Highlights include:

• Year-long artist residency at London’s Southbank Centre as part of the 70th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall organ to include solo organ recital and UK premiere of Tristan Perich’s Infinity Gradient on 23 March 2024

• European premiere of Nico Muhly’s Register with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Pekka Kuusisto at Helsinki Concert Hall on 8 February 2024

Virtuoso organist, keyboard player, and composer James McVinnie remains at the forefront of expanding the organ repertoire, driving new music through his diverse collaborations with contemporary and emerging composers. This continues across the 2023/24 season, during which he embarks on a year-long residency at London’s Southbank Centre, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall organ, and travels across the UK, Europe and America, showcasing his ever-expanding breadth of organ repertoire through his boundless creativity, presenting new music for the instrument and world-class collaborations.

Over the past 15 years McVinnie has steadily built himself a unique, custom repertoire for the organ which reflects his indefatigable musical curiosity and sense of creativity around the instrument. One such work is Nico Muhly’s Register, a 30-minute concerto for organ and orchestra, which was written for McVinnie and received its world premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2018. A co-commission with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Southbank Centre, Register centres around a segment of English Renaissance master Orlando Gibbons's 'Pavan in G minor’, and features an extensive cadenza for the organ's pedals, leading to the gradual emergence of the original Gibbons piece by both the organ and the offstage harp and celeste. James will give the European premiere with the Helsinki Philharmonic under the baton of Pekka Kuusisto at the Helsinki Music Centre. This concert forms part of the inauguration of the hall’s 124 stop Rieger Organ, one of the world’s most significant and anticipated new instruments (7 & 8 February). The concert will also be available on demand on HKO Screen.

Commencing his Southbank Centre Residency as part of the 70th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall organ, McVinnie will showcase his versatility with two distinct concerts of opposing genres on the same day, celebrating both organ tradition and innovation. The first is a specially curated lunchtime solo organ recital, centring around the pre-Bach Golden Age of organ composition in central Europe by Sweelinck, Pachelbel, Buxtehude and Bohm—music which was at the heart of Ralph Downes’s brave new vision when he designed the Royal Festival Hall organ in the aftermath of the 2nd world war. The programme culminates with Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in E minor BWV 548, one of his most imposing creations (23 March, 2pm).

Later in the day, McVinnie transitions to exploration with the UK premiere of Infinity Gradient, a collaboration with producer & composer Tristan Perich exploring intertwining digital and acoustic sound by merging primitive electronic waveforms with the sonic magnitude of the organ. Composed for McVinnie and premiered at Musica Festival Strasbourg in 2021, this hour-long musical tour-de-force through Perich’s sound-world is scored for solo organ and 100 speakers in 1-bit audio. An innovative composition, this work, which features eight contiguous movements, offers a unique exploration of the pipe organ's relationship to synthesis in music and vice versa, challenging long-form musical structure and exploring how sound fits within an architectural space (23 March, 8pm).

In the US, McVinnie joins the Cleveland Orchestra and conductor John Adams for two performances of Gabriella Smith's powerful concerto, Breathing Forests, at Severance Hall, Cleveland. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for James McVinnie in 2022, and inspired by Smith's experiences with California wildfires, the 30-minute concerto, in three movements – "Grow," "Breathe," and "Burn" – explores the complex relationship between humans, forests, climate change, and fire, and serves as a sonic reflection on the urgency of preserving our planet's essential carbon sinks. Recently described in a review as ‘a staggering concerto’, the piece promises an immersive experience, combining sombre reflection with a celebration of forest ecosystems and a call to action against climate change (4 & 6 April).

McVinnie reunites with his own ensemble – a keyboard collective comprising Eliza McCarthy, Siwan Rhys and Hugh Rowlands - for a programme of American music spanning 60 years, showcasing the evolution of minimalist compositions. The programme features music by Gabriella Smith, inti figgis-vizueta, John Adams (Hallelujah Junction) as well as music from Philip Glass’s early period (Music in Contrary Motion) and rarely heard North Star (29 June).

James McVinnie says: "This Season and Southbank Centre Residency marks a significant milestone for me. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall organ at London’s Southbank Centre is a tremendous honour, and I'm eager to showcase its rich history. The juxtaposition of tradition and innovation is a theme that resonates throughout the season. I’m excited to share these diverse musical experiences, pushing the boundaries of organ repertoire even further, highlighting the organ’s adaptability to modern technology, and presenting the organ as an eternally new instrument, continually evolving with the times."