London Oratorio
Southbank CentreBelvedere Road, South Bank, London
Sat 19 Sept · 18:30 · £24
About this event
This larger-than-life celebration of our capital by artist Es Devlin and composer Kieran Brunt soars with dozens of the city’s greatest choirs and Jacob Collier. Feel the spark of a city like no other, rich with diverse languages and musical cultures. A love letter to the capital, this epic choral work soars with the voices of hundreds from dozens of the city’s greatest choirs – and is brought to a spectacular close by multi-hyphenate musician Jacob Collier. Created in collaboration with composer and performer Kieran Brunt, London Oratorio is a monumental work rooted in Devlin’s experience of being a Londoner. It’s a powerful celebration of diversity, unity and the shared experience of living together in the city. Over 300 languages are spoken in London, making it one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the world.London Oratorio brings together these languages, musical cultures and voices in a piece of belonging and collective identity, inviting you to feel part of something larger. The participating choirs represent many of the city’s language and music traditions, from Balkan and Gospel to South African and Afro-Cuban, Bulgarian, Arabic and Nordic traditions. Hear choral compositions developed with Devlin’s long-term collaborators Polyphonia and a number of artistic co-authors. Collier ends the event on the perfect note, leading the choirs and you, our audience, in a joyous collective finale. This project also celebrates the Southbank Centre’s long history of massed, participatory singing and the power of the human voice, with a message of solidarity and joy with all communities. Es Devlin is an artist and designer. She has designed and staged concerts for stars including Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Take That, Lady Gaga and the Pet Shop Boys. Her public, large-scale choral installations have been on show at venues including the Serpentine and Tate Modern. Her kinetic stage designs have been seen at the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera and the National Theatre. She is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Society of Arts. Jacob Collier has taken the world by storm, continuously pushing the boundaries of what’s creatively possible. The musician’s genre-bridging discography has led to seven Grammy wins and 16 nominations, making him the first British artist in history to win for each of his first five studio albums. His fearless approach has attracted hundreds of collaborators including Coldplay, Shawn Mendes, Joni Mitchell, Anoushka Shankar, Stormzy, SZA and Hans Zimmer.
