with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and our resident London Symphony Orchestra – who are recording the core orchestral soundtrack for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies .

“As our venues expand and the Guildhall School’s major new Milton Court building with its concert hall and studio theatres opens in 2013, we are looking forward in our ambition to create a vibrant cultural quarter in the heart of the City of London. This creative hub of performance and learning will combine the continued strength of our partnerships with our associates and collaborators, to create huge opportunities for the future. We are very grateful for our continued core funding from the City of London, enhanced by support from Arts Council England, the City Bridge Trust and our growing community of supporters, helping to transform our vision to provide world-class arts and learning into a reality .”

Louise Jeffreys , Director of Programming said:
“The arts respond to the times. The Barbican has, over the last three decades, been at the forefront of the huge shifts in what artists create, what audiences want, and of what an arts centre can be for both local communities and to national and international audiences. The Barbican is playing a major role in London’s cultural offering in what is an incredible year for the arts. Today we announce further projects taking place this summer as part of the London 2012 Festival, but we also look to the future. Our autumn season presents the very best quality arts – across all genres – as we continue to lead the way through our next thirty years.”

The headline projects, announced today, are as follows: (full chronological listings and credit information are in Notes to Editors).
  • Step Into The Dark – opening season for new Barbican Cinemas – a two-month-long, multi-season, cross-arts programme which will explore themes of dystopia, tragedy and surrealism through seven film programmes.
  • Major new photography exhibition – surveying photography of the 1960s and 1970s from an international perspective, International Photography of the 1960s and 1970s will include renowned photographers from across the globe, all working during two of the most memorable decades of the 20th Century. Featuring a pantheon of leading figures of modern photography including David Goldblatt , Boris Mikhailov and Bruce Davidson, this exhibition tells a history of photography, through the photography of history.
  • New music projects for Summer 2012 – Toumani Diabaté, Roots Manuva and Criolo are amongst the first acts announced to join Gilberto Gil in the three-day Back2Black festival at Old Billingsgate; Gil also plays the Barbican Hall in a special concert with the LSO and conductor Francois-Xavier Roth; Malian musician Rokia Traoré presents three new projects Donguili - Donke - Damou (Sing - Dance - Dream); and Tina Benko leads the cast of the much anticipated Desdemona, a collaboration between Traoré, Toni Morrison and Peter Sellars. All part of the London 2012 Festival.
  • New work from Michael Clark Company; the Barbican and the Company announce the renewal of their Artistic Associate partnership for a further three years.
  • International Theatre projects – presented this autumn are TR Warszawa ’s Nosferatu, a Barbican co-commission directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and Forests, a new production from Calixto Bieito drawing on Shakespearean texts.
  • Rain Room – a cutting edge new commission by rAndom International for The Curve will create a space of perpetual rainfall, through which visitors can wander freely without getting wet.
  • 2012/13 music highlights – Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic give their first International Associate Residency which also features an international conference on the role of the musician in the 21st Century; Chilly Gonzales collaborates with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in an orchestral hip-hop project; a special weekend celebrates Philip Glass’ 75th birthday; a double bill of Oliver Knussen’s fantasy operas Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!; the London Jazz Festival returns; and two new Associate Ensemble relationships begin, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Britten Sinfonia, who join the London Symphony Orchestra , the Barbican’s Resident Orchestra since the Centre opened in 1982, the BBC Symphony Orchestra , the Barbican‘s Associate Orchestra and Associate Producer, Serious.
  • Unleashed – an urban tale for the Theatre’s main stage featuring the inspirational talent of Boy Blue Entertainment’s Da Bratz and Blues, with 300 of the Barbican’s young artists including poets, drummers, filmmakers and musicians working with a professional theatre team.
  • Barbican Weekender – a popular staple of the Barbican calendar, the Weekender returns in November celebrating the influence of digital technology on the arts.


    PROGRAMME INFORMATION

    STEP INTO THE DARK - OPENING SEASON FOR NEW BARBICAN CINEMAS
    The new Barbican Cinemas, situated on the corner of Beech Street and Whitecross Street, will open this autumn, the first venue addition since 1982. With two auditoria, both seating 156, this new, architecturally designed cinema space will join the highly respected Cinema One to deliver a world-class programme of specialist, international cinema, live events and quality new releases.
    Placed within an international arts centre, film programming at the Barbican is unique in the UK: local City audiences can catch the best quality new releases and the film programme can respond to the artistic themes of other art forms - theatre, dance, music and visual arts – within the Centre, as well as present bespoke festivals and seasons.
    This autumn, the film programme will celebrate the opening of the Barbican Cinemas with Step Into The Dark , a two-month-long, multi-season, cross-arts programme which will explore themes of dystopia, tragedy and surrealism through seven film programmes: The Seven Deadly Sins will focus on ideas of excess, disturbance and derangement, and how these lead to the crossing of accepted boundaries and the notion of sin; The Dark Heart of Fairy Tales will explore adult fairy tales across different genres and cultures; Censorship and Oppression in the 1960s will look in particular at apartheid in South Africa, and the civil rights movement in the United States, and will complement the Art Gallery’s autumn exhibition International Photography of the 1960s and 1970s . The Barbican’s reputation as ‘the home of silent cinema in London’ will be further enhanced as we explore German Expressionist silent horror in all its dark and shadowy murkiness in the Silent Horror with Live Music season which will include Paul Wegener's The Golem (1915), Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu A Symphony of Terror (1922) (complementing Barbican Theatre’s Nosferatu, a co-production with Poland’s TR Warszawa, directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, from 31 October – 3 November). Everyday I Have the Blues – the tune made famous by Memphis Slim and B.B. King – is the title of a season which explores the dark side of American music, and lastly The Dark Side of Down Under, will offer a delicious grisly slice of Australian disturbia. (September-November 2012)
    The new Barbican Cinemas will also become the home of cinema for young people with a new year-round programme of film and learning, culminating in a festival showcase in November called Framed – Cinema for a New Generation, comprising two weekends of activities and screenings of young people’s cinema from around the world, including a strand this autumn exploring the dark side of world youth cinema. Framed content will get young people seeing, making and dissecting the art of film, provide access to industry professionals, and offer long-term learning opportunities. Framed is presented by the Barbican’s Cinema and Creative Learning teams. (November 2012)

    MAJOR NEW PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
    This major Barbican Art Gallery photography exhibition surveys the medium from an international perspective, and includes renowned photographers from across the globe, all working during two of the most memorable decades of the 20th Century. International Photography of the 1960s and 1970s tells a history of photography, through the photography of history.

    It features a pantheon of the leading figures of modern photography including David Goldblatt, Boris Mikhailov, Bruce Davidson and Shomei Tomatsu – as well as now-mythic practitioners whose lives were cut tragically short such as Ernest Cole, and Raghubir Singh. The exhibition also features Sigmar Polke, Graciela Iturbide and Malik Sidibé. Each artist in the exhibition has, in different ways, advanced the aesthetic language of photography, as well as engaging with the world they inhabit in a profound and powerful way. The exhibition is set in one of the defining periods of the modern age – a time that remains an inescapable reference point for us even today. The world changed dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s, shaped by the forces of post-colonialism, neo-colonialism and the Cold War. This momentous epoch in history coincided with a golden age in photography: the moment when the medium flowered as a modern art form.

    Great auteur photographers emerged around the developed, and the developing world. Many, working increasingly independently from the illustrated press, were freed from the restraints of brief and commission and were able to approach the world on their own terms, introducing a new level of complexity to photographic imagery. Others, such as Boris Mikhailov (Ukraine/USSR) or Ernest Cole (South Africa), found themselves living in situations of extreme repression or totalitarianism, but were to devise inspiring strategies to create major works of photography in secrecy – and at huge personal risk.

    Back in the 1960s, many commentators viewed photography as inferior to painting or sculpture, because it simply recorded, mechanically, what could be seen, and was judged to be concerned primarily with reporting the facts (journalism) or campaigning for change (social documentary). Attitudes changed during this period, and the art museum slowly opened its doors to the medium. Less concerned to change the world, or to merely describe it, a new generation of photographers were now driven to understand that world, as well as their place within it, through the act of photography. In looking back at a spectrum of different photographic approaches, this exhibition asks if, in the early 21st Century, the distinction between art photography and documentary photography has finally been erased: and if not, where, on the ground, do we draw the line? (September 2012 – January 2013)

    NEW MUSIC PROJECTS FOR SUMMER 2012

    First acts announced for Gilberto Gil’s Back2Black festival , Gil plays the Barbican Hall     with the LSO, Rokia Traoré curates three new projects, and Tina Benko confirmed as Desdemona.

    The three-day Back2Black festival arrives in London this summer as part of the London 2012 Festival, in the first ever iteration outside Brazil. Held over three days at Old Billingsgate on the Thames in East London, it is hosted by and features Gilberto Gil. Acts will include: Gilberto Gil; Toumani Diabaté + Arnaldo Antunes + Edgard Scandurra; Roots Manuva; Criolo; Fatoumata Diawara; Marcelo D2; Mart'nalia and Luiz Melodia, with many more to be announced.

    Launched in Rio de Janeiro in 2009, the annual Back2Black festival has quickly established itself as one of the foremost cultural events in Brazil attracting over 35,000 visitors to date. The key theme of this curated festival is to promote wider appreciation for black culture in Brazil, by exploring new ways of presenting music and art. It aims to entertain, raise awareness, further cultural exchange and rebuild bridges, bringing Brazil back in touch with its African Heritage. This first London Back2Black festival features a strong emphasis on UK-African connections and communities including Afro-Caribbean artists and brings together a heady mix of different traditions and musical genres - including Samba, Jazz, Funk, R’n’B, Blues, Rock, Reggae, Dub and Hip Hop – all of which have been heavily informed by Africa.

    Since its inaugural edition, the Back2Black festival has taken place in the beautiful setting of the disused Leopoldina railway station close to downtown Rio de Janeiro. To recreate a similar setting, the London festival will be held at Old Billingsgate, with three stages and an extensive offering of concerts, debates and exhibitions. The eclectic line-up will feature more than 20 Brazilian, UK and international artists, groups, thinkers and leaders. A large-scale exhibition by Brazilian artist and director Bia Lessa forms the backdrop of the festival. (29 & 30 June & 1 July. Part of the London 2012 Festival)

    On 4 July, Gilberto Gil plays the Barbican Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Francois-Xavier Roth . The evening features new arrangements of Gil’s songs by Jaques Morelenbaum, and music originating from and influenced by Brazil, including works by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Darius Milhaud. (Part of the London 2012 Festival)

    In Desdemona, Rokia Traoré and Toni Morrison, two women of African and African American origin, come together to create a work inspired by an 'invisible' character from one of Shakespeare’s most racially charged plays. In response to Peter Sellars’ 2009 Othello, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison and Malian singer/songwriter Rokia Traoré collaborate to create an intimate and profound conversation between Shakespeare’s Desdemona and her African nurse, Barbary, from beyond the grave. Moving beyond centuries of colonialism and racism, two women share stories, songs and hope for a different future. The actress playing Desdemona will be Tina Benko who performed the role in the production in Paris, Berlin, New York and Berkeley. (19 & 20 July. Part of the World Shakespeare Festival and London 2012 Festival)

    Prior to the performances of Desdemona, Rokia Traoré comes to London for three projects in June. Produced by the Barbican, these projects are called Donguili - Donke - Damou (translated as ‘Sing - Dance - Dream’ from the Malian language, Bambara) and reflect a wide range of new works Rokia Traoré is developing. Donguili is centered around a collaboration between UK and European musicians who will visit Rokia Traoré’s Music Institute in Bamako which works with young emerging musicians. Donke focuses on Rokia Traoré’s new album, with award winning producer John Parrish at the helm, and features some of the same musicians in a club gig at Village Underground in Shoreditch. The third project Damou is an intimate acoustic evening of music and traditional Manding storytelling at Wilton’s Music Hall. (18, 22 & 23 June. Part of the London 2012 Festival)

    NEW WORK FROM MICHAEL CLARK COMPANY

    For their return to the Barbican stage, Michael Clark Company will present a double bill of new work choreographed to specially commissioned music. This production will continue Clark’s history of close collaboration with contemporary artists, designers and musicians, and include lighting design by artist and filmmaker Charles Atlas, and costumes by Stevie Stewart, formerly of BodyMap. (17-20 & 23-27 October 2012)

    Michael Clark is an iconic British dancer, choreographer and artist who first came to prominence in the early 1980s. His work combines the classical ballet of his training with a more complex, contemporary sensibility. He is renowned for his legendary collaborations with bands, fashion designers and visual artists including Wire, Leigh Bowery, Trojan, Peter Doig and Sarah Lucas. Clark ’s return to the Barbican will follow the company’s residencies in Tate Modern’s immense Turbine Hall in 2010 and 2011, and the Whitney Museum of American Art for the Whitney Biennial 2012.

    The Company and the Barbican also announce today the continuation of their Artistic Associate partnership for a further three years. The Michael Clark Company became an Artistic Associate at the Barbican in 2005 and embarked on the ground-breaking Stravinsky Project, a three year collaboration which was performed at the Barbican and toured internationally. The most recent co-commission and collaboration is the critically acclaimed come, been and gone.

    INTERNATIONAL THEATRE PROJECTS

    Presented this autumn are TR Warszawa ’s Nosferatu , a Barbican co-commisson directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and Forests , a new production from Calixto Bieito drawn from Shakespearean texts.
    Bram Stoker’s Dracula, one of the most evocative texts in popular culture, is interpreted in Nosferatu using the vampiric myth of life after death and the regenerating power of blood. Seducing his audience into a dream-like state, Grzegorz Jarzyna explores what lies between an idea and the reality, between conception and creation and between light and shade. The character of Dracula has always been a source of contemporary metaphor and Jarzyna’s production uses this psychological and metaphysical thriller to explore the conflict between the fear of the unknown entrenched in human nature, and our enduring fascination with dark secrets, obsessions and the need for transgression. This is TR Warszawa’s third visit to the Barbican, having last performed here in 2010 with Grzegorz Jarzyna’s critically acclaimed production of Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis and T.E.O.R.M.A.T. Performed in Polish with English surtitles. (31 October – 3 November 2012)

    Drawing on a selection of Shakespeare’s plays, Forests is a new production from Calixto Bieito , one of Europe’s most prominent theatre directors. The forest has always played a dramatic role in English literature and no more so than in Shakespeare where references to nature focus on the forest’s life- giving and protective qualities but also represent man’s greatest fears – danger, death and destruction as well as being a place of transformation. Calixto Bieito will show, through plays such as Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Macbeth and As You Like It, a “forest” which represents a place of getaway, punishment or sentence yet is also a place of shelter and redemption. With a cast of English and Catalan actors, Forests will be performed in both English and Catalan with surtitles. (6 – 10 November 2012)

    RAIN ROOM

    rAndom International     are known for their distinctive approach to digital-based contemporary art. Their experimental artworks come alive through the interaction of the visitor and staged performance. For The Curve, rAndom will create a space of perpetual rainfall, through which visitors can wander freely without getting wet. At the cutting edge of digital technology, Rain Room is at the same time elemental and simple. On entering The Curve the visitor will hear the sound of the water and feel the moisture in the air before they see the rain field. Rain Room actively invites unpredictable occurrences and encourages people to become performers on an unexpected stage. The work hints at the beauty and growing scarcity of water on our planet and is a metaphor for the increasing precariousness of our relationship to nature. (October 2012 – 10 February 2013)

    2012/13 MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS

    Highlights of the autumn contemporary music season include Chilly Gonzales with the BBC Symphony Orchestra collaborating on the premiere of Gonzales’ new Solo Piano II show. Presented for the first time in the UK, the show includes orchestral adaptations of newly composed Solo Piano II material as well as other repertoire including songs from his recent orchestral hip-hop album (20 October). And the Barbican welcomes back the London Jazz Festival ( 9 – 8 November).

    In March 2013, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel give their first International Associate residency at the Barbican. The Philharmonic is one of the Barbican’s five International Associates whose regular residencies at the Centre involve symphonic and chamber music concerts, family events, new commissions, and educational and outreach work. The orchestra’s long-awaited first residency includes two European premieres, both Barbican co-commissions: John Adams’ new oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary, directed by Peter Sellars, and a new work by Unsuk Chin as part of Green Umbrella, the Philharmonic’s innovative new music series. Across the residency, the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama celebrate music education and learning with public masterclasses, debates and talks. The residency begins with an international conference (14 March) that discusses the role of the musician in the 21st Century. On 15 March Discover Dudamel is a chance to watch Dudamel lead an open rehearsal with young people from East London and beyond. The event is followed by a discussion with music education leaders on the importance of music in our society and ways of expanding music opportunities for young people.

    Other autumn highlights include: Oliver Knussen’s widely-acclaimed fantasy operas Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! . Based on the beloved eponymous children’s books by Maurice Sendak, and with a libretto by the author, this major new production is presented as a multimedia staged concert, directed by Netia Jones who animates Sendak’s original images and integrates live and filmed moving images into opera performance using a variety of emerging technologies. The concert is performed by Britten Sinfonia, with soloists including Claire Booth and Susan Bickley, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth (3 November 2012). A special weekend celebrating Philip Glass turning 75 - on the first day, Glass’ powerful music for the 1982 Godfrey Reggio film Koyaanisqatsi: A Life Out Of Balance is performed live by the Philip Glass Ensemble and Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Glass’ long-term collaborator Michael Riesman. The documentary film, the first of a trilogy of films that deals with the relationships between humans, nature and technology, is projected above the stage in the Barbican Hall. The celebration also includes a performance by the Philip Glass Ensemble in the intimate setting of the Union Chapel, pop-up performances of Glass’ music by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama musicians across the Barbican’s foyers, as well as masterclasses and debates (14 & 15 December 2012). Finally, the autumn season marks the start of the two new Associate Ensembles joining the Centre’s existing family of orchestras: the Academy of Ancient Music , renowned for its dedication to fresh, historically-informed performances of baroque and classical music; and Britten Sinfonia which has built its reputation on imaginative programming developed through strong artist relationships across the musical spectrum.

    UNLEASHED

    Featuring the inspirational talent of Boy Blue Entertainment’s Da Bratz and Blues, and 300 of the Barbican’s young poets, drummers, filmmakers and musicians, Unleashed is a new show which brings together a professional theatre team working with the ideas and inspiration of these young artists. Yearning, new awakening, the dreams and sacrifices of youth are explored in this high energy urban tale as the voice of the young people of East London is Unleashed on the Barbican main stage. Made by the Young People of Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning and Artistic Associate, Boy Blue Entertainment, directed by Walter Meierjohann. (23 & 24 November 2012)

    BARBICAN WEEKENDER

    The Barbican Weekender returns in November 2012 with a programme of installations, participation, music, film, theatre and visual art for all in the Barbican’s public spaces, celebrating the influence of digital technology on the arts. The Saturday features a double bill of multimedia staged concert by Oliver Knussen - the widely-acclaimed fantasy operas Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! and Rain Room by rAndom International. (3 & 4 November 2012)

    ENDS

    Notes to Editors:

    Press information
    For further information, images or to arrange interviews contact:
    Lorna Gemmell, Head of Communications – 0207 382 7147, lorna.gemmell@barbican.org.uk
    Jessica Dare , Communications Assistant - 0207 382 7321, jessica.dare@barbican.org.uk

    LISTINGS

    SUMMER 2012

    JUNE

    Back2Black
    29-30 June, 1 July / Old Billingsgate / 12pm
    Produced by the Barbican in association with Zoocom Events and Serious
    Part of the London 2012 Festival
    On sale to Red & Orange Members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    Rokia Traoré: Donguili – Donke - Damou (Sing – Dance - Dream)
    Rokia Traoré: Damou (Dream)
    18 June / Wilton’s Music Hall / 8pm
    Rokia Traoré: Donguili (Sing)
    22 June / Barbican Hall / 7:30pm
    Rokia Traoré: Donke (Dance)
    23 June / Village Underground / 8.30pm
    Part of the London 2012 Festival
    On sale to Red & Orange Members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    JULY

    Gilberto Gil with the London Symphony Orchestra and Francois-Xavier Roth
    4 July 7.30pm / Barbican Hall / Time tbc
    Villa-Lobos Zoé Act 1: Danca Frenetica
    Villa-Lobos Amazona
    Milhaud Saudades do Brasil
    Villa-Lobos Chôros No. 10 Rasga o Coração
    Selected songs by Gilberto Gil arranged by Jaques Morelenbaum
    Produced by the Barbican
    Part of the London 2012 Festival
    On sale to Red & Orange Members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    Desdemona
    Toni Morrison, Rokia Traoré, Peter Sellars
    19 & 20 July / Barbican Hall / 7.30pm
    Desdemona is commissioned by Wiener Festwochen, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, Cal Performances, Berkeley, California, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, spielzeit'europa I Berliner Festspiele, Barbican, London, Arts Council England and London 2012 Festival
    Part of the World Shakespeare Festival
    The World Shakespeare Festival is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for London 2012 Festival
    On sale now

    AUTUMN 2012

    SEPTEMBER

    International Photography from the 1960s and 1970s
    September 2012 – January 2013 / Barbican Art Gallery
    On sale from 9 May
    Step Into The Dark
    September - November / Barbican Cinemas
    Further details to be announced
    OCTOBER

    Michael Clark Company – new work
    17-20 & 23-27 October / Barbican Theatre / 7:45pm
    Press night 18 October, 7:45pm
    Commissioned by the Barbican, London
    Co-produced by the Barbican, London, Michael Clark Company, Maison des Arts de Créteil, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and Tramway, Glasgow
    Michael Clark Company is supported by Arts Council England
    On sale to Red & Orange Members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    rAndom International - Rain Room
    October 2012-January 2013 / The Curve
    Media View 3 October, 10am-1pm
    Admission free

    Chilly Gonzales with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
    20 October / Barbican Hall / 7.30pm
    Produced by the Barbican in association with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
    On sale to Red & Orange Members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    TR Warszawa – Nosferatu
    Directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna
    31 October-3 November / Barbican Theatre / 9pm, 7:45pm
    Press night 31 October, 9pm
    Polish with English surtitles
    Nosferatu is a Barbican co-commission with Narodowy Instytut Audiowizualny, Dublin Theatre Festival, Adelaide Theatre Festival, TR Warszawa Foundation and strategic partner, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
    On sale to Red & Orange Members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    NOVEMBER

    Forests – Calixto Bieito
    Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company & Barcelona Internacional Teatre present Forests
    Based on texts by William Shakespeare
    6-10 November / Barbican Theatre / 7:45pm
    Press night 6 November, 7:45pm
    In English and Catalan
    Originally created as part of the World Shakespeare Festival, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for London 2012 Festival
    Supported by the Embassy of Spain
    On sale to Red & Orange members from 9 March
    On sale to the general public from 12 March

    Unleashed
    Made by the Young People of Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning and Boy Blue Entertainment
    23-24 November / Barbican Theatre / Time tbc
    Press night: 23 November / Time tbc

    Framed – Cinema for a New Generation
    Barbican Cinemas
    Further details to be announced

    Oliver Knussen – Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!
    3 November / Barbican Hall / 2pm, 7pm
    Britten Sinfonia and Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor
    Netia Jones, director
    Cast to include:
    Claire Booth
    Susan Bickley
    Lucy Schaufer
    Christopher Lemmings
    Jonathan Gunthorpe
    Graeme Broadbent
    Graeme Danby
    A co-production by the Barbican, Aldeburgh Festival and Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
    On sale - now

    Barbican Weekender
    3-4 November / Barbican Centre / 10am-late
    Admission free

    London Jazz Festival
    9-18 November
    Further details to be announced

    DECEMBER

    Philip Glass at 75
    14 & 15 December
    14 December / Barbican Hall / 8pm
    Phillip Glass Koyaanisqatsi: A Life Out Of Balance (Live film screening)
    Britten Sinfonia
    Philip Glass Ensemble
    Michael Reisman conductor
    On sale now
    15 December / Union Chapel / 8pm
    Philip Glass Ensemble
    Programme to be announced
    On sale now

    SPRING 2013

    MARCH

    Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel
    International Associate Residency and Conference
    14-17 March / Barbican Hall
    The residency is supported by the SHM Foundation and the City Bridge Trust
    14 March / Barbican Hall / 7:30pm
    Green Umbrella Concert
    Programme to include:
    Unsuk Chin New Work (Barbican co-commission, European premiere)
    LA Phil New Music Group
    Gustavo Dudamel conductor
    On sale now
    16 March / Barbican Hall / 7:30pm
    John Adams - The Gospel According to the Other Mary
    Barbican co-commission, European premiere
    Los Angeles Philharmonic
    Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
    Peter Sellars director / librettist
    Kelley O’Connor, Mary
    Tamara Mumford, Martha
    Russell Thomas, Lazarus
    Daniel Bubeck, countertenor
    Brian Cummings, countertenor
    Nathan Medley, countertenor
    Los Angeles Master Chorale
    Grant Gershon, music director
    On sale now
    17 March / Barbican Hall / 7:30pm
    Vivier Zipangu
    Debussy La mer
    Stravinsky Firebird (complete)
    Los Angeles Philharmonic
    Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
    On sale - now

    Barbican newsroom
    All Barbican Centre press releases, news announcements and the Media Relations team’s contact details are listed on our website at www.barbican.org.uk/news/home

    About the Barbican
    A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Our creative learning programme further underpins everything we do. In 2012 we celebrate the Olympic year with many of our projects forming part of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival – it is also our 30th Birthday year. Over 1.5 million people pass through our doors annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured, and more than 300 staff work onsite. Our architecturally renowned centre opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, the Pit, Cinema One (with Cinemas Two and Three opening in Beech Street in September 2012), Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants.                                                                                                                   The Barbican is home to Resident Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra; Associate Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra; Associate Ensembles The Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia, and Associate Producer Serious. Our Artistic Associates include Boy Blue Entertainment, Cheek by Jowl and Michael Clark Company. International Associates are Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

    About the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival
    The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people.
    The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad will be the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK, from Midsummers Day on 21 June and running until the final day of the Paralympic Games on 9 September 2012.The London 2012 Festival will celebrate the huge range, quality and accessibility of the UK’s world-class culture including dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion, film and digital innovation, giving the opportunity for people across the UK to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
    Principal funders of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival are Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor. BP and BT are Premier Partners of the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival.
    For more details on the programme and to sign up for information visit www.london2012.com/festival










Desdemona
Downloads:

  The Barbican at 30 (pdf)

  Barbican building / corporate image sheet pdf.