Upcoming Events
SIDE BY SIDE
Baroque and Contemporary Music for Strings
Smith Square Hall, Westminster
9th April 2026
Following our sold out performance of the same name at Stone Nest, FIGURE are presenting a new programme of baroque and contemporary music. Last time, our performance was described by Flora Willson in The Guardian as "spikily stylish" and that FIGURE was "unequivocally impressive, its sound invigorating, its commitment absolute”.
Baroque masterpieces by Handel, Muffat, and van Wassenaer are contrasted with contemporary compositions by Caroline Shaw, Oliver Leith, and a specially commissioned world premiere by Jacob Druckman Prize winner Isabella Gellis.
Programme
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 5 (1739)
Joanna Ward (born 1998)
A Sweet Romance (2025) – (commissioned by FIGURE)
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766)
Concerto Armonico No. 5 in F minor (ca. 1740)
Caroline Shaw (born 1982)
Entr’acte (2011/2014)
Interval
Isabella Gellis (born 1997)
New Work – (commissioned by FIGURE)
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704)
Battalia (1673)
Oliver Leith (born 1982)
Honey Siren (2019)
Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
Armonico Tributo Suite no. 5: Passacaglia (1682)
MOURN
Baroque and Balkan Laments
with Alkanna Graeca
Stone Nest, Soho
16th-17th April 2026
FIGURE and Alkanna Graeca present MOURN, a musical-theatrical exploration of the experience of loss through the rituals of the Balkans and the music of 17th century Italy. The performance examines the universal experience of losing a loved one, and the ways we come to terms with death. Through music and song, unfolding in a series of poetic scenes inspired by ancient funeral traditions kept alive in the Balkans and reimagined in Italy, MOURN asks how we say farewell to those we love most.
In Renaissance Italy, composers drew on Ancient Greek tragedy to invent a new declamatory style that sits between speech and song. The funeral laments that were woven into those dramas became central to early opera, and the style spread across Europe. The “lament bass” - a repeating, descending four-note line - was used in Germany by Biber, in France by Lully and, nearly 1000 miles away, in England by Purcell in Dido’s Lament. Had those Italian composers crossed the Adriatic Sea to the Balkans, they would have found the mourning traditions which were immortalised in Ancient Greek tragedy still in practice, forming an unbroken lineage with the past. There the funeral lament, sung rather than spoken, endured as part of everyday life - delivered outward and upward to a community of the living, the dead, and the divine.
MOURN places the imagined tradition of Western Europe and the living tradition of the Balkans in dialogue, reconstructing a ritual of grief. It features traditional polyphonies from across the Balkans, including Albania, Epirus, and Thrace, as well as music composed by Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, and Carlo Gesualdo. The original concept was devised by Alexandra Achillea and Frederick Waxman.
Vocalists Alexandra Achillea, Irini Arabatzi, Dunja Botic
Violin Naomi Burrell, James Toll
Lute Sergio Bucheli
Double Bass Carina Cosgrave
Kanun Konstantinos Glynos
Chamber Organ Frederick Waxman
Stage Director Alexandra Achillea
Assistant Director (Movement and Dramaturgy) Konstantina-Maria Spyropoulou
Music Director & Creative Producer Frederick Waxman
Photo Credit: "Nyx (the night)," 2019. Photographer: Ioanna Sakellaraki
VESPERS
Vivaldi's Nisi Dominus
with Iestyn Davies and Idrîsî Ensemble
Smith Square, Westminster
2nd June 2026
Join us for a voyage through Vivaldi’s cosmopolitan Venice, where FIGURE, joined by Iestyn Davies and the acclaimed Idrîsî Ensemble, weave Baroque brilliance with ancient Mediterranean choral traditions.
Vivaldi’s Venice was a thriving cosmopolitan centre. A meeting point of the European Renaissance with the cultures of North Africa and all corners of the Mediterranean, “La Serenissima” was alive with a kaleidoscope of tastes, sights and sounds – and its musical culture was no exception.
Superlative countertenor Iestyn Davies leads an unmissable exploration of this rich world. Written for performance at dusk, Vivaldi’s deeply atmospheric solo cantata Nisi Dominus evokes an extraordinary array of musical colours. It forms a rich thread through the evening, and its centrepiece “Cum dederit” is a moment of transcendent beauty unmatched in Baroque music.
Bringing the particular flavour of the Eastern Mediterranean, Idrîsî Ensemble intersperse the programme with sublime choral music. Based on deep research into music rarely heard before, from fifth-century Roman chants to UNESCO-protected Corsican polyphonies, Idrîsî’s rhapsodic performances have garnered significant acclaim.
This semi-staged performance will be a feast for all of the senses.
