Sirens for a wounded planet
Kings Place turns its focus to Earth for our 2025 award-winning Unwrapped series, bringing artists together to explore our wounded planet and how collectively we can seek healing.
We turn to Artists in Residence Sam Lee, Jason Singh and Gazelle Twin to tell stories of the Earth through their performances, installations and celebrations throughout the year.
You’ll see us working with our King’s Cross neighbours Central Saint Martins, shining a light on their Climate Emergency Network. Environmental artist Alice Boyd creates The Sounds of King’s Cross for our d&b Soundscape system, listening and talking to the people wildlife in our local area, whilst EarthPercent, the music industry’s climate foundation, will host an important conversation with their expert advisory panel.
Virtuoso violinist Daniel Pioro invites you to a weekend of deep listening for our audiences, with works from Catherine Lamb, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney and Valgeir Sigurðsson.
We celebrate Terry Riley’s 90th birthday, look to Pauline Oliveros’ concept of deep listening and are taken on a Mahler adventure with Resident Ensemble, Aurora. You’ll hear new music and commissions from artists who dedicate their work to our planet including Julia Wolfe, Josephine Stephenson, and Erland Cooper.
Our d&b Soundscape system will bring the outdoors in with artists such as Soumik Datta, Ligeti Quartet and The Rheingans Sisters enabling us to feel immersed in the outdoors from sounds on our doorstep to around the world.
This year-long series will offer a place to listen deeply to our world on a microscopic to cosmic scale, inviting you to celebrate our natural world, provide a space to listen, learn and be inspired by the artists around us.
Sacconi Quartet & Festival Voices Terry Riley Sun Rings
Classical / ‘Under 30s’ Tickets
For the opening performance of Earth Unwrapped, join us on an otherworldly voyage with Terry Riley’s 'Sun Rings'.
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Olivia Chaney: Modern Myths & Pastorales
Folk at Kings Place
Singer songwriter Olivia Chaney makes a welcome return to Kings Place, exploring her ever-evolving relationship with the Earth, and how so many of her own works, and works which have inspired her, are deeply connected to it.
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Jason Singh: Drifters (live AV show)
Contemporary /
Sound artist, nature beatboxer and composer Jason Singh performs his live soundtrack to John Grierson’s monumental 1929 silent documentary film 'Drifters', which tells the story of Britain’s North Sea herring fishery.
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Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – A Family Concert Adventure
Family at Kings Place
A musical nature adventure for all the family. Join virtuoso violinist Daniel Pioro and the ever-adventurous Manchester Camerata as they guide you through Vivaldi's extraordinary Four Seasons. Bring your raincoat, sunglasses, umbrella, woolly hat, and imagination for a whirlwind adventure through the sun, storm, rain and snow!
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Gazelle Twin: We Wax. We Shall Not Wane
Contemporary at Kings Place
British producer and composer Gazelle Twin will repurpose her immersive installation, 'We Wax. We Shall Not Wane', featuring Maxine Peake for the opening weekend of Earth Unwrapped at Kings Place.
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Platoon Presents... Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Daniel Pioro, Manchester Camerata & Stephen Fry
Classical / ‘Under 30s’ Tickets
For the first in the series of Platoon Presents at Kings Place, join us for the album launch of Vivaldi’s seminal Four Seasons, in a never-heard-before interpretation by virtuoso violinist Daniel Pioro, Manchester Camerata and specially commissioned poetry written by Sir Michael Morpurgo, narrated by Stephen Fry.
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Mari Kalkun
Folk at Kings Place
Kings Place welcomes back Estonian folk artist Mari Kalkun, a voice that seems to speak to us from the heart of the Estonian forest. Her music is at once of a place and deeply personal, an intimacy—born of Baltic winter forests and icy landscapes— and yet there is renewal, hope and celebration to be heard.
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Crick Crack Club: The Three Snake Leaves
Words at Kings Place
The Crick Crack Club, the UK’s boldest and busiest storytelling programmer and promoter, creating worlds in the imaginations of its audiences, returns to Kings Place to present 'The Three Snake Leaves', fairytales for grown-ups from the Grimm forest.
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Aurora Orchestra & BBC Singers: In Paradisum
Classical / ‘Under 30s’ Tickets
Aurora Orchestra welcomes the BBC Singers for a programme that lifts its eyes to the horizon and glimpses the divine from Earth. Each of the works featured in this collaborative concert takes comfort in the prospect of a world beyond, whether discerned in the beauty of nature, in the power of human imagination, or in paradise after death.
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Laura Cannell: The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined
Contemporary at Kings Place
British composer, performer, and improviser Laura Cannell presents her newest album, 'The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined', an offering of contemporary minimalism to 12th century polymath Hildegard von Bingen – considered by many to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
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Ligeti Quartet plays Terry Riley
Classical /
Ligeti Quartet returns to Kings Place to celebrate minimalist master, Terry Riley, alongside deep listening legend, Pauline Oliveros.
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Theatre of Voices: The Tree of Life
Classical at Kings Place
Theatre of Voices make a welcome return to Kings Place, performing the premiere of a Kings Place commission of Julia Wolfe, alongside works by Nigel Osborne and Arvo Pärt.
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A Folksong and an Oaksong
Folk at Kings Place
A collaborative concert as part of Sam Lee’s Earth Unwrapped residency, featuring tree wisdom, poems, anecdotes and oaken folksongs which will invoke the cultural heritage this species holds within our culture and society. Featuring guest musicians, Jonathan Drori, The Seed Sisters and more...
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Emergence Magazine - The Nightingale's Song (Film)
Folk at Kings Place
In this special film, The Nightingale’s Song, we meet Sam Lee, a folk singer who draws on an ancient lineage of traditional folk music as he joins this elusive bird in spontaneous song.
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Whale Song Sound Bath
Folk /
Immerse yourself in a bioacoustic sound bath with Tom Mustill’s 'How To Be A Whale', a listening journey using d&b audiotechnik's Soundscape system. Experience many hundreds of scientific recordings woven together into a story told through the lives of seven different whales and dolphins.
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Soumik Datta: Borderlands
Contemporary /
Winner of the Aga Khan Music Award, Soumik Datta reveals an immersive in-the-round experience in partnership with Loss> Find out more
Alice Boyd: The Sounds of King's Cross
Folk at Kings Place
Singer-songwriter and sound artist Alice Boyd brings folk-inspired harmonies, ambient electronics and field recordings to Hall Two, inviting us to ponder the intersection of human life and the landscapes we call home.
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Aurora Orchestra: Song of the Earth
Classical / Aurora Orchestra
Described by Leonard Bernstein as ‘Mahler’s greatest symphony’, Das Lied von der Erde is an incomparable musical homage to the natural world, and humanity’s place within it. Aurora performs the work in Iain Farrington’s chamber orchestra version alongside two of the leading Mahler singers of our time.
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Alice Boyd & Guests
Folk at Kings Place
Singer-songwriter and sound artist Alice Boyd brings folk-inspired harmonies, ambient electronics and field recordings to Hall Two, inviting us to ponder the intersection of human life and the landscapes we call home.
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Eliza Carthy
Folk / ‘Under 30s’ Tickets
If there is one musician who embodies the dynamism and vitality of the current English folk revival, it’s Eliza Carthy MBE. Kings Place proudly welcomes her back for a special gig as part of its birdsong-inspired Folk Weekend.
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Singing Like Larks: A celebration of birds in folk songs by Andrew Millham
Words at Kings Place
Andrew Millham will be discussing his debut book, ‘Singing Like Larks’, and the remarkable relationship between birds and traditional folk songs as part of our birdsong-inspired Folk Weekend.
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The Wilderness Yet
Folk at Kings Place
Kings Place welcomes back The Wilderness Yet for this birdsong-inspired Folk Weekend. From 'The Thrush’s Anvil' to 'The Nightingale’s Lullaby', this is a folk trio that draws deep from the wealth of inspiration that birdsong offers.
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Miranda Rutter & Rob Harbron
Folk at Kings Place
Fiddle player and composer Miranda Rutter and Rob Harbron on concertina bring 'Bird Tunes', an exquisite new suite of folk tunes with birdsong at their core, to Kings Place as part of its birdsong-inspired Folk Weekend.
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