Classical music concerts scheme expands across England

After ten sold-out events in London, classical music company through the noise has announced the expansion of their of crowdfunded concerts in unconventional venues to Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.

The concerts, called noisenights, are part of a movement to organise performances by classical musicians outside traditional concert halls. The gigs take place in grass-roots music venues, including clubs, pubs and music halls.

Inspired by London’s underground club scene and its successful jazz venues, the concerts offer either an early-evening rush hour-set or a late show in which the classical performance is followed by live jazz, funk and afrobeat acts.

The crowdfunding model used to finance the concerts allows backers to pledge money in return for tickets to their chosen concert and priority booking for future events. Only concerts that prove popular among funders go ahead.

“Following a tough few years, it’s encouraging to see how excited audiences are to support live music,” said through the noise Co-founder and Artistic Director Jack Bazalgette.

“After crowdfunding ten London noisenights in the past year, we’re grateful to our growing base of backers for enabling us to take our model for classical shows to audiences around the country.”

The new series of noisenights will feature Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Abel Selaocoe, Her Ensemble, Alexandra Whittingham, Esther Abrami, Plínio Fernandes, Roberts Balanas and Harry Baker.

BBC Young Musician winning cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason said his upcoming noisenight appearance with spoken word artist Harry Baker “will be a special opportunity to share music we love in a host of new settings around the country”. 

“As performers we respond so much to the space we are in, not just acoustically, but the energy of the room and the people in it,” he said.