Helen Wallace to leave Kings Place for the Barbican

The Barbican and Kings Place Music Foundation have today announced that Helen Wallace will be leaving her role as artistic and executive director at Kings Place to take up the position of head of music at the Barbican Centre. Wallace will leave Kings Place at the end of January 2024 to take up her new role from February.

Having joined Kings Place in an advisory role in 2009, Wallace became director of programming in 2018 and was promoted to artistic and executive director in 2020. In her new role Wallace will oversee the Barbican Centre's Classical and Contemporary Music programme, working closely with resident orchestra the London Symphony Orchestra, and associate orchestras: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and Academy of Ancient Music.

Wallace said: ‘The Barbican is a place of soaring, international ambition and progressive thinking. It has given me, as an audience member, some of the most transformative music experiences of my life. I want to unlock those experiences for a wider audience across the whole of the Barbican’s venues. I’m passionate about breaking down hierarchies and giving space to a multiplicity of musical voices, including the audience’s own… Having engaged with a huge range of performers, ensembles, community partners and grass-roots organisations at Kings Place, I feel the time is right to work on a bigger stage. For me, creating the right conditions for people to discover music, and find its meaning and relevance to them, is a key mission: music has magical power.’ 

Having begun her career as a music journalist and editor with BBC Music Magazine, The Strad, The Times and BBC Radio 3 and 4. In her 14 years with Kings Place, Wallace has programmed the venue’s many Unwrapped festivals, as well as forming relationships with artistic partners including d&b audiotechnik who installed their immersive 360 Soundscape system at the venue, allowing artists to explore spatialised performance. She was given the ABO/Classical Music concert hall manager of the year award in 2020.

Kings Place founder executive chair Peter Millican OBE will now begin to work with the board of trustees and the team to find Wallace’s successor. He said: ‘[Wallace’s] legacy is a strong executive and programming team, soundly-established relationships with our artistic associates and an inspiring season in place for 2024… We all wish Helen well in her new role knowing that, with her creativity and experience, she will continue to raise the quality of music in London.’