Sweeney Todd (schools edition)

Wednesday 3 to Saturday 6 October

Pamoja Hal   7.00pm

Tickets £20 full £17 concessions  Book tickets

Uncomfortably the most popular of the Sondheim/Prince collaboration, Sweeney Todd is the story of one man’s revenge against the corrupt judge and general London society which exiled him for a crime he had not committed. Together with his business associate, Mrs Lovett, Sweeney engages in his now legendary spree of murdering Londoners and serving them up in meat pies for fellow Londoners to consume.  Sondheim’s delicious score has wonderfully exhilarating melodies and luscious orchestrations which are somehow at odds with the terrifying plot and darkly comic moments.  A feast for all the senses.

This whole school production is brought to life by a talented ensemble cast of 51 Year 7-12 performers.They are accompanied by an orchestra featuring some of the most accomplished student musicians. 

Die Walkure

Sunday 28 October  Pamoja Hall   5.00pm

Book Tickets   

ANTONIO PAPPANO CONDUCTS AN INTERNATIONAL CAST IN THE SECOND OPERA OF RICHARD WAGNER’S EPIC DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN.

Wagner's Ring cycle is one of the greatest works of all opera. Keith Warner's production is conducted by Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera, and this final revival is cast with an outstanding international array of Wagnerian specialist singers. The full cycle's four operas journey from the beginning of a world to its destruction, with gods, heroes and monsters. This epic myth portrays every type of human emotion in music and ideas of extraordinary power. The Ring is always a special event in the operatic calendar: once experienced, never forgotten. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second opera in the cycle, and features several of the Ring's musical highlights - the sparkling Magic Fire Music and the electrifying Ride of the Valkyries. But among the musical fireworks and Norse mythology, at the centre of this opera are the unforgettable characters and the complex entanglements between them, including twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, and Wotan and his Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde.

SIEGMUND STUART SKELTON, SIEGLINDE EMILY MAGEE, WOTAN JOHN LUNDGREN, BRÜNNHILDE NINA STEMME, FRICKA SARAH CONNOLLY

APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME: 4 HOURS 50 MINUTES, INCLUDING TWO INTERVALS SUNG IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

Coram Boy

Wednesday 20 to Saturday 23 June

Sackville Theatre   7.00pm

Tickets £7   Book Now

Coram Boy adapted by Helen Edmundson from the children's novel by Jamila Gavin.

Set in Georgian England, where Thomas Coram has recently opened a foundling hospital in London for deserted children. Handel offers to stage a benefit concert to help provide a home for the alarming number of vulnerable, abandoned, children. But unscrupulous Coram men have taken advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee. Set amidst this tragic episode of British social history, and to the backdrop of Handel’s Messiah, Coram Boy follows the tale of two cities - Gloucester and London - and of two boys: Toby, saved from an African slave ship, and Aaron, illegitimate heir to a great estate.

Staged by a large Lower School ensemble, the Sevenoaks School Theatre Company’s production of this dark but uplifting story is not to be missed.

A beautiful story of lost children, abandoned hopes, broken hearts and reunions - The Guardian.

Coram Boy won the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 2000.

Swan Lake

Sunday 17 June

Pamoja Hall    2.00pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 concession, £15 subscriber* & £10 child/student   Book Now

Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. This Season The Royal Ballet creates a new production with additional choreography by Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.

Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.

Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky's first ballet score. Given its status today as arguably the best loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is perhaps surprising that at its premiere in 1877 Swan Lake was poorly received. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky's score, but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa's royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov.

Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov take the lead roles of Odette/Odile and Prince Siegfried, conducted by Koen Kessels. 

Darcey Bussell will be joined by broadcaster Ore Oduba, to give audiences around the world a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes as they present the live cinema relay.  

APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME:3 HOURS, INCLUDING TWO INTERVALS

Victor Mallet Talks

Thursday 14 June

Recital Room   6.15pm

Admission FREE     Book a place

Victor Mallet, Asia News Editor of the Financial Times, will discuss his book River of Life, River of Death. Hailed in the New Statesman’s books of the year as a 'wonderful achievement', the book, on the Ganges and India’s future, exposes an environmental crisis of international significance and asks whether India’s politicians can save the holy river from catastrophe. 

Singer/Songwriting Concert

Thursday 7 June

Recital Room   7.00pm

Admission FREE   Book a place

SSTC Year 9 present

House of Blood

Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 May

Sackville Theatre   7.00pm

Tickets £7    Book Now

A curse haunts the House of Atreus, passed down the generations and written in blood. Can the cycle of murder and revenge never be broken? Inspired by Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Year 9 students tell the story of a dark and disturbing Greek myth.

Helen Scales talks 

The Complex Lives of Fish

Wednesday 23 May

Pamoja Hall   6.15pm

Admission FREE but should be booked   Book a place

Marine Biologist Helen Scales, whose book on seashells, Spirals in Time was a Radio 4 Book of the Week and a book of the year for The Times, Guardian, The Economist and Nature, on the mesmerising and complex lives of fish. Book signings and sales courtesy of Sevenoaks Bookshop.

Translunar Paradise

Thursday 3 May

Sackville Theatre   4.30pm & 7.30pm

Tickets £13 (concession £10) Book Now

Theatre Ad Infinitum's wordless tale of life, death and enduring love returns to tour the UK and Chile following years of extensive international touring amassing nine awards.Original performers George Mann and Deborah Pugh are joined by Sophie Crawford to retell, with precise gesture and touches of humour, the story of widower William who escapes to a comforting world of fantasy and memories rather than confront his grief. From beyond the grave, his wife Rose returns to help him let go.

This poignant, life-affirming tale uses intricate and lifelike hand-held masks - created by Madame Tussaud's senior sculptor Victoria Beaton - to travel back and forth through William and Rose's relationship, wordlessly conveying a lifetime of memories in 75 minutes.

A Talk by Simon Stephens

Friday 20 April

Sackville Theatre  6.15pm

Admission FREE but must be booked   Book a place

Playwright Simon Stephens (Punk Rock, Birdland and adaptations of A Doll’s House, The Seagull and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time) on writing for the stage.

Macbeth

Sunday 8 April

Pamoja Hall 2.00pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 concession, £15* subscriber & £10 child/student Book Now

Verdi's life-long love affair with Shakespeare's works began with Macbeth, a play he considered to be 'one of the greatest creations of man'. With his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi set out to create 'something out of the ordinary'. Their success is borne out in every bar of a score that sees Verdi at his most theatrical: it bristles with demonic energy.

Phyllida Lloyd's 2002 production for The Royal Opera is richly hued, shot through with black, red and gold. The witches, imagined by designer Anthony Ward as strange, scarlet-turbaned creatures are ever-present agents of fate. Lloyd depicts the Macbeths' childlessness as the dark sadness lurking behind their terrible deeds. The Royal Opera's production uses Verdi's 1865 Paris revision of the opera, which includes Lady Macbeth's riveting aria La luce langue.

APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME: 3 HOURS 20 MINUTES, INCLUDING ONE INTERVAL 

SUNG IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

Royal Opera House Encore Screening

Bernstein centenary

Tuesday 27 March

Pamoja Hall    7.15pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 (£10 Child/Student)  Book Tickets

THE

The Royal Ballet celebrates the centenary of Leonard Bernstein's birth with an all-Bernstein programme from choreographers Wayne McGreggor, Liam Scarlett and Christopher Wheeldon. 

The programme includes two world premieres by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon, marking each artist's first foray into Bernstein. At the heart of the programme is the first revival of Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett's The Age of Anxiety, created in 2014 to Bernstein's soul-searching Second Symphony. Both symphony and ballet are inspired by W.H. Auden's masterful modernist poem, itself written in response to the atmosphere of disillusionment and uncertainty that followed the end of World War II.

 APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME: 3 HOURS, INCLUDING TWO INTERVALS

ID, 18 Years of the Housley School of Dance

Saturday 24 & 25 March

Pamoja Hall    12.00 & 5.00pm

Tickets £13 (concession £10)    Book Tickets

The Housley School of Dance celebrates 18 years of teaching in the bi-annual performance. If you love all types of dance, drama, singing and musical theatre it is well worth watching. The school has 200 children aged between 4-18 and the west-end style show is created by the principal of the school Jane Kirkby. It will be a lovely children's dance show and a true celebration of theatre.

Sevenoaks Swings

Friday 16 March

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

Tickets  £7    Book Now

The jazz music that has come out of Sevenoaks School in recent years has been astonishing. Come and hear large ensembles, such as the Sevenoaks School Big Band and the popular choir 'Voices' in our annual end of Lent term celebration Sevenoaks Swings.

Macbeth

Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 March 

Sackville Theatre    7.30pm

Tickets £7    Book Now

The Winter's Tale

Sunday 4 March

Pamoja Hall    2.00pm

Tickets £18.50, (concession £17, & child/student £10)   Book Tickets

Shakespeare's tale of love and loss becomes a compelling dance drama in Christopher Wheeldon's ballet adaptation. The story follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet, through remorse and regret - and after a seemingly miraculous return to life - the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. With powerful designs by Bob Crowley and atmospheric music by Joby Talbot, The Winter's Tale is a masterful modern narrative ballet.

APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME: 3 HOURS, INCLUDING TWO INTERVALS

Festival of Wind & Brass 2018

Saturday 24 February

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

Tickets £10 (£8 U18 & O65) U12 FREE   Book Now

Maidstone Wind Symphony is joined by former BBC Young Brass Player of the Year Matilda Lloyd and the Southern Counties Youth Band for the annual Festival of Wind Brass in Sevenoaks. Maidstone Wind Symphony's programme will include Mendelssohn's Overture for Winds, Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto and Mackey's Frozen Cathedral.

JONATHAN CROWHURST | conductor

Wednesday 21 February

Recital Room   4.15pm

Admission FREE    Book a Place

The masterclass will be taken by the internationally award-winning Fournier Trio, an ensemble that has rapidly established itself as one of the leading young chamber ensembles in the UK. They will be giving a short performance to open the class, followed by a 'Meet the Artists' question and answer session. Two of our chamber ensembles will then participate in the masterclass.

Tosca

Sunday 11 February

Pamoja Hall    2.00pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 concessions & £10 child/student   Book Now

Tosca is one of the great evenings of opera, and from its strident opening chords conjures up a world of political instability and menace.Jonathan Kent's production for The Royal Opera captures the dangerous political turbulence of Rome in 1800. The Chief of Police, Scarpia - one of the most malevolent villains in opera - ruthlessly pursues and tortures enemies of the state. His dark, demonic music contrasts with the expansive melodies of the idealistic lovers, Tosca and Cavaradossi, who express their passion in sublime arias, including 'Vissi d'arte' and 'E lucevan le stelle'. Giacomo Puccini's dramatic work was a hit with audiences on its 1900 premiere and it remains one of the most performed of all operas - with its gripping plot and glorious music, it's easy to see why.A candle-lit church, Scarpia's gloomy study with its hidden torture chamber and the false optimism of a Roman dawn: this handsome production throws into relief the ruthlessly taut drama, as the tension is wound up towards a fateful conclusion.

Puccini's meticulously researched score is infused with the same authentic detail, from distant cannon fire during the Act I Te Deum to tolling church bells and the sounds of a firing squad.

Opera in four acts.

APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME:3 HOURS, INCLUDING TWO INTERVALS | SUNG IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

Thursday 8 February

Sackville Theatre   6.00pm

Admission FREE    Book a Place

Historian and author of Black and British and The World’s War, David Olusoga on historical amnesia

The Beethoven Project

Tuesday 30 January

Recital Room    7.30pm

Admission FREE   Book a Place

Beethoven's place in contemporary culture is manifold. Our first exposure to his music is as likely to be a muzak version in a restaurant as a performance in a concert hall. Modern performances betray more our beliefs and aesthetics than those of Beethoven's times. How might we begin to uncover the real Beethoven, possibly the most important composer in the history of music, who was the first to write music of social and political resonance, and one of the very few who strode further into unknown territory with nearly every work? Students will perform the iconic piano sonatas and symphonies on a piano from Beethoven's time in this endeavour.

Thursday 25 January

Sackville Theatre   7.00pm

Admission FREE   Book a Place

Professor Paul Freemont, Co-director of the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial College London, on the frontiers of genetic research.

Rigoletto

Sunday 21 January

Pamoja Hall   2.00pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 concessions & £10 child/student   Book tickets

Don't miss David McVicar's acclaimed production of Verdi's powerful opera, conducted by Alexander Joel, featuring an excellent cast led by Dimitri Platanias, Lucy Crowe and Michael Fabiano. With themes that explore the misuse of power and corruption, Verdi's opera is emotionally powerful, psychologically thrilling, and as timely as ever. Broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill will give audiences around the world a glimpse behind-the-scenes as she presents the live cinema relay. Don't miss your chance to experience this world class opera broadcast live from London's Covent Garden. Opera in four acts. Approximate running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including one interval. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

Thursday 18 January

Pamoja Hall   6.30pm

Tickets    £7   Book Now

Lydian Orchestra Present

Winter Concert

Thursday 21 December

Pamoja Hall 7.30pm

Tickets £15 (£6 under 21, £1 under 16)   Book tickets

The Lydian Orchestra's Winter Concert will feature the 2017 Sevenoaks Young Musician of the Year, pianist Peter Xie, who will perform Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2. The conductor will be Peter Young.

SSTC Year 10 present

Great Expectations

Tuesday 5 to Saturday 9 December (no show Friday 8 December)

Sackville Theatre   7.00pm

Tickets £10 (£8 concessions)  Book tickets

A tale of wealth, poverty, ambition, rejection and love, Great Expectations is the story of Pip, an orphan whose life is changed when he meets an escaped convict in a churchyard, and is subsequently introduced to a mysterious elderly woman, and her beautiful ward. Neil Bartlett lovingly reinterprets Charles Dickens' dark, original Bildungsroman for the stage.

Crash into Christmas

Friday 8 December

Pamoja Hall    7.30pm

Tickets £7 (Profits to charity)  Book tickets

Join the large Sevenoaks School jazz ensembles in a festive musical extravaganza. The Big Band will lead the celebrations with performances of Swing sensations and there is also a chance to hear the school's gospel choir, barbershop ensembles and saxophone quartets perform many other light popular favourites.

Music at Sevenoaks presents

The Mighty Orchestra III

Friday 1 December

Pamoja Hall 7.30pm

Tickets £7    Book tickets

This concert celebrates the large ensemble playing which takes place at Sevenoaks School. The Symphony Orchestra, which will perform Schubert's 8th symphony, is supported by the younger Foundation Orchestra as well as the school's Middle School string orchestra, Sevenoaks Strings, and the school Wind Band. Members from all of these groups, and also some enthusiastic beginners, will join together for one spectacular performance of Luigi Denza's timeless classic, Funiculi, funicula. The Sennocke Consort will perform a selection of their Christmas material.

Theatre Ad Infinitum present

The Odyssey

Monday 6 November

Sackville Theatre   4.30pm & 7.30pm

Tickets £12 (£10 concession)   Book tickets

One actor. One hour. One man's epic quest to reunite with his family and seek his bloody revenge. The Odyssey follows the Greek warrior Odysseus in his relentless attempt to reach home so he can see his wife and son again before he dies. Passionate, highly physical and poignant storytelling brings this breathtaking adventure to life. A journey that will ignite the imagination and awaken the senses.

'The Best of the Fringe' - Observer

The Royal Opera Encore Screening

La Bohème

Sunday 8 October

Pamoja Hall   2.00pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 concessions & £10 child/full-time student   Book tickets

First performed in Covent Garden in 1897, La Bohème has been performed there more than 500 times since. Puccini's romantic depiction of bohemian Paris, with memorable music and a love story drawn from everyday life, has captivated audiences around the world. Director Richard Jones brings his characteristically acute insight to one of the best-loved of all operas, visualised in Stewart Laing's spectacular, stylised 1850s setting.

Opera in four acts. Approximate running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including one interval. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

Q&A with Writer John Lanchester

Friday 15 September

Pamoja Hall    7.00pm

FREE admission   Book a place

If you are looking for some summer reading, how about Capital by John Lanchester?

Serialised by the BBC with Toby Jones as investment banker Roger Yount, Capital is the gripping story of one London street during the financial crisis of 2008. If you prefer non-fiction, his best-selling Whoops: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay is a witty, accessible explanation of how the financial world works.

You can read the books and then meet the author.

The Royal Opera present: ENCORE screening

Verdi's Otello

Sunday 2 July

Pamoja Hall   2pm

Tickets £18.50, £17.00 concession, £15 Subscriber* & £10 child   BOOK NOW

 * To qualify for the Subscriber ticket price of £15, you must book for a minimum of 3 ENCORE screening performances in one transaction. For more information and to book for Subscriber tickets Click Here

World-famous tenor Jonas Kaufmann makes his role debut as Otello in Verdi's passionate retelling of Shakespeare's great tragedy of jealousy, deception and murder. Soprano Maria Agresta will be his Desdemona and baritone Ludovic Tézier his nemesis Iago in a new production by Olivier Award-winning director Keith Warner.

A major work of the opera repertory, Verdi's Otello draws on the full forces of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, the Royal Opera Chorus and this stellar line-up of principal singers, with exquisite duets, emotionally potent solo numbers and thrilling choruses. Particular highlights include Otello and Desdemona's rapturous love duet and Desdemona's poignant 'Willow Song'.

Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano conducts this Italian masterpiece. Approximate running time 2 hours 45 minutes including one interval. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.

Accordare Quartet in Concert

Thursday 29 June  

Recital Room   7.30 pm  

Tickets £12.00, (£5.00 Student)   Book Tickets

Robbie Norman and Craig Jarvis - Violins, Tim Grant - Viola and Anita Strevens - Cello Programme includes

Mozart String Quartet No.21 in D major, K.575

Shostakovich String Quartet No.8 in C minor, Op.110   

Beethoven String Quartet Op.18 No 2 in G major

www.accordarequartet.com

Theatre Ad Infinitum present

Bucket List

Monday 24 April

Sackville Theatre   6.30pm

Tickets £12   SOLD OUT

This multi award-winning company present the powerful story of one Mexican woman's fight for justice.

When her mother is murdered for protesting corporate and governmental corruption, Milagros finds herself with only a bloodstained list of those responsible. Determined to make them pay, she embarks on a passionate quest for justice, no matter the cost.A story about love, loss and revenge, told with physical storytelling, live instrumental music and song.

Spirit of the Fringe Award 2016 ★★★★ The Times ★★★★ The Stage

The Royal Ballet present: ENCORE screening

Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty

Sunday 5 March

Pamoja Hall   2pm

Tickets £18.50, £17 concession, £15 Subscriber* & £10 child  Book tickets

* To qualify for the Subscriber ticket price of £15, you must book for a minimum of 3 ENCORE screening performances in one transaction. For more information and to book for Subscriber tickets Click here

A perennial delight and a much-loved classic,The Royal Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty combines the best of classical ballet, with all its charms and virtuosity, splendid music and talented dancers.

First choreographed to Tchaikovsky's great musical score by Marius Petipa in Russia in 1890, The Sleeping Beauty has wonderful ensembles, solos including the Rose Adageas Princess Aurora meets her suitors, and of course the concluding celebratory dances for the happy union of prince and princess.

The Royal Ballet's landmark staging was revived for the Company's 75th anniversary celebrations in 2006. The designs by Oliver Messell, one of the greatest stage designers of the 20th century, were restored and updated for this production by Peter Farmer. The rich evocations of the baroque opulence of a royal court, the panoramic journey of the prince to the overgrown castle and the colourful characters in this famous fairy tale make this Sleeping Beauty a spectacle like no other.

Choreography - Marius Petipa, Production - Monica Mason and Christopher Newton, 

Conductor Koen Kessels

Approximate running time 3 hours including interval

Midsummer Misunderstandings

A talk by Jim Grant

Monday 27 February

Recital Room 3.00pm

Free Admission   Book tickets

Jim Grant will be giving an exclusive talk to the Arts Society to support Lent Term's school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In his own words: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream is a perennial favourite for school productions, even for quite young pupils. But why is a play about forced marriage, sexual desire, marital strife and mind-altering drugs seen as such a 'safe' choice for children? This talk will explore the assumptions about Shakespeare, about the content of the play, and about fairies that have made it the adult's favourite Shakespeare for youngsters, and explain the thinking, both educational and theatrical, behind the forthcoming Sevenoaks School Theatre Company production.'

Maidstone Wind Symphony present

Kent Festival of Wind and Brass

Saturday 25 February

Pamoja Hall   7.00pm

Tickets £10 (£8 concessions & under 12s FREE)   Book tickets

Maidstone Wind Symphony is joined by a wealth of world-class soloists for the annual Festival of Wind and Brass. Rex Richardson (trumpet), Les Neish (tuba) and Andy Findon (flute) will all join the orchestra in performances of the wind band music of Andy Scott to celebrate the launch of the new collaborative CD Roar! - The Wind Band Music of Andy Scott.

Rex, one of the very best trumpet soloists in the world, is flying in from America to premiere a dynamic jazz-influenced trumpet concerto written for him by Andy Scott. Europe's most recorded flute player Andy Findon will perform the beautifully poignant Fujiko while Les will wow audiences with his virtuosity on the tuba in the concerto Salt of the Earth. If that wasn't enough, the festival concert also features soprano Helen Bailey and a massed choir performing Johan de Meij's Symphony No 4, Sinfonie der Lieder. Stephen Richardson's Collision Theory and additional works by Andy Scott complete the programme for the orchestra under the baton of music director Jonathan Crowhurst.

Admission is free for MWS Season Ticket Holders but must be booked.

Full programme: –        Stephen Richardson - Collision Theory, Andy Scott - Paquito, Andy Scott - Trumpet Concerto Freedom of Movement, Andy Scott - Fujiko, Andy Scott - Salt of the Earth, Johann De Meij - Symphony No. 4, Sinfonie der Lieder

The festival programme will also include a series of workshops and masterclass sessions during the day with our featured soloists. Participation in the masterclasses is £10 per person and includes a free ticket for the evening's gala concert. For more information and to register your interest  education@maidstonewindsymphony.org

Is Ballet Stuck in the Sexist Past?

Wednesday 22 February

Recital Room   4.30pm

Admission FREE   Book Tickets

Of women, men and ballet in the 21 Century, is ballet stuck in the sexist past? A talk by Alastair Macaulay, Chief Dance Critic of the New York Times.

The JPA Academy presents

If Only You Would Listen

Sunday 10 July

Pamoja Hall   2.15pm & 6.00pm

The JPA Academy presented a dynamic theatre showcase with extracts from hit West End and Broadway shows, featuring Les Miserables, Grease, Mary Poppins, Hair, The Drowsy Chaperone, Jersey Boys, The School of Rock and more. It starred their talented students, aged 5 to 18.

SEVENOAKS FESTIVAL FINALE

Rick Wakeman

Sunday 3 July

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

Rick Wakeman has led a rich and varied life, which has included collaborations with David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Elton John, not to mention his own band worldwide tours and TV appearances on Watchdog and Grumpy Old Men. Join him as he recounts hilarious and unlikely anecdotes from a life rarely dull for Rick and for those around him.

Martin Taylor in Concert

Thursday 30 June

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

Award-winning guitarist Martin Taylor will perform a dazzling solo concert combining virtuosity, emotion and humour with a strong, engaging stage presence.

A rare talent and one to be not simply appreciated but treasured - Sir Michael Parkinson

SEVENOAKS FESTIVAL 

Sir Willard White in concert

Sunday 26 June  

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

Sir Willard White returns to the Pamoja Hall, and is joined by soprano Sylvia Kevorkian and pianist Eugene Asti to perform a scintillating and wide ranging selection of aria, lieder and musical theatre song.

Science at Sevenoaks

An evening of celebration

Tuesday 24 May, Pamoja Hall, 7.00pm

A fast paced evening of talks, demonstrations, videos and performances celebrating the science studied at Sevenoaks School and beyond. The event will be scaffolded by a virtual tour of the proposed Science building, exploring the potential it provides for Science at Sevenoaks.

SSTC present Year 8 production

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Monday 9 to Wednesday 11 May

Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Drama Studio 

7.00pm

An exciting interpretation of Coleridge's famous poem combining atmospheric sounds with physical imagery and text. Part live radio drama, part-theatre, the company will explore abstract voices and music to transform a wedding reception into the Mariner's haunting story.

Sevenoaks Chamber of Commerce present

EU Referendum: In or Out?

Thursday 28 April   Pamoja Hall   7.00pm 
Tickets Free, but must be booked.   

The Sevenoaks Chamber of Commerce and The Space invite you to an evening of debate and discussion in lieu of the up and coming EU Referendum. We are delighted to confirm the participation of Daniel Hannan MEP of the South East of England and Cllr. Peter Fleming OBE as Leader of Sevenoaks District Council. Further panellists to be announced shortly, to provide what promises to be an interesting and lively discussion to represent both sides of the 'in or out' conclusion. Some of the topics of discussion will include:

• Trade
• Employment
• Regulations

The evening will be compared by Paul Andrews CEO and owner of Jobs In Kent and Kent Business Radio. Paul is passionate about supporting SMEs on their journey to success and is an experienced presenter and compare of business debates. The evening is intended to be interactive and there will be opportunity for audience participation.

• 7.00pm: Reception and networking (paid bar)
• 8.00pm: Introductions
• 8.15pm: Debate
• 9.45 pm: Conclusion
• 10.00pm: Close

Sevenoaks School Dance Show 2016  

Friday 22nd April 

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

A fantastic showcase of dance including tap, Bollywood, the Charleston and hip hop, involving over forty students across Sevenoaks school in a multitude of cultures, eras, and styles. This student-led spectacle brings together the talents of experienced dancers and novices alike, showing how collaboration between all ages can produce a night, full of toe tapping entertainment.

This evening will be in aid of two very worthy charities. Magpie helps people of all ages who have learning disabilities by teaching them dance, while the Stroke Association is focused on improving life for stroke survivors. 

Sevenoaks School Jazz Club 

Thursday 14 April

Sackville Theatre  7.30pm

An intimate 'jazz club' setting in the Sackville Theatre creates an ideal stage for the best jazz musicians in the school to perform with a professional jazz trio: Jim Treweek, piano, Eric Guy, double bass and Buster Birch, drums. 'The best event I have ever been to at the school.' Sevenoaks School parent

Chamber Music Platform Series

Tuesday 1 March  

Thursday 3 March

Wednesday 9 March

Sevenoaks School has acquired a formidable reputation for chamber music. Regular finalists in Pro Corda's annual national Chamber Music Festival for Schools, Sevenoaks presents three evenings dedicated to music for the small ensemble and featuring the work of some 60 of its students.

PIANO PRACTICE SHOWCASE

Tuesday 8 March

Pamoja Hall & Recital Room

Mention the words 'piano practice', and what springs to mind? From the dreaded scales to the lofty artistic heights of Chopin's Etudes, everything relating to this central aspect of pianistic endeavour will be explored. Metronomes are an important part of piano practice, and no fewer than 100 will be assembled for a performance of Ligeti's Poème Symphonique. Throughout the day, a Hanon exercise marathon will be taking place in the foyer for everyone to have a go at piano practice.

The Importance of Being Earnest Theatre Screening

Saturday 12 March  7:00pm

Pamoja Hall

Don't miss Olivier Award winner and Poirot star David Suchet as the formidable Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's much-loved masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest, which was filmed live at London's Vaudeville Theatre. A superb satire on Victorian manners and one of the funniest plays in the English language, the delightful repartee and hilarious piercing of hypocrisy will make you laugh out loud!

Sevenoaks School present

MUSIC FOR A CAUSE

Wednesday 3 March   

Pamoja Hall  6.30pm

Music for a Cause aims to raised awareness of the devastating effect of the Syrian Civil War and raised funds of approximately £1,900 to help rebuild the lives of those who have been physically maimed by the ongoing conflict. The money raised will go to the National Syrian Project for Prosthetic Limbs. The concert featured talented musicians, dancers and bands, both established and up-and-coming, across the year groups from the school.

SSTC present Year 9 production

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA By Anthony Neilson

Wednesday 3 to Saturday 6 February

Sackville Theatre  7.00pm

Lisa Jones was on a journey. It was a colourful and exciting off-kilter trip in search of one lost hour that tipped the balance of her life. The inhabitants of the wonderful world she found herself in - Dissocia - were a curious blend of the funny, the friendly and the brutal.

Produced originally for the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival, The Wonderful World of Dissocia wowed critics and audiences alike, cleaning up at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland. This original play, both magical and moving, confirmed Anthony Neilson as one of the major voices in contemporary British theatre. 'Bubbling with inventiveness that is distinctly its own.' Telegraph.

Sevenoaks School present

Music Scholars Recital

Friday 29 January   Recital Room   7.30pm   

The Music scholars at Sevenoaks School have acquired a reputation over many years for their technical excellence and musical mastery of leading works in the classical repertoire.

Many of them have won local and national awards and excel in music festivals around the UK. We heard music from Bach and Britten, performed to an exceptional standard by these teenage stars!

Sevenoaks School present

String Platform Recital

Monday 25 January 

Pamoja Hall   7.30pm

The String Platform Concert on Monday 25th January was a chance for the string players in the school to showcase their talents. The concert opened with two items from Sevenoaks Strings, conducted by two of our music scholars: Sophie Westbrooke and Sehee Lim. What a wonderful opportunity for them to have the chance to direct an ensemble! This was followed by six solos, that ranged from movements of violin concertos to harp solos. All of the soloists flourished and enjoyed their opportunity to perform a solo in the Pamoja Hall!

SSTC present Lower Sixth studio production

100 By Neil Monaghan, Diene Petterle, Christopher Heimann

Tuesday 19 to Thursday 21 January

Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Drama Studio

6.30pm (4.30pm Thursday)

Imagine that you must choose one single memory from your whole life and capture it with a magical camera. Everything else will be erased from your mind forever. Imagine that choosing this memory is your only way of passing through to eternity. You have just one hour to decide... This was a student led adaptation of of the award-winning piece created by theatre company The Imaginary Body.

Read the review here

The Band of the Grenadier Guards & Eynsford Concert Band present

FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY

Sunday 22 November

Pamoja Hall 7.00pm

The Band of the Grenadier Guards and Eynsford Concert Band combine for the third year in the Pamoja Hall for a concert of fabulous music and entertainment.

Please join us for a showcase of the spectacular pomp and ceremony of our great nation in one special evening.

This charity concert is being held to raise money for SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association). Please come and show your support for our armed forces and their families at this special event.

FRANTIC ASSEMBLY CREATIVE RESIDENCY

Tuesday 3 to Wednesday 18 November

Sackville Theatre 10am-5pm

Workshops in physicality and devising, for teachers and school pupils.

Frantic Assembly creates thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Their unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text. They have built an enviable reputation as one of the most exciting companies in the country.

In addition to its productions, Frantic Assembly operates an extensive Learn & Train programme introducing participants to the company's process of creating theatre, in a wide variety of settings. 'Vibrant and visceral' The Independent

• Free Teacher INSET, Saturday 7 November 10am-5pm

• Free public workshop for young people aged 14-19, Sunday 8 November, 1-5pm

Email Annabel Bates asb@sevenoaksschool.org to enquire about bookings.

MAKING IT

Sevenoaks Alumni Exhibition: Invention & Imagination

Sundays 6, 13 & 20 September The Space 11.00 - 4.00pm

Admission FREE

Group private views available by appointment boxoffice@sevenoaksschool.org

Making It is a contemporary exhibition which showcases ten pre-eminent Sevenoaks School alumni who have established international careers as visual thinkers.

The exhibition is curated in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Society. It will feature works by Thomas Heatherwick, creator of the London 2012 Olympic Cauldron and new London Bus, Turner Prize winner Simon Starling, Daiwa Foundation Art Prize 2015 winner Oliver Beer, shoe designer Emma Hope, sculptors Oliver Barratt and Andrew Burton, textile artist Celia Pym, photographer Matt Humphrey, architect Richard Reid and textile designer Sophie Roet.

This is a celebration of invention and imagination: both in the individual practice of each artist and in the exhibition itself, the show expresses a delight in, and respect for the diversities of visual thinking and the hands-on process of making.

ANIMA

Tuesday 15 September Pamoja Hall 7.30pm

ANIMA, an eight-piece contemporary music ensemble, will perform live music alongside animated film clips. Founded and conducted by composer-in-residence Chris Roe, ANIMA consists of some of the UK's most exciting young performers, including Olivia Jaguers (harp) and Minn Majoe (violin), both former students of Sevenoaks School.

Performing a diverse range of audio-visual collaborations from talented emerging composers and animators, the group explores the profound relationship between film and music.

This concert features music by Old Sennockian composers Joanne Sy and Chris Roe, and new compositions from Sevenoaks School Composers' Corner, who will hear their new pieces of film music come to life for the first time!

Rethinking The Traditional 

Billy Hill, Ramon Goose & Special Guests 

Friday 11 September Sackville Theatre 7.30pm

Over the last two years, Billy Hill has been working with guitarist Ramon Goose to develop an acoustic instrumental rocky sound which incorporates bluesy, syncopated rhythms from the Deep South, violin solos, and West African influences.

They have featured several times on BBC Radio 6 Music, and their recording 'Glory in the Meeting House' was chosen by musician and broadcaster Tom Robinson as one of his favourite tracks for 2014.

They have just received an Arts Council award to release a CD of their work, and are promoting this with a small series of gigs.

SSTC Lower School present

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Wednesday 17 to Saturday 20 June Sackville Theatre

Adapted by Peter Hall, with lyrics by Adrian Mitchell and music by Richard Peaslee, this much-acclaimed dramatisation of George Orwell's classic, allegorical novel was first seen at the National Theatre in 1984. The Lower School's modern production re-vamped the play Lord of The Flies style.

A school art class is abandoned and as one teenager begins to read the novel, the farmyard of Manor Farm comes to life around them and the others re-enact the animals' rebellion. Animal Farm is a collaboration between the SSTC, Strangeface Theatre Company and Sevenoaks School Art department, with Sevenoaks students creating their own masks, puppets and animations.

Sevenoaks Symphony Orchestra 

Midsummer Classics

Sunday 17 May Pamoja Hall 7.30pm

This concert started with Mendelssohn's light and sparkling overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which reflected the evening's lovely weather. Then proceeded with Brahms piano concerto No1 in D minor which was both powerful and symphonic, and exploited to the full our fine Steinway piano resident in The Space. To conclude, Beethoven's Symphony No3 in E flat, the mighty 'Eroica' symphony dedicated, until the composer had second thoughts, to Napoleon.

The Role of Chemists in the Discovery of New Medicines

Thursday 26 March Pamoja Hall

This lecture illustrated how medicinal chemistry continues to lead the discovery of new medicines worldwide. By using specific examples of a modern-day diseases (such as cancer, AIDS, etc.), and applying problem-solving techniques to design molecules that interact with specific biological targets the talk discussed how this will save lives and improve upon quality of life.

The talk highlighted how diverse technologies (such as robotics used originally in the car industry and supercomputers) and ground-breaking discoveries in other scientific fields (biology, analytics, formulation, large-scale chemistry, and engineering) are co-ordinated in the design of new therapeutic agents, with the emphasis being on how chemistry is the core science which makes this possible.

SEVENOAKS SWINGS

Thursday 19 March Pamoja Hall

This traditional Sevenoaks School end-of-term celebration of all things jazz and swing featured the school big band, Middle School jazz band, saxophone quartet and many other ensembles and soloists, plus special guest, the internationally acclaimed saxophonist Simon Bates. Simon is recognised as one of this country's leading jazz saxophonists and appears regularly at Ronnie Scott's, The Jazz Cafe, 606 Club, The Bull's Head and the finest jazz clubs and festivals worldwide.

TOY PIANO SHOWCASE

Tuesday 10 March Pamoja Hall

In another innovative programme of music for the keyboard, Sevenoaks School presented an evening of music based around toy instruments. Masterminded by Sevenoaks School's Head of Keyboard, Mr Tau Wey, the concert featured Leopold Mozart's 'Toy Symphony' as well as other curiosities and delights intended to stimulate and amuse audiences of all ages.

Bollywood Brass Band 100 YEARS OF BOLLYWOOD

Friday 6 March Pamoja Hall

Funky drummers and a six-piece horn section played massive hits from Indian films, celebrating a century of Hindi films throughout a golden age of Bollywood and beyond. The Bollywood Brass Band played music with video projections from early 1913 footage to present day blockbusters and their super-hit songs.

In aid of the Mulamula Education Centre project.

Sevenoaks School CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

Monday 2 March, Thursday 5 March and Wednesday 11 March Recital Room Sevenoaks School has acquired a formidable reputation in the South East in the field of chamber music. They are regular finalists in Pro Corda's annual national Chamber Music Festival for Schools. Sevenoaks School presents three evenings dedicated to music for the small ensemble and featuring the work of some 60 students.

FOURNIER TRIO

Thursday 5 February Pamoja Hall

Formed in 2009, the London-based Fournier Piano Trio is rapidly emerging as one of the leading young piano trios. Winners of the 2013 Parkhouse Award, they were awarded both second prize and Audience prize at the sixth Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in 2011. The trio has made critically acclaimed debuts at both the Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall in London and have also performed widely around the world with concerts in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. This includes a visit to Singapore's Yong Siew Toh Conservatory to give master classes and perform in the 'Ones to Watch' Series.

PIANO TECHNIQUE WORKSHOP with Alan Fraser

Thursday 15 January Recital Room

Canadian pianist and teacher Alan Fraser is the author of the seminal book on piano technique The Craft of Piano Playing. Fraser’s analysis of the innate structure and function of the human hand unlocks its power, replacing tension or over-relaxation with effective hand activation. Whatever is lacking in your technique, Fraser can see exactly where a new effort can bring your body and hand into better alignment, making your piano tone blossom with new richness and subtlety, and increasing your sense of power and agility! Alan Fraser will lead an Awareness through Movement Feldenkrais group lesson, before coaching selected piano students.

SSTC Lower Sixth play OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD by Timberlake Wertenbaker Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 December Sackville Theatre

In 1988, Our Country’s Good premiered at the Royal Court before transferring to the West End and Broadway, winning major awards on both sides of the Atlantic. Wertenbaker’s drama explores the early colonisation of Australia and the redemptive power of theatre, while intelligently debating the philosophical and political arguments around the purpose of prison. Based on the novel The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally, Our Country’s Good explores the true story of a ragtag cast of transported convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales in 1780, who staged Australia’s first ever play. ‘The convicts laugh at hangings, Sir. It’s their theatre.’ Imaginatively staged in the Sackville Theatre to bring the audience into the world and themes of the play, Our Country’s Good will be performed by a talented Lower Sixth ensemble.

Les Enfants Terribles presents THE TRENCH

Tuesday 4 November Sackville Theatre

After a sell-out five star run at the Edinburgh Festival, Les Enfants Terribles present their new award-winning show, The Trench. From the team behind Ernest and the Pale Moon, comes a new play inspired by the true story of a miner who became entombed in a tunnel during World War One. As the horror threatens to engulf him, he finds that not everything in the darkness is what it seems as he starts to discover a new, strange world beneath the mud and death. Setting off on an epic journey of salvation, the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur as he questions what’s real, what’s not and whether it even matters.

IN CONVERSATION WITH TWO SCULPTORS

Thursday 11 September, Pamoja Hall

This event celebrated the installation of two sculptural commissions for Sevenoaks school campus. The two artists discussed their work in conversation with Rachel Campbell-Johnston, art critic of The Times and Tony Carter, Principal at City & Guilds. Oliver Barratt was commissioned by the Parents Association to produce a large, painted bronze piece called Thinking Aloud, formed from a complex of curves that describe the intuitive but disciplined act of thinking.

Joshua Vaughan, a recent graduate of City & Guilds London Art College, won a commission to produce a collaborative sculpture, produced with input from pupils from Sevenoaks school. Groups of pupils drew maps of the daily routes they undertake about the school campus and these drawings formed the basis of the sculptures.

The TOOT Collective presents BE HERE NOW

Tuesday 9 September Sackville Theatre

Music, Life and Love are remixed and re-mastered in TOOT’S Be Here Now, a constantly surprising, occasionally chaotic and irreverently comic look at the soundtrack of the 1990s. This lively and original show celebrates the thrill of anticipation and examines how music can seep into and influence our lives at key moments. TOOT will immerse you in a world of CDs, cassettes and minidiscs, rewinding, fast-forwarding and pausing fantasies, memories, the rawness of love and the music that defines it. Hit repeat and relive together the scenes you play over and over in your head, the potent moments you can’t change, all set to a soundtrack of 90s classics. Pumping 90s beats, suspect dance routines and angsty shoe-gazing combine to celebrate the irresistible power of pop, and examine how that song will forever ignite heady feelings of love lost and won.