LONDON.- The Southbank Centre and its partners announced additional digital initiatives to serve its audiences and the wider artistic community, including Shankar 100, Beethoven 250, a digital tour of Among The Trees exhibition at Hayward Gallery, and daily curated content celebrating past artistic highlights crossing decades and genres. Grace Jones’ Meltdown will now take place in June 2021, with Grace Jones and every act confirmed to play the new dates, 11-20 June.

Cross-artform digital content highlights

Shankar 100
On Tuesday 7 April, the Southbank Centre celebrates the legacy of the seminal Indian musician, composer, educator and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar across its digital channels on the centenary of his birthday as part of Shankar 100. Audiences are invited to tune into the Southbank Centre’s socials to get involved, with content including exclusive video and curated playlists and original articles.The Ravi Shankar Centenary concert which was set to take place on 7 April as part of the season will now take place a year later on Thursday 8 April 2021 with guest artists to be confirmed, alongside a celebratory programme of free public events, workshops and an archive exhibition, also rescheduled to take place in April 2021.

YouTube Premieres Presents Ein Heldenleben with Vasily Petrenko
On Wednesday 8 April (4pm), the Southbank Centre and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) team up with Google Arts & Culture and YouTube to bring audiences the online premiere of Ein Heldenleben conducted by Music Director Designate, Vasily Petrenko. Depicting the story of a hero grappling with life’s adversities, this epic orchestral work - one of Strauss’ signature masterpieces - acts as a fitting metaphor for the challenges faced by today’s global community. The first in a two-part series from the RPO, the performance of Ein Heldenleben was recorded live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in June 2019.

Beyond Beethoven Nine
On Saturday 18 April, the Southbank Centre hosts a one-day digital event to mark Beethoven 250 celebrations. Fronted by conductor Marin Alsop, this activity comes in place of Beyond Beethoven Nine, a mass participation project which was due to take place at the Royal Festival Hall between 16-18 April. Alongside a ‘socially-distanced orchestra’ led by National Youth Orchestra, readings, blogs, lectures, videos, playlists from leading cultural figures will open up the world of Beethoven to audiences online. The day centres his totemic Ninth symphony and explores how its message of unification through art can be viewed afresh, bringing a sense of hope and optimism to today’s current crisis.

TS Eliot prize-nominated British-born Cypriot poet, Anthony Anaxagorou offers a digital reading of his poem ‘O Human’, originally commissioned as the new libretto for Beyond Beethoven Nine in place of Schiller’s famous An die Freude ‘Ode to Joy’ poem (sung as the climax to Beethoven’s symphony). Reflecting on what joy means to young people, the poem is a mosaic of words from almost 100 poems written by pupils from London secondary schools and young refugees who spent time workshopping with Anaxaogorou.

Elsewhere: Marin Alsop shares ‘insight videos’ delving beneath the score to offer a step-by-step tour through Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; Bengi Unsal, Head of Contemporary Music at the Southbank Centre, curates a bespoke playlist featuring tracks that are both inspired by and sample this great masterpiece; and broadcaster Tom Service and lecturer Laura Tunbridge offer their perspectives on the composer and his most cherished works.

From the 16-18 April, the Southbank Centre will amplify content from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, a key partner in Beyond Beethoven Nine. Announced today, the orchestra will be running its first-ever ‘Digital Residency’ to give their young musicians a virtual community and a chance to share uplifting music with those who need it most. On 16 April, BBC Radio 3 will be repeating their performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the 2013 BBC Proms. On 17th April at 5pm, NYO invites every musician in the UK to join in a national, live performance from their doorsteps. Playing as a ‘socially distanced orchestra’, they will share their own versions of ‘Ode to Joy’ inspired by the theme of community, bringing the gift of music to those nearby, from frontline NHS staff and key workers to isolated family members or friends struggling with loneliness.

David Wallace-Wells event to go online
In a newly re-formatted event which will be available online later in April, David Wallace-Wells will discuss links between the coronavirus pandemic and the climate chaos he outlines in his Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling book, The Uninhabitable Earth - in an online event on Penguin's digital channels. The event will be chaired by journalist Samira Ahmed and will include opportunities for the audience to ask questions. David was due to appear at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 8 April. Full details including the date of the new event will be published online in due course. The event is a partnership between Penguin, the Southbank Centre and Cambridge Literary Festival.

Newly commissioned poems on trees
Several newly commissioned poems inspired by the Hayward Gallery’s Among the Trees exhibition will be read and shared digitally on World Earth Day, 22 April.

Elaine Bedell, Chief Executive of the Southbank Centre, said: “It’s with great sadness that we’re having to close our venues for a longer period of time. To play our part in stopping the spread of the virus, we’ve cancelled or postponed all our events up to Tuesday 30 June. Beyond this date, we will continue to follow government advice and our plan is to re-open the Southbank Centre when it is safe to do so.

We’re in regular contact with the DCMS, Arts Council England and Public Health England as they monitor the rapidly changing situation. As a charity, being closed presents a massive financial challenge for us and for those we work with. We intend to do everything we can to safeguard our future and will take advantage of the Government furloughing scheme as well as submitting a bid to access additional Arts Council England funds from the £90m made available to national portfolio organisations.