2008 Events – January Listing

Date

Event

Venue

Cutting edge jazz, world and contemporary music featuring international artists alongside home-grown talent. The 2008 programme will include a performance by fusion pioneer and seven-time Grammy award-winner Wayne Shorter, a tenor and soprano saxophonist without equal, who will step into the acoustic realm in a special collaboration with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (January 5th). Full festival line-up to be announced
soon, check www.liverpoolphil.com for details.

The weekend will begin on Friday 11 January with a free open air show on St George’s Plateau. On Saturday, Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, No Fakin DJ’s, The Bunnymen, Pete Wylie, Ian Brodie, Shack, and The Christians will be some of the stars celebrating the official opening of The Liverpool Arena with an exclusive one off performance of Liverpool The Musical.

On Sunday, the celebration continues when many of the city’s major arts venues open their doors. The weekend will also pay homage to the Bluecoat ahead of its re opening after a £12.5 million refurbishment.

www.liverpool08.com

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse in association with Hampstead Theatre present the world première of 3 Sisters on Hope Street, by Diane Samuels and Tracy-Ann Oberman…

Liverpool, 1946, stranded after the death of their father, sisters Gertie, May and Rita share their crowded home with their brother Arnold and his wife, May’s pedantic husband, a demanding Aunt and a cynical lodger.

As the young women search for meaning and hope amidst the upheaval of their post-war world, daily life and complications continue to tighten their hold on them.

This vibrant new take on Chekhov’s classic relocates the story from Russia to the Liverpool Jewish community of 1946-8 and unites the talents of Diane Samuels ( Kindertransport ) and celebrated actress Tracy-Ann Oberman to create a powerful and witty new drama, specially commissioned for 2008. Goes on tour after Liverpool.

During a weekend visit to Liverpool, the Archbishop of Canterbury will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Europe, Culture and Faith’ at Liverpool Cathedral.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) commemorates victims of the Holocaust as a result of Nazi persecution and in more recent genocides. It educates about the Holocaust and its lessons for the present day. It prompts action in the UK highlighting the continuing dangers of racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination. HMD is commemorated on 27th January each year and Liverpool will be hosting the National Commemoration in 2008.

This date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau and has been designated as International Holocaust Memorial Day by the UN.

Taking place in Liverpool for the first time from 30th January – 2nd February 2008, British Dance: Edition is one of the foremost events in the UK dance calendar. BDE is a festival, a marketplace, a gathering and a celebration.

This prestigious showcase attracts hundreds of national and international dance promoters to the host city, in search of the latest talent and ideas in British Dance. Events and performances will run from 11am to 11pm in a variety of venues as BDE takes over Liverpool city centre and beyond.

Liverpool’s theatres and alternative spaces will be filled with an eclectic programme of diverse and contemporary dance performance; profiling new and emerging work, alongside more well known and established companies.

Gala shows (open to the public), will open and close the festival at Liverpool Empire, the UK’s largest two-tier theatre. British Dance Edition offers dance fans the opportunity to see a unique collection of Britain’s most exciting contemporary dance.

Virals is a set of three projects in three different environments and contexts in the city infrastructure, Transport (January 2008), Urban Spaces (March 2008), Green Spaces (May 2008). They will have a positive, highly visible ‘infectious’ effect and engage with large numbers of people throughout the city.

The nature of the ‘infection’ will be specific to each context and engagement is seen as being a central element of the green spaces and urban spaces commissions. (Part of public art programme, commissioned from Liverpool Biennial by the Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008).

A series of grassroots community projects, supported by the Liverpool Culture Company via the ‘World in One City’ grants process. Projects include:
‘Art Against Africa’, supporting disengaged young people from the Croxteth and Norris green area to research other countries and develop art work;

‘A World of Dance’, using photography and dance to show Liverpool’s cultural diversity; and

‘The Caribbean Islands’, exploring the importance of Caribbean Culture and its place within the city of Liverpool.