News

Blending virtual and live events, our latest season offers audiences the chance to encounter dance, music and musical theatre in innovative ways.

This summer we are continuing to create performance opportunities for students from across our faculties through a diverse mix of digital and in-person events that showcase the talent of our community.

The season includes fully-staged productions, the return of our annual keyboard festival, exciting collaborations with international choreographers, and multiple digital premieres on our YouTube channel and across social media platforms.

DANCE

The Laban Theatre will play host to several performances this summer, showcasing our contemporary dance students from across our undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts.

Our flagship postgraduate dance company Transitions embarks on its annual UK tour with a programme of 3 New Works choreographed by Dog Kennel Hill Project, Didy Veldman and Rahel Vonmoos. The company will present homecoming performances (3 – 5 June, Laban Theatre) and are set to release a film premiere of the triple bill in July.

The Repertory Project sees second year undergraduate students recreate contemporary dance works by Tony Thatcher, Daniel Squire, Ali Curtis Jones and Sara Wookey across four evenings (15 – 18 June, Laban Theatre).

Final year undergraduate students will work with Matthew Harding, Artistic Director of Urban Interface Dance UK, and South Asian dance practitioner Divya Kasturi, as well as TL’s own Charles Linehan and Stephanie Schober, for Commissioned Works (6 – 9 July, Laban Theatre).

Later in the season, our annual Graduate Showcase returns to Laban Theatre and Laurie Grove, and our BA1 Performance Project, Dance Diploma students and CAT Programme take to the stage. More details to follow.

MUSICAL THEATRE

In May, our final-year Musical Theatre students present two shows at The Albany in Deptford.

Based on Louisa May Alcott’s much-loved classic novel, Little Women (18 & 21 May) focuses on the four March sisters and their beloved Marmee. Intercut with a series of vignettes in which their Massachusetts lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories aspiring writer Jo pens in her attic studio.

Tony Award-nominated, The Addams Family (26, 27 & 29 May) is a musical comedy with music and lyrcis by Andrew Lippa based on the infamously ghoulish American family created by cartoonist Charles Addams. The show depicts the machinations of an eclectic cast of gothic characters as they deal with their relationships, old and new.

Both shows will have socially distanced live audiences and be livestreamed. Further information on tickets is available on The Albany website.

In June, our second-year Musical Theatre students present Half A Sixpence at Blackheath Halls (14 – 19 June). The show follows Arthur Kipps, an orphan who unexpectedly inherits a fortune, and climbs the social ladder before losing everything and realizing that you just can’t buy happiness.

MUSIC

Curated by Douglas Finch, the New Lights Piano Festival has earned a reputation for showcasing a diverse range of composed and improvised contemporary music for keyboard, electronic and avant-garde instruments. This year, audiences can enjoy a mix of pre-recorded events from across the globe and live evening concerts streamed from the Peacock Room, all available for free on TL YouTube (17 – 18 June).

Highlights include a live performance by the Helix Trio, Christos Fountos’s digital premiere of commissioned work by Canadian composer Rodney Sharman and the return of Yuka Takechi’s Winter Light / Ephemera for Piano performed by Yukiko Shinohara.

Catch Trinity Laban Brass Ensemble at Deal Festival 2021 (1 – 17 July), where they will premiere their pre-recorded digital performances of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor (arr P.White) and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (arr Howarth) conducted by Phil White.

Our postgraduate vocal students will be delighting live audiences with Rosina’s Lovers (30 June – 1 July), two outdoor concerts of operatic excerpts from John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versaille, Massenet’s Chérubin, Milhaud’s La mère coupable, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro performed in an around King Charles Court.

Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra returns to Blackheath Halls (24 June) for Brahms Symphony No. 2, under the baton of Austrian conductor and Music Director Designate of the Oregon Symphony, David Danzmayr.

The summer seasons also sees music students compete in two of TL’s most prestigious competitions. Following the success of last year’s digital iteration, the Daryl Runswick Competition returns to YouTube for 2021 with a film featuring the finalist’s works and adjudication (21 May).

Instrumentalists will compete at Blackheath Halls in May to win the coveted Soloists’ Competition, a prize that sees them play a concerto with the TLSO.

Other upcoming digital releases include performances by Trinity Laban Jazz Orchestra and Trinity Laban Chamber Choir. Catch The Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir’s live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (5 May).

Alongside our one-off events and digital release, we hope to resume our programme of weekly lunchtime concerts at the ORNC Chapel from 18 May and St Alfege, Greenwich from 20 May, and as well as a programme of lunchtime livestreams. More details coming soon, including the end of year performance from our Junior Trinity students in July.

Information regarding our events may change, subject to future social distancing measures and government guidelines.

We’ll be adding more to What’s On as details are confirmed. To keep up to date, please check our What’s On pages and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.