- This event has passed.
Cécile McLorin Salvant: Book of Ayres
28 May @ 7.00pm
About Cécile McLorin Salvant: Book of Ayres
How far can a song travel?
How far can a song travel? is a UK premiere by Cécile McLorin Salvant that explores the roots and afterlives of jazz, blues, folk, theatre, and early music. A musical storyteller and curator, Salvant revives forgotten songs, instruments, and performance traditions, reimagining them for a contemporary audience.
In Book of Ayres, the three-time Grammy Award-winner brings together improvising musicians from across genres — early music, jazz, folk, and electronic — blending synthesisers and percussion with flute, harpsichord, theorbo, lute, and bass.
The result is a richly layered new folk sound, where texts and traditions from across eras and cultures converge, from Dowland and Purcell to Monteverdi and folkloric material spanning Europe and the Americas.
Presented as part of Unfinished Revolutions, the work reflects on how music migrates, transforms, and survives across time, borders, and languages, continually reshaped by those who perform it.
“Part of my practice is imagining musical family trees and learning from the influences of my influences. Growing up, I wanted to be an opera singer. Opera led me to Baroque music, which led me to early music. I had a similar path with American music.
“I gravitate towards forgotten songs, early or maligned instruments, and languages and performance styles on the brink of extinction. I bring this process of excavation into my own writing, blending old and new, exploring language and mythology.
“I have been making the unoriginal yet concerted effort to move beyond categorizing music by genre. What I am interested in is exploring, celebrating, and making fun of desire, divulging secrets, dredging up the past, looking under the rug.”
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Special pre-show conversation
Before the performance on Thursday 28 May, Cécile will be joined onstage by award-winning multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens.
They will discuss the new material Cécile has been developing for the show, and the start of Rhiannon’s year as one of the Cultural Programme’s Cultural Fellows. There will be a short break before Book of Ayres begins at 7.45pm.
Please note: the advertised post-show conversation on Thursday 28 May will now take place before the performance and be slightly shorter.
Performers
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Sullivan Fortner, piano/harpsichord/keyboards
Emi Ferguson, flute
Dušan Balarin, theorbo/lute
Yasushi Nakamura, bass
Keita Ogawa, percussion
Tickets
Please see important booking information below.
Booking information
Times:
Approx. 90 mins (plus 30 mins pre-show event on Thursday 28 May)
Location:
Sohmen Concert Hall
About Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities is a major new cultural and academic landmark for the University of Oxford, bringing together seven humanities faculties with performance, exhibition, and public engagement spaces under one roof. Located in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, it is designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration while opening the humanities to a wider public through events, performances, and year-round programming.
At its heart are world-class venues including a concert hall, theatre, cinema, recital spaces, and galleries, supported by flexible teaching and meeting facilities. A central atrium acts as a social hub, blending academic life with informal gathering spaces, cafés, and exhibitions. More than a university facility, the Centre functions as a civic cultural destination, connecting scholarship with creative practice and strengthening Oxford’s wider cultural life.
