London is to get a new concert venue and music education centre.
World Heart Beat is a new 200 seat concert venue in the Embassy Gardens area of Nine Elms in London, and will open in November 2022. This will be the first concert hall to open in London since Kings Place in 2008.
The venue, which was designed by Rory Aitkenhead of ARB Architect, will be run by music charity World Heart Beat, and also feature a music education centre.
Performances will start at the venue in January 2023, and promises an eclectic programme of contemporary jazz and classical, world music, folk, and emerging artists who have undertaken training with World Heart Beat.
Names confirmed for the first season include Julian Joseph OBE, jazz trumpeter Byron Wallen, Cuban-born violinist Omar Puente, saxophonist and flautist Tony Kofi, Indian classical musician Kamal Sabri, Russian-born British concert pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, winner of the BBC Young Musician brass category in 2016 Ben Goldscheider, and piano trio Amatis Trio .
World Heart Beat founder Sahana Gero MBE said, “We are honoured to be opening up World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens to add to the vibrancy and excitement around the new Nine Elms area. It is such a privilege to be able to contribute to the community with a state-of-the-art boutique concert hall and a music education facility. Music brings everyone together, it brings joy by linking communities and breaking down political, economic and cultural barriers. We would like to think of World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens as an inspiring place to be, a citadel for musical aspirations and achievement. A welcoming home for all.”
The auditorium is the first in the UK to install the 360-degree d&b immersive Soundscape EnScene system, ensuring that every member of the audience experiences the same quality of sound, regardless of their position in the hall.
The venue also includes a state-of-the-art recording studios, teaching spaces, outside broadcast studio and a café/bar.
World Heart Beat’s mission is to provide opportunities for all, and welcomes any young person interested in learning music. This commitment sees them providing bursaries and free instruments to more than half of the students that come through their door, benefitting thousands of young people, and particularly welcoming those living in challenging circumstances, and on the neighbouring communities on the Patmore, Savona, Carey Gardens, Doddington and Rollo Estates. In 2018, the organisation was awarded National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status by Arts Council England, acknowledging the quality of their work and the contribution they make to ACE’s Creative Case for Diversity and Equality.
