Bascule Chamber Concerts 2019

Following last year’s sell out concert series, composer/curator Iain Chambers brings new music and poetry to Tower Bridge’s huge Bascule Chamber. These unmissable, atmospheric concerts provide a unique way of experiencing one of Victorian engineering's greatest feats.

Lineup

This year’s concerts feature an amazing line up of renowned and upcoming performers. They will all be performing at each concert.

The world-renowned new music ensemble Apartment House performing with vocalist Elaine Mitchener, fresh from her acclaimed Jeanne Lee Project.

Together they’ll give the European premiere of Charles Mingus’s String Quartet No. 1 – never heard anywhere since its first performance in New York in 1972. Discovered by Apartment House director Anton Lukoszevieze, it features poetry by Frank O’Hara, and was never recorded. It survives only in manuscript form.

Apartment House and Elaine Mitchener also perform recently unearthed music by the iconic American composer Julius Eastman, who died in 1990 aged only 49. A Grammy-nominated performer, Eastman's bravura piano and vocal recitals at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center built his reputation. But much of his music disappeared with him, with surviving works often pieced together from archive recordings.

In the bridge's huge Accumulator Chamber, there's a work by Fluxus artist Ben Patterson for Voice and Solo String Instrument from 1961.

Alex Ho’s new commission for solo percussion, performed by Fiona Foo Pui-Yee, uses ‘found objects’ from the Thames itself.

There's new music for string quartet and electronics - performed by Apartment House - by composers Julius Aglinskas, Iain Chambers and Egidija Medekšaitė makes use of the atmospheric acoustic of the huge, brick-lined Bascule Chamber.

Birdspeed's new poetry commission explores the black Tudors, using the Thames as a starting point, repositioning black history into stories it's been excluded from. These are tales of exploration and the exchange of wealth and knowledge.

Art Historian Dan Cruickshank gives an exclusive talk about the architecture and surrounding history of Tower Bridge, and there are personalised guided tours of the bridge, culminating in the concerts inside the cavernous South Bascule Chamber.

Essential information

• Please note performances are subject to change up to 24 hours before due to the working nature of Tower Bridge
• Tickets are non-refundable
• The venue is reached by 120 stairs and so is inaccessible
• There is no toilet in the venue
• You must bring ID with you to the performance. Please note Under 14s are not allowed, and Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.
• No photography is allowed during the performance
• Ensure you have read the full terms & conditions below before booking

Lighting Designer: Ulf Pedersen

The Bascule Chambers Concerts are supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and by PRS for Music Foundation and the Lithuanian Culture Institute.