Young woman wearing sunglasses and a light blue t-shirt

Intern Insights: Meet the Intern & Autumn 2024 Playlist

Get to know our new Concert Promotions intern and check out her top picks this season!

July 18, 2024

Hey there, my name’s Megan and I’ll be the Concert Promotions intern for this summer! I’m really excited to have this amazing opportunity to work at Turner Sims!

I’ve just finished second year doing music at the University of Southampton. I’m a lover of all things music: I’ve composed music for a variety of different instruments, and I’ve played in many ensembles such as classical orchestras and rock, folk and jazz bands as a flute and sax player. Since coming to Southampton, I’ve really enjoyed the vibrant music scene the city has, and I feel that I’ve discovered so many new kinds of music since coming here!

One venue that I’ve spent a lot of time in is, of course, Turner Sims! I’ve always been a fan of the lunchtime concert series and seeing the variety of different artists that perform there. I’ve also had the amazing opportunity to both perform and watch my course-mates and friends perform at Turner Sims. I decided to take on this internship because I love the venue and I believe that marketing is extremely important for musicians. I want to make sure that, during my internship, I can encourage as many people as possible to come to Turner Sims and enjoy what the venue has to offer! I’m extremely grateful to the team for giving me this great opportunity and I’m excited for what’s to come!

I’ve created a playlist for the upcoming autumn season with all my favourite tracks that I’ve discovered from artists in our upcoming season at Turner Sims. What better way to get a taste of the season then to listen to some of the tunes yourself?

Check out our Autumn 2024 season brochure here.

Courtney Pine – Tico Tico

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To start us off, we have a tune from the legendary saxophonist Courtney Pine. His multi-cultural album is full of groove, energy and virtuosic soloing. For this track, Pine takes the theme from Tico-Tico no Fubá by Brazilian composer Zequinha de Abreu and adds his own jazz spin on it with sporadically fast soprano sax melodies and soloing alongside a beat that never lets up.

N’famady Kouyaté – Balafô Douma

One of my favourites from the playlist, N’famady Kouyaté’s earworm Balafô Douma seamlessly incorporates both Mandingue African and funk music. The combination of the balafon – a traditional wooden xylophone that Kouyaté’s plays, and horns creates an interesting blend of sounds. The improv sections in this track are particularly enjoyable, with the interwoven saxophone and trumpet melodies mashing well together, and the beginning of the guitar solo being particularly satisfying.
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N'famady Kouyaté - Balafô Douma (Official Music Video)

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble – Bouyancy Theory

The combination of quirky sounds from analogue synths and orchestral recordings from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales create a unique tune. Like the name suggests, the song has a floaty and lively quality to it, with moments of urgency and tension.

Angeline Morrison – Go Home

‘Of all The Sorrow Songs, this is the only one that is not specifically rooted in a particular time, place or individual’s story.  This song is for all the people who have ever been made to feel unwelcome in the place they have chosen to call home.’ Angeline Morrison

The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience is an amazing album that turns the (previously) unsung stories of black ancestors living in the UK into traditional folk songs. Angeline Morrison’s deeply beautiful voice combined with the melancholic, brooding tone of this song portrays both past and current experiences of prejudice.

The Rheingans Sisters – The Yellow of the Flowers

For a happier and more uplifting folk tune, The Yellow of the Flowers by The Rheingans Sisters is a good pick. It opens with a beautiful fiddle melody and progress to uplifting vocals. This song has a warm, reminiscent and nostalgic quality with mentions of school and childhood in the lyrics. Hearing this gorgeous folk music makes me excited to hear the sisters’ 5th studio album!
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Welsh National Opera Orchestra – Josef Strauss Delirien (Delirium) Waltz

With an opening full of dramatic suspense that turns to a lighter mood once the waltz is introduced, Strauss’ Delirien Waltz will bring excitement to the new year with Welsh National Opera’s Performance of this stunning piece. My favourite moment is the playful yet graceful flute solo towards the beginning that segues perfectly into a grandiose tutti orchestra.

Natalie Clein – Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38: I. Allegro non troppo

I was hard pressed to not include one of Brahms’ most beautiful sonatas. This expressive yet moody, haunting yet romantic piece is captured by the richness of Natalie Clein’s playing.

Check out the full playlist here:

Turner Sims Team: Spring Picks!

With the Spring Season underway, the team at Turner Sims are just as excited as the audience to welcome our amazing artists! Check in with their top picks – plus they share favourite shows they have seen here over the years…

March 5, 2024

Jessica Santer Head of Engagement and Participation

My pick of the season is The Breath. I’ve been loving listening to the haunting sound of this beautiful duet at home and can’t wait to see them live!
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The Breath - Little One (Live at the Minack, Cornwall)

David Hurlock Box Office Assistant

My first pick is Olivia Chaney. One of our Front of House Managers, Maggie created some season playlist CDs to play in the foyer. I was listening to Circus of Desire and fell in love with her vocals.

My other pick is corto.alto. I downloaded the album after listening to one track on a Turner Sims playlist and have been listening to it constantly. It is such a world away from what I’d associate with Turner Sims that I’m really excited to see where this will take our musical offering.
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corto.alto Trio - Slope (Live from Strange Field)

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My favourite ever event was Benjamin Zephaniah – it was a dream of mine to see him live, as I grew up watching him on television. I was always interested in English language and his poetry showed me how effective it can be.

Elizabeth Howard Administrator

My staff pick is The Breath – just love the vocals and folky vibe.
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The Breath - Land Of My Other | Woodburner Live

Sara Lock Head of Arts Marketing and Communication, University of Southampton

My pick for Spring 2024 is Maya Youssef. Her album Finding Home is full of heart and beautiful melodies. From the lively Jasmin Bayati to the mellow and heartfelt sound of My Homeland, it’s an eclectic and moving album. I love the idea of finding home in music and can’t wait to hear her perform live in the beautiful acoustic of Turner Sims. Jasdeep Singh Degun’s performance at Turner Sims was a standout for me. I bought his album on the night and every time I listen to it, I play the final track, Redemption (reprise), at least twice. It has fast become one of my favourite pieces of music. It makes me want to turn the volume up, close my eyes and really listen.
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My Homeland from the 'Finding Home' Album

Val Drayton Head of Operations

My staff pick is corto.alto, the current project of Liam Shortall There’s such a buzz around the Glasgow nu-jazz scene with lots of cross-pollination between individual sub-scenes creating exciting new sounds. Scottish music is surprisingly very diverse, with a Scottish folk influence on improvised music but also loads of other types of ‘jazz’ emerging, from hip-hop, soul, electronic, latin, funk, punk, heavy jazz etc. You can tell that everyone is having a lot of fun! As Liam says ‘Everyone that knows about the Glasgow music scene, knows.’ I really enjoyed Saltlines last year, a wonderful blending of folk and spoken word from Gigspanner Big Band performing with Raynor Winn. Stunning multi-instrumentalists, beautiful words and music weaving together to create a very special night.
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corto.alto Trio - Bye (Live from Strange Field)

Vic Box Office Assistant

My pick is Ute Lemper because I simply adore her voice – have already got my ticket!
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Ute Lemper - TIME TRAVELER (Official Music Video)

My best ever experience at Turner Sims was hearing my all-time favourite pianist, Alfred Brendel, play Beethoven. He had a way of making the notes melt seamlessly into each other.
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Ludwig van Beethoven : Klaviersonate Nr.31 As-dur, Op.110 - Alfred Brendel

Jo Roberts Marketing and Communications Officer

My pick this season is The Breath. I absolutely love Ríoghnach Connolly’s voice, it is so expressive. Closely seconded by Olivia Chaney – another incredible voice! The remix of Circus of Desire has been on my playlists since the day it came out.
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The Breath - Let The Cards Fall (Official Video)

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It’s hard to pick a favourite TS experience, but it was probably Painted Planets with the SÓN Orchestra and artist James Mayhew. It was the final concert in 2020 before the country went into lockdown. I took my children and will never forget how mesmerised they were – my (then little) daughter especially. She was so lit up and inspired – and spent many hours in lockdown with her paints as a result!

We want to know your favourite Turner Sims memories! What was your best-ever musical experience with us? Send us an email and let us know: info@turnersims.co.uk

Artistic Temperaments Festival 2024

Most of the piano music we love best, we’ve never heard as its composer heard it.

December 6, 2023
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Artistic Temperaments Festival 2024

Turner Sims, in association with the University of Southampton Music Department, presents a three-day keyboard festival. Now in its second year, Artistic Temperaments celebrates music performances on beautiful antique instruments.

We showcase the Department’s remarkable collection of keyboard instruments, from the 1770s to the present day. Hear favourite pieces as you’ve never heard them before.

Alongside brilliant performances from professionals and students, the Festival also makes room for YOU to play. Sign up for a private session to try your favourite Mendelssohn Song without Words on a nineteenth-century piano, or that lovely Bach Prelude on a harpsichord.

Friday 9 February

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1pm Clementi’s Waltzes

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7.30pm Pocket Sinfonia: Mozart, Haydn, CPE Bach

Saturday 10 February

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11am Listening, Measuring and Modelling: A Journey into Piano Acoustics with Dr. Giacomo Squicciarini

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12.15pm Student Masterclasses: 1796, 1826 with David Owen Norris

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2pm Tuning Temperaments with Cesar Hernandez

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3.15pm Songs: 1796 – 1826

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7.30pm Liturina Fortepiano Trio Concert: Sterndale Bennett, Schumann, Mendelssohn

Sunday 11 February

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11am Sawn in Half: An exploration of the divided damper-rail with Professor David Owen Norris

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3pm Vienna in 1782: Haydn, Clementi and d’Auenbrugger

Try the Pianos – Friday 9 to Sunday 11 February

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Would you like the opportunity to play keyboard instruments tuned in historic temperaments? During the Artistic Temperaments Festival, the University of Southampton Music Department is offering the chance to play the Schantz pianoforte (modern replica of Viennese 1802) and the Taskin 2-manual harpsichord (modern replica of Paris 1769), with Music Students on hand to support visitors.

*Pianoforte for observation only: William Frecker Grand (London 1812)

15-minute, timed slots available across Friday 9 to Sunday 11 February 2024

Tickets £5 for a 15-minute session

What’s the Festival about?
When is a G-sharp not a G-sharp? When it’s an A-flat!

Sharps and flats have to share the black keys on the piano keyboard, but they are actually different notes. Over the years, that dilemma has led to many different ways of tuning pianos. The compromise we use now, called equal temperament, was not established until after the time of Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin. Before that, pianists preferred bolder compromises.

The Artistic Temperaments Festival gives us the opportunity to hear what we’ve been missing. Our great collection of keyboard instruments – including one of our fine modern grands – will be tuned historically. Our Steinway will remain in the modern tuning so we can compare.

The important thing about historical tunings is that the different keys – D major, A minor, and so on – all sound different from one another. There was actually a reason for the weird chromatic semitones in Haydn’s last sonata; a reason for Beethoven choosing C minor for one sonata and C-sharp minor for another; even a reason for Schubert’s beloved G-flat Impromptu first being published in the key of G. It’s a question of harmonic flavour, like using the right herbs and spices.

This is the next big thing to hit the way the world hears the canon of musical masterpieces, and Southampton is well ahead of the curve, with its international concert hall and its famously successful Music Department.

In 1984, I was the first to record Schubert’s Winterreise on a piano of his time, with the baritone David Wilson-Johnson; and my first piano recording using early temperaments came out twenty-five years ago. Now we can use the Keyboard Collection I’ve created at Southampton over two decades to bring all these ideas out into the open. Artistic Temperaments will be a concentrated focus on an important topic, and it will be truly unique to Southampton.

Professor David Owen Norris

Instruments featured in Artistic Temperaments

Broadwood Grand Pianoforte – 1796
Schantz Grand Pianoforte – 1802
Frecker Grand Pianoforte – 1812
Broadwood Grand Pianoforte – 1826
Hopkinson Yacht Piano – 1880
Goble harpsichord – modern
Misina-Taskin two-manual Harpsichord – modern
Fazioli Grand Piano – modern
Steinway Grand Piano – modern

A woman sings into a mic while sat at a keyboard

MAYFLOWER 400: Voyages of the Heart by Tunde Jegede

September 29, 2022
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This powerful new work by renowned composer, producer, cellist and kora virtuoso Tunde Jegede was commissioned by Turner Sims Southampton and Southampton City Council as part of the Mayflower 400 programme.

The new ensemble music project was inspired by the stories of Southampton’s migrant and refugee communities, collected through the City Archive and a new National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported oral history project.

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Tunde Jegede describes the piece as, ‘about heritage, journeys, migration and the transitory sense of home and identities… [asking] pivotal questions of our perception of culture, memory, race and how we see the world.

Supported by funding from Arts Council England, Southampton City Council and the University of Southampton, the piece involves 25 musicians from a range of backgrounds and disciplines including Gospel singers, an operatic choir, a Gaelic singer, and an Indian classical music vocalist. Instruments include a string quartet, Irish folk violin and flute, guitar, Sitar, Oud, Tabla, drums and bass. The piece beautifully blends these varied styles together to create a multi-layered musical journey which is reflective of Southampton’s multicultural population.

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This performance was recorded at Turner Sims, and was premiered as an online performance.
Tunde Jegede has been developing resources especially for community use throughout this project to inspire local musicians to explore multiple musical genres. After the premiere event, an online programme ran for two local community choirs and local choirs and schools had free access to over 20 songs from the piece.

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Find out more: Voyages of the Heart

We are thrilled to be broadcasting the world premiere of Voyages of the Heart on Friday 23 April! Find out more about this exciting event, and the talented musicians taking part…

April 21, 2021
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TRAILER: Mayflower400 | Voyages of the Heart

What is Voyages of the Heart?

Voyages of the Heart is a new piece by renowned composer, producer, cellist and kora virtuoso Tunde Jegede, whose work has changed the face of classical and contemporary music in Europe and Africa. His work is described as a ‘unique synthesis of classical, jazz and traditional music’, and this piece is no exception. The pianist for Voyages of the Heart, Jonathan Fashole-Luke describes how this project involves ‘different disciplines coming together, there are textures of instruments you wouldn’t normally hear together’. This piece features 32 songs, and encompasses vast ranges of musical disciplines, including Indian classical, Irish Gaelic and Reggae.
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BBC Voyages of the Heart feature

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It is inspired by the stories of Southampton’s refugee and migrant communities, and was commissioned by Turner Sims Southampton and its project partner Southampton City Council, supported by Arts Council England and the University of Southampton as part of the Mayflower 400 programme.

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What is Mayflower400?

Southampton will be the first city to approach a Mayflower anniversary through the lens of migration. The Mayflower is one of many migrant ships that have left from or arrived in Southampton during the past seven centuries; as a result 148 languages are currently spoken in the city. We see the anniversary as an opportunity to reveal this rich and diverse history, and to encourage communities to tell their stories, many of which will have previously been hidden. Find out more about the Mayflower 400 Programme in Southampton.

Meet the musicians

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Pooja Angra " The Elements" (Indian Classical Vocalist)

This performance features an extraordinary ensemble of diverse musicians, many of whom with roots in Southampton (including University of Southampton alumni). In an interview with Ram Kalyan Kelly (listen from 22 minutes) on Unity 101 Community Radio, several of the musicians discussed their careers so far. Lewis Wood plays the Irish folk violin and explained how he enjoys playing traditional folk music from all over the world, while soul singer Shannon Baker cites her influences; ‘really strong, powerful singers’ such as Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, and Aretha Franklin. Pooja Angra also discusses how music enables people to connect across different cultures. Project manager Sal Chitulu describes this performance as a real team effort: ‘the energy, the attitude and the vibe were really, really positive, but in terms of putting things together, that is down to the creative genius and direction of the composer, Tunde Jegede’.

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Mitel Purohit- Tabla Player (Voyages of the Heart)

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Luke Garnes - Drummer (Voyages of the heart)

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Jonathan Fashole-Luke Pianist (Voyages of the heart)

Images by Rachel Adams
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Tunde Jegede – composer
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Laverne Williams – the Mother
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Ivan Dellimore – the Father
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Shannon B – the Daughter
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Sal Chitulu – the Son
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Pooja Angra – the Elements, harmonium
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Hayley McDonnel – the Waters
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Colin Judson – Operatic Choir
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Lucy Urquhart – Operatic Choir
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Liane Marie Cole – Operatic Choir
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Jonathan Fashole-Luke – piano
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William Gadd – Operatic Choir
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Zayn Mohammed – sarod / guitar
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Olivia Jageurs – harp
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Tia De Gannes McGregor – Gospel Singer
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Kim Kirby – Gospel Singer
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Lewis Wood – Irish folk violin
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Helen Gentile – Irish whistle
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Cj Edwards – Gospel singer
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Scratch Gordon – bass
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Luke Garnes – drums
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Mitel Purohit – tabla
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Louise Owen – violin
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Kelly-Jo Foster-Peters – cello
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Helen James – viola
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Philippa Baldwin – violin
This project is commissioned by Turner Sims Southampton and its project partner Southampton City Council, supported by Arts Council England and the University of Southampton.
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