The Leeds-based pianist and composer Simeon Walker has just announced details of an extensive tour of the United Kingdom which will take place this November (see tour poster below for full details).
In keeping with Simeon Walker’s recent touring programmes, the forthcoming Autumn Tour will centre around him visiting places across the country which can sometimes be overlooked on live performance schedules.
Fundamental to this approach is the belief that, in a post-pandemic world and the wider context of the funding challenges faced by grassroots venues and the wider music industry, good accessibility to live music has never been more needed.
This is reflected in Simeon Walker’s aim to create space for collective, community-focused listening experiences, in which the boundaries between audience and performer are removed, amidst a sense of story, insight, intrigue, openness and vulnerability, alongside a long-term aim and commitment to ensuring classical and classical-influenced music can have greater reach and opportunity for engagement amongst younger and more diverse audiences.
Over the course of two years, Simeon Walker aims to have played a live show in each English county, alongside the other constituent nations of the UK.
He says: “I am so looking forward to heading off on tour again later in the year. Live performance is my very favourite thing – I love the interactions and conversations which always come as a result of going to new and old places alike, meeting people where they are in their own environment and community. I’ll be playing a range of material from across the first ten years of my career as pianist, composer, artist and performer, interwoven with stories, extra insights and context around the pieces and my experiences as a touring musician. It’s another opportunity to gather around the piano and enjoy some special moments together, in a range of places, venues and spaces across the UK. See you there!”
Tickets for the upcoming tour can be bought HERE
To mark his Autumn Tour announcement, Simeon Walker is releasing a new single; a live performance of one of his oldest and most popular pieces – a lilting, reflective solo piano piece titled ‘Compline’. This is accompanied by a beautiful live video from his performance in the German city of Düsseldorf for a Piano Day event in 2023.
Taking place in The Pool, a former underground swimming pool, in what now functions as an art gallery – designed by the famed architect Paul Schneider, the father of founding Kraftwerk-member Florian Schneider – the video captures this sense of the intimate, relaxed, communal listening experience Simeon Walker has been working hard to develop, with audience members arranged in an in-the-round formation around the performer, their legs dangling over the edge of the former pool.
God Is In The TV is delighted to be able to bring you the world premiere of this video
Main photo credit: Will Killen
‘Compline’ (Live)
Main release date: Friday 17 May 2024
Label: 1631 Recordings (Universal/Decca Publishing)
Format: Digital-only + live video
Audio: Raffael Seyfried
Camera: Tom Blankenberg, Christoph von Chamier, Raffael Seyfried
Editing: Raffael Seyfried
Colouring: Max Hütterman
Filmed & recorded at: The Pool, Düsseldorf (DE) Date: 30 March, 2023
