Ben Okri, Deborah Pritchard and Harriet Mackenzie
About
Sir Ben Okri is a long-time visitor to the National Gallery, often returning to look at a single work of art. From 2018 he began a fruitful collaboration with the visual artist Rosemary Clunie, bringing together the worlds of painting and poetry, image and text. Art has also been the inspiration for some of his novels and poems, including paintings in the Gallery collection.
This special event continues our bicentenary celebrations uniting art with music, another love of Okri. He is joined by award-winning composer Dr Deborah Pritchard, whose violin concerto Wall of Water, after paintings by Maggi Hambling, was performed at the Gallery in 2015 by violin soloist Harriet Mackenzie, who also joins the event.
Poems inspired by art will be accompanied by a programme of curated music to include a world premiere by Pritchard played by Mackenzie on solo violin. The three rivers of creativity of art, music and poetry combine to make this a unique experience. They are joined by cellist Gabriel Francis-Dehqani and harpist Olivia Jaguers.
Performers
Sir Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a British-Nigerian poet and novelist. His novel ‘Astonishing the Gods’ was named by the BBC as one of the hundred novels that have shaped our world. His poem about the Grenfell Tower disaster was seen by over 6 million people on Channel 4’s Facebook page. In 1991, his novel ‘The Famished Road’ won the Booker Prize. Okri was knighted at the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature.
Dr Deborah Pritchard is a synaesthetic composer, performed worldwide by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Choir of New College, Oxford and the BBC Singers, receiving a British Composer Award in 2017. She was awarded her D.Phil from Worcester College, University of Oxford and is Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. She held the tenure of Visiting Fellow at Keble College, Oxford from 2022 to 2023 and has spoken at both the RA and the United Nations, New York.
Harriet Mackenzie is an internationally renowned soloist and has performed across five continents. Recordings include concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Nova and the English Symphony Orchestra. These have received international acclaim, including a Five Star review in The Times (Richard Morrison), Editor's Choice in Gramophone Magazine (Richard Whitehouse) and a nomination for 'Recording of The Year' in Music Web International.
Friday Lates performance
Ben Okri, Deborah Pritchard and Harriet Mackenzie
Onsite tickets
Standard: £15
Concessions: £10
Tickets include entry to the National Gallery.
Please arrive in good time to access the building and find the event.
Bookings close one hour before the event.
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.