Kings Place advocates for the planet in 2025 series

London arts venue Kings Place has today revealed the first wave of events for its year-long 2025 series Earth Unwrapped. The series, which explores our relationship with the natural world will feature artists in residence singer-songwriter Sam Lee, composer and producer Gazelle Twin and sound artist Jason Singh.

The Sacconi Quartet and Festival Voices open the season on 16 January with the first London performance of Terry Riley’s Sun Rings in over 20 years, celebrating Riley’s 90^th birthday in 2025. The Ligeti Quartet also celebrate Riley with a performance of his work Cadenza on the Night Plain and the premiere of a new arrangement of Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, using Kings Place’s immersive d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system.

Artistic director Sam McShane, who presentes her first Unwrapped series since joining Kings Place in May, said: ‘Connecting with the earth and nature is critical for our wellbeing, especially in this digital age. The arts have always played an important role in communicating complex social challenges and we are so very lucky to have some of the world’s finest and passionate artists to tell important narratives surrounding our everyday life on Earth. Throughout this year, we invite our audiences to come together, join our community to listen, learn and be inspired.’

Premieres in the upcoming season include vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices’s performance of a new Kings Place commission work by Julia Wolfe, and Erland Cooper presents the world premiere of his new work The Peregrine, inspired by J.A. Baker’s book of the same name. Cellist Nicholas Altstaedt and the Carice Singers present premieres from Raquel García-Tomas and Josephine Stephenson, alongside music from Galina Grigorjeva and JS Bach.

Violinist Daniel Pioro will join forces with the Manchester Camerata (where Sam McShane held the role of creative director) for a new interpretation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, featuring newly commissioned poetry by Sir Michael Morpurgo read by Stephen Fry. The concert will also feature a performance of Caroline Shaw’s The Evergreen, which will feature on a new release on Apple’s Platoon label, with whom Kings Place also embarks on a new partnership in 2025.

Full details of the upcoming season, which also features Aurora Orchestra, BBC Singers, Voces 8, Alice Coote, Mary Bevan, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Juliet Fraser, the Piatti Quartet, the Carducci Quartet, and the Solem Quartet can be found here. Tickets for the first wave of Earth Unwrapped events go on general sale tomorrow (11 October) and further events will be announced in due course.