Name: Urban Birds
Start: 2022-07-02T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2022-07-02T00:00:00.000Z
Location: South Bank Centre

Organization

Southbank Centre

Urban Birds

London

United Kingdom

Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall

Urban Birds Arlene Sierra

Public

Approved

South Bank Centre

Accordionist

Instrumentalist

Archlutenist

Baroque Flutist

Baroque Oboist

Baroque Trumpetist

Bassist

Bassoonist

Cellist

Clarinetist

Contrabassist

Cornettist

Flutist

Guitarist

Harper

Harpsichordist

Hornist

Lutenist

Mandoline Player

Musette de cour Player

Oboist

Organist

Percussionist

Pianist

Recorder Player

Saxophonist

Tenor Violinist

Timpani

Trombonist

Trumpeter

Tuba Player

Vibraphonist

Viola Pomposa Player

Viola da gamba

Viola d’amore Player

Violinist

Violino Piccolo Player

Violist

Actor

Broadcasting

Chefdirigent Musiktheater

Choir

Choreographer

Chorus Director

Chorus master

Composer

Conductor

Costume designer

Dancer

Dramaturge

Executive producer

Extra

Hairstylist

Illustrator

Librettist

Lighting designer

Makeup artist

Orchestra

Orchestra Operations

Other

Photographer

Poet

Repetiteur

Set designer

Sound designer

Stage Manager

Stage director

Teacher

Translator

Video designer

Vocal coach

Wig & Makeup Designer

Writer

Writing and performance

Bass

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Countertenor

Bass-baritone

Soprano

Tenor

Contralto

Baritone

Alto

Child vocalist

Continuo

Silent

Spoken

Arlene Sierra is a composer of orchestral and chamber music whose compositional beginnings were in the electroacoustic field.

Urban Birds is a return to Sierra's electroacoustic roots, and brings together three international soloists who specialise in new music for piano plus electronics.

Urban Birds combines harmony, rhythmic drive and sounds from nature in a tapestry of environmental sound and virtuosic performance, engaging musically with our relationship with the natural world.

The piece employs recordings of birds that range in the UK, specifically Wales: the blackcap, the skylark and the cuckoo.

The recordings are part of the musical texture, with samples functioning as integral musical elements in the evolving structure of the work.

The three pianists play material that imitates and answers the birdsong, and they have specific roles as well: one soloist doubles on percussion, one plays the strings inside the piano, while another part interacts with a recorded Yamaha Disklavier piano.

Urban Birds is in three movements, performed attacca:

1. Sylviid Babblers. This movement features the extended songs of the blackcap, with answers from related species known collectively as Sylviid Babblers, as well as from the pianos and a single crotale.

2. Skylark Loops. A looped fragment of the skylark's song is transcribed, manipulated and repeated with percussive contributions from stopped piano strings and woodblock.

3. Cuculus-cornuta. Cuckoo calls dominate this movement, punctuated by the guiro, until rogue elements are introduced in the form of an extended passage for pre-programmed Disklavier and the call of a very different bird: the South American Horned Screamer.

English

Urban Birds by Sierra, A., From (2022/2022), South Bank Centre, London, United Kingdom

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Programme, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues