Take part in Longplayer Live
A free workshop and paid performance opportunity for 18-25 year olds with Longplayer and the Roundhouse.
Train and perform with professional musicians as part of Longplayer Live, a 1000-minute performance of a 1000-year-long piece of music, taking place at Roundhouse in April.
On the 5th April, Longplayer will be performed live at the Roundhouse for the first time in over a decade. As part of our celebrations for Longplayer’s 25th anniversary, we are offering a rare and unique opportunity for 18-25-year-olds to take part in a workshop at the Roundhouse with Jem Finer, Longplayer’s composer, and longstanding performer and custodian of the work, Ansuman Biswas.
Participants will work alongside Jem and Ansuman to explore how to play this 1000-year-long composition using a large orchestral instrument made of singing bowls. Jem and Ansuman will train participants in how to play the singing bowl, Longplayer’s score, and in durational performance, and will provide unique insight into the philosophical, artistic and technical background of Longplayer.
Following the workshop, 18 young people will be chosen to perform alongside 18 professional musicians in an extraordinary live event celebrating Longplayer’s 25th anniversary at the Roundhouse’s Three Sixty Festival on 5th April.
This is a unique opportunity to be part of a composition that will last 1000 years. Performers will join the Roundhouse creative community and be invited to become future custodians of Longplayer, helping to shape its next quarter century.
Taking part in the Longplayer Live workshop offers the chance to:
Play a part in a composition that will last 1000 years.
Perform live as part of the Longplayer Live orchestra, alongside 18 professional musicians, at the Roundhouse Three Sixty festival.
Training in how to play the singing bowl and in durational performance by two incredible musicians and artists: Jem Finer, Longplayer’s composer, and Ansuman Biswas, a longstanding performer and custodian of the work.
Insight into the unique philosophical, artistic, systematic and technological background of Longplayer.
An opportunity to join Roundhouse’s creative community and to become future custodians of Longplayer, helping to shape its next quarter century.
Selected performers will be paid £50 for rehearsals, £100 for performance, and will receive a guest ticket for the final event, as well as a Longplayer Live costume designed by Universal Works.
Deadline for applications: 19th February. For further information see here: https://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/longplayer-live-sp25/
Book your tickets for Longplayer Live: 5th April 2025
If you are not eligible to take part in the workshop but are interested in joining us for the first live performance of Longplayer in over a decade, please see here for further information and tickets: https://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/longplayer/
The performance will be of a 1000-minute section of Longplayer’s score, as written for that particular time and date, from 7.20am to midnight. Audiences can spend as long as they wish listening and watching, and are invited to move around or find a space to rest, with the possibility to leave and return to the venue throughout the performance’s duration.
Longplayer Live is generously supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust and Urban Space Management. Thanks is also due to Universal Works who will be supporting, designing and making the performers’ clothing.