Manchester Collective and Multi Story Orchestra team up with Southbank Centre for 2021/2022

It seems utterly incredible to be even considering a 2021/2022 season.

On Saturday I heard a friend and also a colleague worry about the possibility that there would be some kind of stipulation placed on the 19th July easing of restrictions. Like them, I look on the new Health Secretary’s promises with a degree of optimism. The 19th July like 21 June seems like such an arbritary date, based not on the prevalence of transmissable virus, rather the total number of those vaccinated. Whose to say that date won’t move?

Still. September 2021 seems long enough away to imagine of non-socially distanced audiences, an open members bar, and casual non-directed toing and froing in the Festival Hall foyer. Maybe. Just maybe. It might just happen. Just beyond the summer.

The Southbank Centre are previewing their forthcoming non-distanced season with some impressive new partnerships too. The Multi-Storey Orchestra now move from Peckham to Waterloo. I’m also really pleased to see Manchester Collective having secured a place in the Southbank Centre’s ongoing line-up. A good programming match.

Edward Gardner and Santtu-Matias Rouvali have their first appearances in their respective roles as Principal Conductors of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra in September. Karina Canellakis debuts in her new titled position as Principal Guest Conductor of the LPO and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra comes with five special projects in partnership with the Southbank Centre under their new Music Director Vasily Petrenko.

And there’s the promise of the New Music Biennial in 2022 too.

BBC Radio 3 will be in residence for the opening week, and will broadcast Tippett’s rarely-performed The Midsummer Marriage;

Manchester Collective will appear at the Purcell Room (2 Oct & 3 Dec) and Queen Elizabeth Hall (24 Apr & 14 May) showcasing artists including Hannah Peel, Lyra Pramuk, Vessel and Abel Selaocoe.