Gavin Bryars joins forces with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a spectacular performance at Sonica Glasgow 2022. In this unique event, Bryars conducts Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Arvo Pärt’s If Bach Had Been a Beekeeper and the UK premiere of his Viola Concerto (A Hut in Toyama) with Morgan Goff on viola. The world premiere of the concerto was give by Bryars and Goff in June 2021 at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo Festival, which commissioned the work.

(from Paul Brown, Gig Review, Hobart re. Viola Concerto) “With no singing or lyrical content, we were taken on a journey of symphonic bliss, emotionally lifting highs (and dark lows) all the while maintaining a smile on our faces. As discussed post-show with a few patrons, performances don’t always need to be headbang worthy to be considered heavy, and the show we saw last night encapsulated that experience with precision and class.”

For the Sonica performance, Catalan artist Alba G. Corral will respond to the music in real time, generating large-scale digital landscapes inspired by Kandinsky’s theory of ‘visual music’ – fusing sound, light, movement and form.

“If you want to experience the thrilling interface where music, visual art, theatre and digital technology meet, hasten to Glasgow, where the sparky new Sonica has taken over the city.”  The Times

Gavin Bryars has worked with Cryptic’s Cathie Boyd on a number of occasions, notably for Paper Nautilus (2006) – also performed at Tramway – and The Other Side of the River, with Third Coast Percussion, as part of the theatre work See You Later at Montclair University, New Jersey (2016)

GB rehearsing TSO