Britten Pears Arts Competitors

The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and the heart of London’s cultural life. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day. Occupying a prominent riverside location that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames, our site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to six Resident Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Orchestra).

The Barbican is a multi-arts, learning, and conference centre in the City of London. We’re a catalyst for creativity, sparking possibilities for artists, audiences, and communities. We’re passionate about showcasing the most exciting art from around the world, pushing traditional artistic boundaries and helping us understand our lives in new and unexpected ways. Each year we present hundreds of different performances, events and exhibitions that entertain and inspire millions of people, create connections, provoke debate, and reflect the world we live in. Central to our purpose is supporting emerging talent, shaping opportunities that will accelerate the next generation of creatives. Opened in 1982, the Barbican is a unique and audacious building, recognised globally as an architectural icon. As well as our theatres, galleries, concert halls and cinemas, we are home to a large conservatory with over 1,500 species of plants and trees, a library, conference facilities, public and community spaces, restaurants, bars, and a picturesque lakeside oasis. Focussed firmly on the future, we’re working on ambitious plans to transform our building, reimaging what an arts centre can be and doing our part to address the climate crisis. Through our work on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, we will ensure the Barbican becomes a place where everyone belongs – where creativity, enterprise, and learning coexist, and everybody can achieve their fullest potential.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), with Music Director Vasily Petrenko, is on a mission to bring the thrill of live orchestral music to the widest possible audience. The RPO’s musicians believe that music can – and should – be a part of everyone’s life, and they aim to deliver on that belief through every note. Based in London and performing around 200 concerts per year worldwide, the RPO brings the same energy, commitment and excellence to everything it plays, be that the great symphonic repertoire, collaborations with pop stars, or TV, video game and movie soundtracks. Proud of its rich heritage yet always evolving, the RPO is regarded as the world’s most versatile symphony orchestra, reaching a live and online audience of more than 70 million people each year. Live performance has always been at the heart of what the RPO does, and through its thriving artistic partnership with Vasily Petrenko, the RPO has reaffirmed its status as one of the world’s most respected and in-demand orchestras. In London, that means flagship concert series at Cadogan Hall, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and the iconic Royal Albert Hall, where the RPO is proud to be Associate Orchestra. The Orchestra is also thrilled to be resident in four areas of the UK: Crawley, Hull, Northampton and Reading. And around the world, the RPO flies the flag for the best of British music-making. The RPO remains true to its pioneering, accessible roots. Now in its fourth decade, the RPO Resound community and education programme continues to thrive as one of the UK’s – and the world’s – most innovative and respected initiatives of its kind. Passionate, versatile and uncompromising in its pursuit of musical excellence, the Orchestra looks to the future with a determination to explore, to share and to reaffirm its reputation as an orchestra with a difference: open-minded, forward-thinking and accessible to all.