Tectonics 2024 announced

The programme for this year's Tectonics festival, founded and co-curated by Ilan Volkov, has been announced, with its weekend of new and experimental music including the world premiere of Jack Sheen's Lag.

On Saturday 4 May Volkov conducts BBCSSO in two concerts: Sarah-Jane Summers' The Spirit Multitude in the afternoon, and in the evening, the world premiere of Marc Yeats's 2020 a point in the landscape and Matthew Shlomowitz's 2023 Six Scenes for turntables and orchestra, performed by Mariam Rezaei. Ilya Gringolts gives the UK premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's Sei nuovi capricci for solo violin, commissioned by I&I Foundation.

On Sunday 5 May, Volkov conducts the world premiere of Sheen's Lag, a work inspired by the delays and glitches that we experience when dealing with technology. Sheen's orchestration is described in his artist profile: 'One's expectation of how things may unfold is gently confounded by this notion of 'lag', in both obvious and imperceptible ways. Rather than using the orchestra as a single unified force, it is broken up into a collection of smaller ensembles, many of which perform independently of the conductor's omnipresent beat.'

The concert also includes works by Charles Uzor, Carola Bauckholt and an I&I commission by Mirela Ivičević, also performed by Ilya Gringolts.

Volkov launched Tectonics in 2012, in collaboration with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has a longstanding relationship, now as Principal Guest Conductor. It has since become one of the world's most diverse and acclaimed celebrations of new music, with festivals in Adelaide, Oslo, New York, Tel Aviv, Krakow, Athens, Glasgow and Reykjavík. Concerts are available on the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's website, with highlights broadcast on BBC Radio 3.