Kate Whitley - Video

Premièred at the opening concert of BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations, ‘Verified‘ was a BBT commission from Kate Whitley and Multi-Story Young Creatives, as part of Multi-Story Orchestra’s 2023 BBT Communities Grant. It tells about the appeal and dangers of social media. Filmed live at Bold Tendencies in Peckham, South London, the vibrant performance was given by local school choirs; three BBT soloists, violinist Hyeyoon Park, percussionist Simone Rubino and soprano Ruby Hughes, also joined by fellow soprano Francesca Chiejina; and with the Multi-Story Orchestra conducted by Adam Gibbs.

On 25 February 2015 BBT award and fellowship winners, pianist Kate Whitley and guitarist Sean Shibe opened a five-month-long concert series at London’s exquisite Wilton’s Music Hall.  BBT film-maker Graham Johnston was on hand to record their impressions and plans in being presented with a carte blanche to programme whatever they wanted.  They shared the stage in the Main Hall, but from March Sean will lead BBT artists in inaugurating the newly reclaimed cocktail bar upstairs for an evening of intimate music making.

Kate Whitley opens BBT Wednesdays at Wilton’s concert series, 25 February 2015, with her own Five Piano Pieces in the main hall of Wilton’s Music Hall, London.  Kate writes: “I started playing the piano when I was four or five, and started composing when I was about sixteen. After writing a few early piano pieces (which I’d probably be very embarrassed by if I re-discovered them now), I didn’t write anything for solo piano for years. I decided to try again last year, and arranged these tiny sketches for piano. They are very gestural and fragmented, like a lot of my music. Each of them focuses on an obsession with a single note or idea.”