Summer News

We are gearing up for a very exciting summer…

To kick us off, we have our performance at the BBC Proms on the 30th of July, where we will be debuting a brand new work by Anna Clyne entitled The Gorgeous Nothings, alongside the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon. This new work, commissioned jointly by the BBC and The Swingles, and setting the text of Emily Dickinson’s “envelope poems”, uses an innovative new approach to composition called “The Augmented Orchestra” where selected instruments of the orchestra and the amplified singers are recorded/sampled in real time and immediately played back with augmentation (changes to either timbre or pitch, or simply with added acoustic effects (e.g. distortion)). We have been using live-looping technology in our a cappella shows for a while now, so the technique of incorporating “The Augmented Orchestra” in the performance has felt very natural for us. It has been a real privilege for us to work alongside Anna and Jody Elff (co-designers of the AO) in several workshops testing the technology in the run-up to the Proms premiere. Read more about the AO and The Gorgeous Nothings here (International Arts Manager Magazine).

Exactly a month later on August 30th, we will be releasing our long-awaited new album Theatreland: an epic anthology of some of our most beloved songs from the world of musical theatre!

To celebrate this release, we are thrilled to be hosting an official album launch concert at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on 2nd September, where we will be performing the songs from the album, as well as some old favourites and Swingle classics. Tickets are on sale now: click here to join the party and reserve your spot!

For the latest details on all Swingles performances, see our “shows” page or bandsintown page.

More news will follow soon on the Theatreland project…