If your NewYear’s resolution was“Out with the Old, In from the Cold”, let us help you break the ice and turn up the heat with our winning winter warmers.
1. Musical Moments With hundreds of dedicated live music venues, it’s no wonder music lovers think of Britain as Music Heaven. When it comes to classical, jazz, rock, country, world or fusion, this may be a small island, but it’s one with a vast and vibrant music scene.
Whilst few would call it beautiful, London’s Barbican Centre boasts a fair share of excellent music spaces and ushers in the New Year with a glorious glut of world class orchestras, bands, choirs and solo artists. For readers not yet familiar, the Barbican is a 35-acre art, culture and residential complex in the heart of London’s financial district, built over an area left devastated by World War II bombs. It’s now home to the London and BBC Symphony Orchestras, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Museum of London, Royal Shakespeare Company and includes concert halls, cinemas, a theatre, and a major art gallery as well as shops, pubs and restaurants, several hundred luxury apartments, magical roof gardens, a manmade lake with fountains and possibly the best public library in the UK.
For its inaugural 2016 season, the Barbican warmly welcomes top musical Americans to Britain with another in its unique series of international residencies. February sees celebrated soprano Renee Fleming take her turn in the Artist Spotlight, with exceptional masterclasses, recitals and performances of works composed especially for “America’s reigning diva”. Next to arrive will be the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, bringing the legendary Wynton Marsalis to British shores for a residency of superb concerts and educational events, including a jazz creative learning day and the European premiere of “Our Love is Here to Stay-- The George Gershwin Songbook”. March winds blow in the gorgeous and inspirational Gustavo Dudamel, one of the world’s most exciting conductors, for a residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Their programme features a concert of great American music north and south, plus an orchestra of young musicians from East London and Los Angeles which is sure to be a transatlantic triumph.
Just as we were going to press, we received some very special news about an extraordinary UK musical event coming this spring to a music 
arena near you. The Sessions will be a live re-staging of the Beatles at Abbey Road Studios and will tour 11 UK venues after its sold-out world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall. Described as “part blockbuster stage show, part access-all-areas musical documentary”, The Sessions is set in a state- of-the-art reproduction of the Beatles’ famed Studios. The event promises breathtaking, musically spectacular new live renditions of those timeless albums recorded by the Beatles at Abbey Road, and will take you on a thrilling, historically authentic voyage through music history. Whether you were lucky enough to see John, Paul, George and Ringo first time round as a screaming teenager, or missed them because you weren’t yet born, this amazing gig sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime.
Finally, if you have an insatiable appetite for quality music but need to keep costs down in the post-festive period, we have good news for you: there’s lots of fabulous live music to enjoy for free. There are concerts in atmospheric and acoustically brilliant churches every day of the year; our favourites include St James Piccadilly, St Martin in the Fields and St Albans Cathedral. Sample some Friday evening music at the Southbank Centre, live jazz with breathtaking views of London’s skyline each evening at the Oxo Tower Brasserie, and nightly blues and soul at Ain’t Nothing but the Blues Bar in Soho. And we highly recommend the lunchtime concerts by students and graduates at the Royal College of Music and Free on Fridays at the Royal Academy of Music, a chance to hear top artists of the future perform in the inspiring environs of the Academy’s Duke’s Hall, with its wall to wall portraits and sumptuous organ funded by former student Sir Elton John.
Further information: www.barbican.org.uk www.thesessionslive.com
Image: The Beatles are Back, Live! The Sessions tours the UK, photo credit StuFish, courtesy Borkowski Arts & Entertainment
Article by Judith Schrut. Email Judith at judith0777@gmail.com
