Cécile McLorin Salvant: Book of Ayres

How far can a song travel? 

Exploring the roots of jazz, blues, folk, theatre, and even baroque music, Cécile McLorin Salvant is a musical storyteller and curator, unearthing forgotten songs and overlooked stories, giving them a new life. She is drawn to songs and stories that have been forgotten, instruments that have fallen out of use, and languages and performance styles on the brink of extinction.  

In Book of Ayres, the three-time Grammy Award-winner brings together top improvising musicians from different worlds: early music, jazz, folk, and electronic. Synthesizers and percussion meet with flute and harpsichord, creating a colourful backdrop for a new type of folk song. Stories feature from different tongues across eras and borders, blending early music and vaudeville, Sappho and folkloric material of Europe and the Americas. New material written by Cécile will also appear for the first time as part of this UK premiere and first performance outside North America.

Part of Unfinished Revolutions, a season tracing the living legacy of 1776.

“Part of my practice is imagining musical family trees and learning from the influences of my influences. Growing up, I wanted to be an opera singer. Opera led me to Baroque music, which led me to early music. I had a similar path with American music.

I gravitate towards forgotten songs, early or maligned instruments, and languages and performance styles on the brink of extinction. I bring this process of excavation into my own writing, blending old and new, exploring language and mythology. I have been making the unoriginal yet concerted effort to move beyond categorizing music by genre. What I am interested in is exploring, celebrating, and making fun of desire, divulging secrets, dredging up the past, looking under the rug.” – Cécile McLorin Salvant

Special post-show conversation

Following the performance on Thursday 28 May, Cecile will be joined onstage by multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens for a post-show conversation. They will discuss the new material Cecile has been developing for the show, and the start of Rhiannon’s year as one of the Cultural Programme’s Visiting Fellows, as well as taking questions from the audience. The discussion will end at approximately 9.30pm.