New Year New Artists
Friday 27th & Saturday 28th January
This January, Sage Gateshead will showcase the stars of the future in a two day festival of exciting new music. Across two eclectic days, New Year New Artists brings together rising stars from across the contemporary and classical music spectrum in one diverse showcase event. The festival is an opportunity to open your ears, support the artists of tomorrow and to say that you saw them here first.
The Festival is produced by Sage Gateshead in association with NARC magazine and partners including the European Concert Hall Organisation Network and PRS for Music Foundation.
The festival opens with two concerts on Friday night. In Sage Two Newcastle-based singer-songwriter and pianist Ditte Elly will perform alongside a 10-piece orchestra and choir. She will explore the history, myth and beauty of the North East through her new work; The North Sea Project. The work is a collection of songs specific to the North East, combining masterful song-writing with tales of the Viking invasion, the siege of Newcastle and shipwrecks at Tynemouth. Support comes from Newcastle singer-songwriter Jake Houlsby. Jake’s haunting soundscapes and playing style has seen him perform with artists like Gaz Coombes, The Lone Bellow and Paper Aeroplanes.
In Sage One, Royal Northern Sinfonia are joined by three classical stars of tomorrow. Hand-selected by Music Director Lars Vogt, Danae Dörken (piano), Asya Fateyeva (saxophone) and Gabriel Schwabe (cello), will be performing Mozart’s ever-popular Piano Concerto No.21 ‘Elvira Madigan’, Glazunov’s evocative Saxophone Concerto and Schumann’s Cello Concerto. Adding to this platform for young talent conducted by Lars Vogt, the Orchestra will also perform three pieces of new music, not previously heard at Sage Gateshead.
Saturday afternoon brings a diverse range of artists to Sage Two and Northern Rock Foundation Hall. One ticket price allows entry to all seven performances a great opportunity to try something new and listen to music from a range of genres including folk, jazz and classical. The four young classical artists have been selected by the leading concert halls in Europe from the European Concert Hall Organisation network.
Viennese Pianist Christopher Park, an exclusive recording artist of the renowned Deutsche Grammophon label, kicks off the afternoon performances with piano highlights by Bach and Brahms, plus a specially commissioned piece by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth.
Next up for the Saturday afternoon is Sky Arts award-winning sitarist, Jasdeep Singh Degun who combines a passion and dedication to the classical tradition with contemporary ensemble work, including BBC 2’s Goldie’s band and Shri Sirinam’s Just A Vibration. He was recently awarded the Yuva Sangeet Ratna Musician of the Year at the National Indian Arts Awards 2016. Jasdeep has worked with the likes of Guy Chambers, Cerys Matthews, Melanie C and Vangelis.
Horácio Ferreira from Portugal started playing the clarinet at the age of 8 and has emerged as one of the most talented clarinettists of his generation. A winner at the Debussy International Clarinet Competition in Paris, he will perform pieces by Debussy, Martinů, and a specially commissioned piece by Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola, before closing with Sarasate’s virtuoso Carmen Fantasy.
Winners of the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, Talisk are one of the fastest rising and energetic bands on the British folk scene. Mohsen Amini (concertina), Hayley Keenan (fiddle) and Craig Irving (guitar) create a dynamic sound that has earned them multiple award wins. Most recently, Amini was crowned the 2016 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year.
Georgian pianist Mariam Batashvili won first prize at the 10th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht in 2014 (the first woman to receive the prize), as well as the prestigious Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli award in 2015. She will play works by Bach, and Busoni as well as Liszt’s towering B minor sonata. A performance not to be missed.
European Young Jazz Artist of the Year award winner Elliot Galvin’s star continues to ascend. A superbly gifted composer and pianist, his disparate world of influences has seen him compared to Django Bates. The Elliot Galvin Trio draw on a wide range of influences from Keith Jarrett to Stravinsky, Ligetti, Deerhof and the Beatles as well as the films of David Lynch, the Dada movement and the literature of James Joyce.
London-born Tamsin Waley-Cohen is one of the most exciting British violinists of the next generation, who will be playing works by Debussy, and Knussen, as well as Elgar’s violin sonata. In addition to concerts with the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and BBC orchestras, Tamsin has been associate artist with the Orchestra of the Swan. The evening session is contemporary triple bill of three exciting emerging artists from alt-country/soul to electronic art-pop.
Amythyst Kiah is a Southern Gothic, alt-country blues singer/songwriter from Tennessee and made her North East debut at SummerTyne Americana Festival 2016. She draws heavily on Old Time music including the Mississippi Sheiks, Son House, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, and is inspired by RnB and country music from the 50s to the 70s. She also draws heavily from contemporary artists such as Adele, Florence and the Machine, Radiohead and Megan Jean and the KFB.
Glasgow-based duo and BBC Introducing act, Amandah Wilkinson and ex Dananananaykroyd Baillie Jnr, Bossy Love aren’t your typical RnB/pop pair and, live, they are a force to be reckoned with. Lauded by critics as ‘one to watch’ after their self released tracks Sweat It Out and Body last year. The powerful debut single that followed, Want Some treated listeners to a dose of ‘tropical R&B’ meets hard hip hop beats.
Anna Meredith is a composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music. Her sound is frequently described as ‘uncategorisable’ and ‘genre-defying’ and straddles the different worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, electronica and experimental rock. Her music has been performed everywhere from the BBC Last Night of the Proms to Prada & Fendi fashion campaigns, numerous films and documentaries and broadcast on radio. Her debut album, Varmints received huge critical acclaim including Pitchfork’s coveted Best New Music. Varmints won the 2016 Scottish Album of the Year (SAYAward).
New Year New Artists is all about excellence and new music and is a real chance to open your ears to something different so bookers are urged to take advantage of the Saturday pass, a combined day and evening ticket, which gives access to all performances for a discounted price.
To book tickets please go to sagegateshead.com or visit Sage Gateshead Ticket Office either in person (open from 12noon) or by calling 0191 443 4661.
The festival is produced by Sage Gateshead in association with NARC. Magazine.
