Nitin Sawhney World Premiere Opens London International Festival of Early Music

The 49th London International Festival of Early Music (LIFEM) will welcome audiences and visitors to Blackheath venues in London from 9 - 12 November 2022. This year's Opening Concert will include the world premiere of 'Early Transitions', a work specially commissioned by the Festival from Nitin Sawhney for The Brook Street Band.

Nitin Sawhney says: "I'm very excited and honoured to be composing for the wonderful Brook Street Band, exploring connections between Eastern and Western classical ideas with particular reference to my love of Baroque music, Indian classical raga and mathematical interactions through the taal system, phrasing and diatonic expansion."

Tatty Theo, cellist and director of The Brook Street Band, adds: "We're tremendously excited to have the opportunity to work with Nitin Sawhney and premiere his new commission. We're huge fans of his music, and relish the challenge of working on contemporary repertoire, exploring two different musical traditions. This gives us an opportunity to look at some of our favourite baroque works in a new light, using the idea of dark night, the keys and musical colours associated with it in both Western and Indian classical music, and the subsequent restorative dawn as our starting point."

Other highlights include the UK debut of Spain's Taracea, renowned for melding early music with a contemporary focus, the return of international cohort of singers and musicians Solomon's Knot, the first full concert from renaissance repertoire masters Piva, and a recital from Switzerland's Charlotte Schneider, winner of the 2021 SRP/Moeck Solo Recorder Competition.

At the heart of the festival is the annual three-day Exhibition at which instrument makers from around the world share their skills, knowledge and wares. As well as exploring a mind-boggling array of crumhorns, shawms, lutes, viols, fiddles, sackbuts, trumpets, rebecs, harps, hurdy-gurdies, drums, bagpipes, harpsichords, and more, visitors can attend makers' demonstrations, lectures and special workshops.

Three finalists, Ensemble Pampinea, La Rondinella and the Tufnell Trio will compete in the 3rd biennial Early Music Young Ensemble Competition. This year's judges are Laurence Cummings (Academy of Ancient Music), Tatty Theo (The Brook Street Band) and Belén Nieto Galán (Taracea).

Performers' Platforms provide groups of young players the opportunity to showcase their talents to the early music community. This year, players from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Chetam's School of Music, Royal Academy of Music and the Purcell School, will present 45-minute programmes of early music each day of the Festival.

Following the success of last year's inaugural Festival Evensong, there will again be a special service, directed by Thomas Allery, with organist William Whitehead and The Festival Choir.

The Festival continues its media partnership with leading arts and culture streaming platform, Marquee Arts. All concerts will be filmed and made available after the festival via Marquee's platform.

Chris Butler, Festival Director, says: "After the Covid-related challenges of the last two years we are thrilled and relieved to be presenting LIFEM at full tilt in 2022. This year's concert line-up is as exciting as any that I can recall in recent years, and by every measure the range and diversity of all of our events is a cause for excitement and celebration. As a team we are looking forward to welcoming an international array of performers, exhibitors and enthusiasts to Blackheath in November."

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