Quatuor Bozzini: Crawford Seeger & Abrams
Hear works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Muhal Richard Abrams and Johanna Beyer, some of the United States’ most forward-thinking musical minds of the 20th century.
Canadian string quartet Quatuor Bozzini, known for embracing new and experimental music, bring works by their fellow North Americans to London to fill the Purcell Room with innovative music.
While America adored Crawford Seeger for her folk-leaning songbooks, she was also ‘a pioneer of hard-hitting, distinctly un-sweet American modernism’, writes Kate Molleson. Her ultramodern String Quartet 1931 shows a young composer ahead of her time.
Largely overlooked in contemporary classical and jazz music history, Abrams and the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), which he formed in the 1960s in Chicago, were at the forefront of avant-garde music.
One of the most striking works to come out of the meshed field that Abrams occupied between these two genres is his only string quartet work. Starting with a simple ‘humming’ to set the scene, the quartet steadily develops into a rhythmically driven cacophony of string sounds.
Complementing these two quartets is a string trio by Beyer, another nearly forgotten composer from the time of Abrams and Crawford. Immigrating to the US from Germany in her early 20s, Beyer studied with Ruth Crawford and Charles Seeger in New York.
Her trio Music of the Spheres was the first known work scored for electronic instruments by a female composer.
Performers
Quatuor Bozzini
Repertoire
Programme includes: -
Crawford Seeger: String Quartet 1931
Need to know
Times & tickets
Dates, times and prices
Dates & times
06 Jul 2024, 6.30pm
Run time
1 hour (approx)
Run times may vary by up to 20 minutes as they can be affected by last-minute programme changes, intervals and encores.
Standard entry
from £15.00*
* Excludes £3.50 booking fee.
Multi-buy discount
Classical Music: Spring/Summer 2024
As part of our classical music multi-buy offer, book multiple Spring/Summer 2024 concerts in the same transaction to receive a discount:
3 – 4 events: 10% discount
5 – 7 events: 15% discount
8 – 10 events: 20% discount
11 – 14 events: 25% discount
15+ events: 30% discount
Discounts apply to selected events, February – June 24 inclusive. Offer can’t be combined with the Autumn/Winter 2023/24 multi-buy.
More events in our multi-buy offer
View all events in this multi-buy offerJoin our membership
Members get free entry to the Hayward Gallery and the first chance to book our entire programme of events, including go-down-in-history gigs, concerts with world-class orchestras, and talks from cultural icons and political giants.
Join today from £69
Tickets can only be sold through the Southbank Centre and our authorised agents, and can't be resold. You can return your tickets to the Southbank Centre for a credit voucher up to 48 hours before the event. Tickets resold on any third-party platforms will become invalid.
Access performances
There are no upcoming access performances for this event.
For your visit
This event is held at the Purcell Room Southbank Centre
The Purcell Room is located in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Purcell Room is an auditorium located within our Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our site.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
Within the Queen Elizabeth Hall you’ll find our glass-fronted Concrete Cafe, the ideal spot to recharge, or catch up with friends, whilst the bustle of Central London and the River Thames carries on around you.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.