Event Information
About this event
Classical music, tango and cabaret - from Kurt Weill to Schoenberg, from Carlos Gardel to Britten, these musical genres have always found ways to meet. To celebrate the music of tango composer Astor Piazzolla, the "cabaret kings" (The Londonist) join forces with two of London's most exciting classical musicians. Piazzolla's tango is the music of the cities, their poetry and chaos, their solitude and excitement.
Piazzolla was the figurehead of nuevo tango, new tango, he ripped tango out of the dance halls of Argentina to place it in the concert halls of the world. Music not to dance to, but to inspire, make us dream and take us to faraway places full of longing and passion.
Doors open 20 minutes before the performance. Please note this is a socially distanced event so we ask that you take your seat distancing yourself from anyone that is not in your bubble.
The performers:
Vocalist William Ludwig and Musical Director and Pianist Dean Austin have established themselves as an acclaimed international cabaret/concert act over the last couple of years. Dean is a West End Musical Director, William a screen and stage actor (most recently speaking the German dialogue in Fidelio at the Royal Opera under Pappano) and they meet in the middle to devise and perform cabaret shows around the music of Weimar Berlin and tango songs. They have performed, amongst others, at the Ruhrfestival in Germany, Edinburgh Festival, GREC in Barcelona, Don’t Tell Mama in New York (MAC-nominated) and Crazy Coqs and The Pheasantry in London. The Londonist called them “the cabaret kings”. Last season’s schedule included a concert for the One Charity for Bono and Chris Martin and a series of Weimar Cabaret concerts at the Barbican Art Gallery.
Beatrix Lovejoy and Ben Chappell are two of the busiest and most accomplished musicians on the London classical music scene. They both play for Britten Sinfonia and Aurora Orchestra and have performed in London at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, and major venues across the world, working with world-renowned conductors and soloists. Most recently they performed as part of the 2020 BBC Proms.
Organiser the tango collective
Organiser of The Tango Collective: the piazzolla project
The Wild Stage is a collective of international musicians and performers, based in London.
All artists bring the expertise in their respective fields to the creation of outstanding concerts and cabaret shows that explore music from the Weimar Berlin Cabarets to the tango universe of Astor Piazzolla, by way of the European songbook of the 20th century, chanson and the protest songs of South America. Together we combine a wealth of experience and years of performing at the world's greatest concert halls and theatres - including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Carnegie Hall, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall and Gewandhaus Leipzig and in the field of cabaret the Ruhrfestspiele, Edinburgh Festival, GREC Festival Barcelona, Don't Tell Mama New York, Cafe Sabarsky New York and in 2021 the Arcola Theatre.
Our aim is to devise themed theatrical shows that tell stories about the past and present through the music and poetry of artists such as Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Hollaender, Hanns Eisler, Horacio Ferrer, Piazzolla, Jacques Brel and many more. We explore the European and Latin American songbooks in new arrangements and performed by some of London's most extraordinary and talented musicians.