For many music lovers, Britain is Music Heaven, with hundreds of venues, concerts and gigs to suit every taste or genre. Whether your favourite is rock, jazz, folk or classical; dub, doo-wop or death metal - or a sound so new it doesn’t have a name yet - the UK has a range of music unequalled anywhere on the planet.
2020 looks to be another exceptional British musical year. In late January, grab your cowboy ‘n gal boots, denims and Stetsons, and mosey on down to East London for the annual AmericanaUK Fest. Joan Armatrading will be honorary keynote speaker; the legendary Judy Collins and ‘Whispering Bob’ Harris will both be making special in-conversation appearances at the Fest. One brilliant value ticket will get you into 6 uber-hip Hackney spaces for two Showcase Nights, featuring 75 UK and international Americana artists and bands.
In April, it’s time for La Linea, the London Latin Music Festival. Venues across the capital will host a sumptuous Latin music feast, from global superstars to new talent. Top notes will be Brazilian bossa nova icon Bebel Gilberto supported by an all-women band, Femina, Portuguese fado from Sarah Carreia, seriously cool Tango beats from Argentina’s Melingo, and the UK debut of venerable Mexican jazz drummer Tino Contreras, now in his 90s. Early May ushers in Cheltenham Jazz Festival, bringing together international stars, up and coming newbies and lots of sound surprises under its very big jazz umbrella. The Festival’s artistic curator is our cherished friend, Gregory Porter (a previous American in Britain Magazine interviewee).
Few call it beautiful, many call it brutal; nonetheless the Barbican Centre boasts some brilliant music spaces and rings in 2020 with a glorious glut of world-class orchestras, bands, choirs and solo artists. In case you’re unfamiliar, the Barbican is a 35-acre art, culture and housing complex in London’s financial district, built over an area left devastated by World War II bombs. It’s home to the London and BBC Symphony Orchestras, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Museum of London and includes concert halls, cinemas, a theatre and a major art gallery as well as shops, restaurants, several hundred luxury apartments, magical roof gardens, a manmade lake and the best public library in the UK.
The Barbican Centre’s upcoming year is themed Inside Out, exploring the relationship between creativity and the inner life. Musical highlights include a year-long celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, with dozens of events, talks and performances, and two days devoted to Bach and his Beautiful Mind.
Every year the Barbican Centre warmly welcomes the cream of American musicians. The New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, soprano Joyce DiDonato and harpsichordist extraordinaire Mahan Esfahani will be visiting in 2020, as will the mighty Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for their annual residency, an invigorating series of concerts and the European premiere of Marsalis’ New York City-inspired symphony, the Jungle.
London’s Southbank Centre starts the musical year with gusto, offering plenty to stir the heart and warm the soul. It will mark Beethoven’s 250th birthday with 20 concerts by the world’s greatest artists and orchestras. We are particularly excited that the always- inspirational American Marin Allsop will be conducting Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with an amazing 350-person choir. You can also enjoy many musical premieres and artist debuts, movie screenings with a live orchestra, an international piano series, the annual EFG London Jazz Festival and Shankar 100, a fabulous programme honouring the late Indian composer, guru and sitar genius, Ravi Shankar, led by his illustrious daughters, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.
Further information:
theamauk.org/AmericanaFest-UK-2020
by Judith Schrut - Email: judith0777@gmail.com
- Image 1: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 2019; Photo by Frank Stewart
- Image 2: The joy of music at LaLinea, London's Latin Music Festival
