Bold Tendencies

16/10/2025

It takes a village!!

Huge thank you to our amazing seasonal team whose dedication, creativity, and care were essential to the success of this year’s programme.

Each year, we offer paid entry-level roles as part of our commitment to building talent pipelines and nurturing early career creatives. This year, we were delighted to welcome four brilliant Engagement Assistants, Akif Rahman, Dipo Alao-Odeleye, Trish Chlipala and Noah Findlay.

We are equally proud to have, returning, our two Creative Learning Facilitators, Esme Wedderburn and Alfiah Jade Brown, whose care, creativity, and practices in poetry, theatre and illustration bring fresh ideas and energy to the programme.

Through the 10,000 Interns Foundation, we were joined by the wonderful Taaz Hassan as our Creative Learning Coordinator, supporting logistics, developing SEND resources, and helping steer a busy programme with clarity and care.

These roles have evolved over time and we aim for them to reflect our commitment to creating meaningful, working opportunities that support professional development, diversify the sector, and help bring our mission to life.

We’re grateful to the artists and organisations who took part in the 2025 paid professional development days, giving our team invaluable insight into the culture world: Frank Bowling Studio, Michaela Yearwood-Dan at Hauser & Wirth, Sadie Coles HQ, Rathbone Institute, Arcadia Missa, Rose Easton, Neven Gallery, The Approach, and South London Gallery.

Thank you all – for the work, the energy, and the care.

Professional Development Days are supported by Hauser & Wirth.












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20/09/2025

DÉJÀ VU LAST DAY - COME THROUGH!

Final chance to see this year’s Visual Arts Commissions upon the roof. Open til 11pm with Frank’s Cafe.

17/09/2025

Very proud to announce that last night we were awarded the Sky Arts Award for Classical Music for our body of work! Isata Kanneh-Mason presented us with this magnificent trophy which is now proudly displayed in the concrete concert hall! Huge thanks to everyone who is part of making the programme happen - artists, team, audiences and supporters. THANK YOU ALL!!

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05/09/2025

We’ve been nominated for a Sky Arts Award - in the Classical Music category for our Live Programme!

It is fantastic to have made the final three nominees from an extensive longlist, and testament to all the incredible performers and audiences who have taken part in our programme and our generous supporters. 🤞

The awards ceremony will be broadcast live on TV on Tuesday 16 September, time tbc (Freeview channel 36).

04/09/2025

For the third year running, we’re proud to deliver our Creative Partnership initiative with The Nest – Groundwork London’s wellbeing hub for young people in Peckham Rye. 💫

Exploring the intersection of arts and mental health provision through a free, summer-long programme of creative activities for young people aged 11–16 from Southwark. 🎨

Bold Tendencies’ Creative Partnerships are collaborative projects co-designed and delivered with local community providers. These initiatives aim to build lasting relationships across sectors, creating meaningful connections and pathways that support the civic needs of those in Peckham and Southwark.

This summer, 27 young people explored themes of home, memory, and belonging through poetry, collage, drawing, photography, and play. The project was co-led by Bold Tendencies’ Creative Learning team – Akif Rahman, Dipo Alao-Odeleye, and fronted by Creative Learning Facilitator Alfiah Jade Brown, alongside The Nest’s School Engagement Team – Bhaskar Saxena, Teo Vicol and Courtnay Pinheiro.

The poetry and artwork produced were brought together in a collective zine designed by Akif Rahman, and a film-poem created by Alfiah Jade Brown, blending spoken word with footage from the workshops and local area.

The programme concluded with a celebration and exhibition, showcasing the young people’s creativity and the connections built over the seven weeks.

Special thanks to Frank’s Cafe for providing free breakfast and lunch for the young people, and to CASS Art for their generous donation of materials.

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02/09/2025

London Symphony Orchestra made their first appearance on Saturday with a programme of music specially selected for the space by their Leader & violinist Benjamin Gilmore. Welcome LSO & thank you to the 32 incredible players ♥️!

Pieces played were: Sally Beamish. The Day Dawn (for string orchestra) (1999); Grażyna Bacewicz. Concerto For String Orchestra (1948); Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Serenade For Strings in C Major, Op. 48  (1880); Caroline Shaw. Entr’acte (arr. for String Orchestra) (2011)

Photography by

01/09/2025

The Susan Sontag Listening Room is now open! Records, photographs, books, archival video, a guide to the artists she enjoyed and wrote about & more.

Open again to ticket holders before and after this week’s concerts (Bach Cello Suites, Wendy Carlos & Moog, & Goldberg Variations). Last opportunity to visit Sunday 7 September.

Special Thanks to Susan Sontag Estate, David Rieff, Tracy Bohan & Ben Oldfield at The Wylie Agency, Penguin Books.

27/08/2025

The Listening Room: Susan Sontag
Saturday 30 August–Sunday 7 September 

The Listening Room returns! 

The Listening Room invites audiences to select and play from a curated selection of records in our Straw Auditorium, reconstructing the record collections of iconic cultural figures. 

We celebrate American writer Susan Sontag, alongside portrait photographs and video; extracts from her diaries, journals and notebooks; and an exclusive interview with her son, David Rieff. 

Like her bibliography, Sontag’s record collection takes us on a musical journey across geographies and time. Come and play your own choices from a collection spanning Bach, Boulez and Tchaikovsky, to Mozart, Mahler and John Cage; from the skiffle and beat sounds of The Beatles, to the flamenco flourishes of Jose Greco and soul sensibility of Dionne Warwick. Also featuring Blondie, The Ramones, Donna Summer and more.

We are grateful to the Susan Sontag Estate, Sontag’s son David Rieff, The Wylie Agency and Penguin Books for their support in making this happen.

The Listening Room is open on the following dates and times: 
Saturday 30 August: 18:30–19:30 and 20:30–21:30 (London Symphony Orchestra ticket holders only). 
Wednesday 3 September: 18:30–19:30 (J S Bach – Complete Cello Suites ticket holders only). 
Friday 5 September: 18:30–19:30 and 20:30–21:30 (Wendy Carlos – Virtuoso Electronic Realisations ticket holders only)
Sunday 7 September: 12:30–13:30 (open to all); 18:00–19:00 and 20:30–21:30 (J S Bach – Goldberg Variations ticket holders only). 

Head to the link in bio to buy tickets for our remaining live events and don’t miss your chance to come on down to The Listening Room.

26/08/2025

Bold Tendencies’ cross-season ode to J S Bach concludes! Thank you to all who have attended so far in celebration of the Baroque polymath. 

Join us in September for our final programmes of Bach’s supremely human music. Sæunn Thorsteindóttir and Sheku Kanneh-Mason play the six Suites for unaccompanied cello on 3 September (and check out the scores in Idris Khan’s billboard commission on the roof!). 

On 5 September, the James McVinnie Ensemble (James McVinnie, Eliza McCarthy, Siwan Rhys and Hugh Rowlands) bring us the virtuoso electronic interpretations of Bach’s music by synthesiser-pioneer and electronic music-genius Wendy Carlos. 

Jean Rondeau makes his Bold Tendencies’ debut on 7 September with the Goldberg Variations performed on the harpsichord – just as they would have been when first played by Bach’s student and the work’s dedicatee Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. 

Head to the link in bio to grab your tickets now! 

With many thanks to Scops Arts Trust ( ) and the Continuo Foundation () for their support.

23/08/2025

Come and Sing! 

The Bold Chorus is Bold Tendencies’ citizens choir, bringing together local residents and members of our community partners. Join us and take part in the World Premiere of Oliver Leith ‘Garland’: a large-scale production for orchestra and chorus. Celebrating singing together as one of life’s great joys, we are excited to welcome back professional choral leader Oli Kitching for a second consecutive year to lead the chorus.  

Rehearsals: 
Wednesday 17 September 11:30–18:30
Thursday 18 September | 15:00–18:00 

Performances: 
Thursday 18 September | 19.30–20.30
Friday 19 September | 19.30–20.30

No singing experience is needed, and all ages and abilities are welcome. Refreshments will be provided, and all Chorus members will receive one guest ticket each to one of the evening performances. 

Register your interest at the link in bio! 

📸: Dan John Lloyd

29/07/2025

29/07/2025