Liverpool's new Tung Auditorium reveals its spring season

Liverpool’s latest concert venue the Tung Auditorium has revealed its inaugural season.

Huyton-born international piano star Paul Lewis will headline the programme at the state-of-the-art 400-seat space at the University of Liverpool when he performs there on March 29.

Lewis will play a recital on the venue’s new Steinway piano which he helped to choose.

The Tung Auditorium is based in the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre on the corner of Grove Street and Oxford Street.

Its main music programme starts at 1pm today with the latest in the university’s free Lunchtime Concert series when the University of Liverpool Chamber Choir will perform Vivaldi’s Gloria.

The lunchtime series continues on February 9 with multi award-winning British pianist and composer Rekesh Chauhan and tabla player Kousic Sen, and on February 16 when Wirral Brass Quintet takes centre stage.

The evening programme opens on March 5 with the first in a Musical Futures showcase series, featuring UK-based ensemble Distractfold.

The Coral’s Bill Ryder-Jones appears on April 9 when he will be joined by a string quartet to perform a selection of tracks from his album Yawny Yawn.

On April 21, Ensemble 10/10 will play at the venue, which is a new home for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s contemporary music group, while from May 6-8 the space will be taken over by Beckett: Confined, a drama and music festival celebrating the work of Samuel Beckett.

Above: The Tung Auditorium is in the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre in Oxford Street. Top: Artistic director Richard Hartwell inside the auditorium

Richard Hartwell, The Tung Auditorium's artistic director, said: “After many, many months of planning it is hugely exciting to be able to announce the programme for our wonderful new concert hall, The Tung Auditorium.

“We’ve got a real Liverpool and North West focus over the next few months, and it’s fantastic that within the programme we already have several co-promotions with prestigious local organisations, from the Liverpool Philharmonic, to Milap and Parrjazz.

“This concert hall is designed to be an exceptional space for classical music, but its versatile design allows us to do so much more, so we will be capitalising on this with a wide and varied programme.

“We want to build on our existing partnerships and make an impact locally, regionally and nationally.”

The Tung Auditorium is described as an ‘acoustically optimised’ flexible performance space which will be able to accommodate everything from a 70-piece orchestra to chamber groups, choruses and electro-acoustic and multi-media work.

There will be a public ‘open house’ on Sunday, March 27 where people are invited to see inside the new building.

For the full programme and booking, visit the website HERE