Music at the centre of new season at The Gulbenkian, Canterbury
Arts Centre’s new programme has a strong focus on music in 2023 and 2024
Gulbenkian Art Centre (@thegulbenkian) will continue to enhance its growing reputation since the arrival of artistic director David Sefton in 2021 with the announcement of a new programme packed with amazing shows.
The live music programme is indicative of the kind of musical diversity that David Sefton is renowned for, having formed the Meltdown Festival at Southbank Centre in 1981. Performances range from rave and prog extra-terrestrials Henge to Dr Feelgood and ‘Wild’ Billy Childish, and from Soft Machine to Brodsky Quartet, Ashley Wass and Nouvelle Vague.
“Music is my background; it was always intended that there would be a very wide mix and a wide offering of music,” says David. “Hence also taking on Colyer-Fergusson as one of the programming spaces. And I feel again that the range of music now couldn’t get much wider, and especially going into the cathedral with Gavin Bryars [Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet], but also putting Henge on in the Colyer-Fergusson and bands like Dr Feelgood and Nouvelle Vague.”
The season kicks off with Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass (September 30th), a leftfield amalgamation of Calgary brass band playing acid house covers that Sefto first heard at the South Bank Centre 25 years ago.
At the heart of the programme is an impressive roster of Associate Artists Scheme that has been developing across the past two years.
“It’s an idea to deepen the relationship with artists coming through, rather than just booking one show and seeing them go. And we’ve got some really big hitters,” he says.
For the first time, members of the legendary Castellucci family are being brought together by a venue. Under the umbrella of Societas (formerly Societas Raffaello Sanzio) they will present a unique series of presentations over the coming seasons.
“The fact that a company like Improbable is now on that list, who just did My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican, which broke box-office records, is really exciting,” says David.
“Also a choreographer like Julia Chang, who just choreographed Cabaret in the West End but is a genuinely innovative street dance choreographer coming out of a whole new world, is coming.”
Renowned Kent-based theatre company 1927 will present the UK premiere of Please Right Back - part social realism, part science fiction, with a healthy dose of the company’s classic dystopian mischief.
“There’s also someone like Matthew Herbert, who has internationally renowned music but is based just down the road,” says David. “Matthew will create three completely new things for us over the course of a year.
“That mix of local yet successful acts is really appealing. So it’s about being able to deepen that relationship so they’ll come in, and in some cases, such as Julia Chang’s, make the show with us. There’ll be opportunities for interaction for students.”
Utilising the larger space of the Colyer-Fergusson building, the push on live music this year is evident.
“There are lots of reasons. It’s an area that when we did it in the past, you could see there was an audience, there was interest,” says David. “There are not many venues of comparable size in the area - we’re very well placed to be able to pick up quite big names on their way into or out of London. There’s a tonne of interesting stuff to put on. So both from the point of view of the audience and me as a programmer, it’s a very, very rich field.”
