BARBICAN LIFE
T
Play on Barbicania
he previous issue of Barbican Life had something of an art (painting) theme and in this one we are switching to music with articles on the much-admired and loved Sir Colin Davis, the Principal Conductor for the Barbican-based London Symphony Orchestra for 11 years, who passed away in April, and on the new facilities in Milton Court for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Such is one of the pleasures of residing in a complex which also hosts what many describe as the world’s premier arts centre. My apologies to those who may not be interested in classical music and its performers, but in Sir Colin Davis we are remembering a remarkable man whose love of his work kept him performing almost right up to the end, despite illness and at an age at which many might find it difficult to set foot outside their home – and rehearsing and conducting an orchestra is an arduous task. Indeed he was originally scheduled to conduct two performances at the Barbican at about the time this magazine is due to come out – on the 16th and 18th June – and these will now be memorial concerts in his honour. They will be performed by the LSO and part of the programme will be by the combined orchestras of the students of the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for whom he devoted a considerable amount of time and expertise in his latter years. Meanwhile the Guildhall School’s much needed new facilities as part of the Heron residential tower, not always the most popular construction project with a number of Barbican residents, are nearing completion. In this issue, Gillian Laidlaw interviews the School’s Principal, Barry Ife, on behalf of the magazine, about the school’s activities and what the new facilities, which include a 650 seat concert hall and a theatre, will mean to it as it looks to the future. Indeed the Barbican Centre itself will also benefit in that it will be able to use the new Guildhall concert hall for smaller concerts that would, perhaps, not be able to fill the much larger Barbican Hall and is planning to hold around 40 concerts a year there. A good number of household names in the music and theatre/cinema arenas owe their start in their careers to the Guildhall School and the new concert hall, theatre, rehearsal rooms, office accommodation etc. can only serve to enhance the studying and practical aspects of their education for the next generation of musicians and actors who will no doubt include a number who will, like some of their predecessors, be destined for fame and fortune.
After the new concert hall is formally opened on September 26th, the Guildhall will be putting on a series of concerts featuring some of its best known musical alumni, two of which will take place in November this year, a third in February 2014 and a fourth in May. The first major formal concert in the new hall will be by the GSMD’s symphony orchestra on October 4th. So, as one era passes, another begins and no doubt Sir Colin’s conductor’s baton will be passed on in terms of disseminating experience, expertise and love of music to the next generation of students at the Guildhall School, in its new facilities, and the Royal Academy. The music always plays on.
Lawrence Williams 5
Lawrence Williams Editor
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