Sean Shibe, 12 Ensemble & GBSR Duo (Double Bill)

Guitarist Sean Shibe begins his residency at the Southbank Centre with GBSR Duo and 12 Ensemble for Leith’s Doom and the Dooms.

The work imagines Doom and the Dooms performing their greatest hits, in a concert that takes in melancholy harmonies, fast-paced rock, distortion and microtonal string writing.

Shibe takes the mantle of the lead guitarist, with strings and keyboard standing in for a singer. The result is a bittersweet evocation of a history and music that never was.

Leith says, ‘The guitar has cultural baggage, so I’m embracing it, rather than avoiding it. Its baggage is material.’

The composer’s fascination with this topic was also on show in his 2022 opera Last Days, based on a fictionalised account of the death of Kurt Cobain.

2018 Young Artist Award winner and recipient of the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Award, Sean Shibe continues to prove himself a truly original mind at the frontier of contemporary classical music.

Shibe is a Southbank Centre Resident Artist for Classical Music: Autumn/Winter 2025/26.