PRS New Music Biennial in Hull, city of culture

King Billy - statue of King William III in Hull

When I was a boy, we used to take the ferry from New Holland in North Lincolnshire and travel to Hull, walking up from the docks and spending the day visiting shops, the Wilberforce Museum and perhaps the Ferens Art Gallery, none of which made as big an impression on me as the statue of King Billy (a large gilt statue of King William III which indicated that you had left the docks and were approaching the town). Hull was very badly bombed during the war, and the post-war re-invention was not the most successful and throughout my teens and young adult period, the association of Hull with culture was rather minimal. But the city has successfully re-invented itself in many ways, and this year is celebrating this as UK City of Culture.

Amongst the events for the City of Culture celebrations is the PRS for Music's New Music Biennial which takes place from 30 June to 1 July in Hull (to be repeated at London's Southbank Centre 7-9 July 2017) and, most importantly, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

If you can be in Hull, then you can catch Anna Meredith and the Southbank Sinfonia, Simon Holt and the BBC Philharmonic, Errolyn Wallen, Mark Simpson, Jocelyn Pook, Sam Lee and many, many more (see the Hull 2017 web page for details).

If you can't be in Hull then BBC Radio 3 is devoting Saturday 1 July 2017 to the New Music Biennial with Breakfast presented live from Hull, Anna Meredith, one of the composers taking part, making her Radio 3 live presenting debut from Hull in Saturday Classics with a 2pm live broadcast of Errollyn Wallen’s Mighty River from Hull City Hall, and Here and Now is the first of two focussed on the Biennial, and is presented live from Fruit, a venue in Hull’s cultural quarter, introducing new music by GoGo Penguin, Gavin Bryars, Anna Meredith and Schlomo among others. Further details from the BBC Radio 3 website.