Things we're doing
A selection of projects that are currently live or in development:
Messiaen Festival
In the 100 year anniversary of Messiaen's birth we are celebrating his work by staging one of the biggest festivals of his music anywhere in the world. Throughout the year there are many concerts and events happening, here at Southbank Centre and in venues across London. Visit the website www.southbankcentre.co.uk/messiaen for full events listings, as well as a special Explore section with projects, opinions, sounds, images and videos to learn more about this unique artist, his music and his inspirations. Upload your own idea and opinions on Messiaen and the events in the festival there as well. Come back and check out Explore as it keeps growing throughout the year.
Messiaen was a very interesting man
During the Second World War Messiaen was a prisoner of war but composed a wonderful piece of music called Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time") which was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners to an audience of inmates and prison guards. We are working with local schools to explore this piece of music further using music, sound and animation to respond to it. Come back to the Explore section in the summer to see these films.
Messiaen experienced music as colours
He had a form of synaesthesia, which is a confusion of our senses - other people might taste sound or sense a shape when they eat. For Messiaen the act of composing was perhaps like painting in sound and he used combinations of colours in his compositions. As part of the Festival musicians have worked with artists to explore this idea further and you can find images and music from their work by using the Tag Cloud on our website. Click on the words "colour" or "synaesthesia" in the Tag Cloud for their work.
He used birdsong in lots of his music
Messiaen collected the songs of thousands of birds throughout France and the world and he wrote down, or transcribed, their song into musical notes and used them when he composed. We have been listening to birdsong and birds within many of our projects and are creating a flock of origami birds at the website. You can upload pictures of your origami birds easily in the Explore section.
Can you tell us anything else about Messiaen? Have you heard his music performed? What did it sound like? Visit us at the Explore section and let us know!
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/messiaen
Operation Soapbox
The interactive website for Operation Soapbox is now live - if you are a participating group or if you'd like to find out more about the project, you can logon at www.southbankcentre.co.uk/soapbox
What do young people from across Britain want to say to the world? As participants in a giant national conversation what questions would they ask? What messages would they send? And how could those ideas be explored and articulated other than through words?
Inspired by those questions, Southbank Centre is inviting schools and youth groups from around the UK to be part of Operation Soapbox, a national project to explore how we express ourselves and how new ideas form.
Using the medium of the soapbox - the traditional vehicle for independent expression - young people nationwide are asked to join a creative experiment with each other and with the public. Participating schools or classes receive a Soapbox Satellite - an ordinary looking box containing an extraordinary question or idea - as a catalyst for a year of exploration. What they do with the box and its cargo is up to them. All we ask is that they use it as a springboard for their own conversations, ideas and experiments. And that they send back their 'findings', in one form or another, by Summer 2008.
For more details about the project or to register your interest as a participating school or group, please call 020 7921 0871 or email soapbox@southbankcentre.co.uk
(A Southbank Centre project, in collaboration with AOC)
Love the Festival Hall
Memories Delivered Daily
Southbank Centre has launched a nationwide call for memories of the Royal Festival Hall, with the support of Age Exchange and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Was it a musical event, a turn across the largest ballroom floor in London or a visit to the Festival of Britain that secured your affection for the Royal Festival Hall? Perhaps it was someone you met here, a childhood visit or simply the building itself. Do you have a memorable moment or special story of the Royal Festival Hall?
Why not share it and be part of our archive of memories, which will launch when we open our doors again in the summer of 2007. Share your story and be part of a living archive – a people’s history - a celebration of over 50 years of priceless memories and unforgettable moments.
Visit lovethefestivalhall.org.uk to learn more about the project and entrust your memory to the archive. Thank you.
Takacs Quartet
As part of their residency at Southbank Centre, the Takacs Quartet are engaged in a two year education project involving students from Stoke Newington School, Hackney, and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
This project is linked into our commissioning of James MacMillan to write a quartet for the Takacs, to be premiered in May 2008. Students will have the opportunity to learn more about major works in the string quartet repertoire, as well as learning about the process of music composition.
To keep in touch with this and more Learning & Participation at Southbank Centre, register your details so that we can send you updates.
