Sean Ono Lennon officially opened the University of Liverpool's new Yoko Ono Lennon Centre on Friday (March 25).
Located on the corner of Grove Street and Oxford Street, the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre is a new "world class" culture centre, which will house teaching facilities and the Tung Auditorium - the University 's state-of-the-art 400 seat concert hall. The auditorium will open tonight with a gala held in Yoko Ono Lennon's honour.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's only son was in Liverpool today to open the centre. The 46-year-old was spotted walking along Oxford Street to the venue. before he unveiled a plaque within the centre to mark it officially open.
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He also posed for photos outside the new building alongside Professor Catherine Tackley (Head of the University's Department of Music), Professor Dame Janet Beer (Vice-Chancellor, University of Liverpool) and Richard Hartwell (Artistic Director, The Tung Auditorium).
When the new building's name was announced, Yoko Ono Lennon said: “I am thrilled to be recognised with the naming of the new performance centre at the University of Liverpool. Thank you to the University and to the people of Liverpool for this wonderful honour.
"Liverpool has become part of me from years of going there, and with this new centre part of me will always be there – for that I’m very thankful. I think John is smiling about it too. I’m also very thankful that our son, Sean is there in Liverpool for the celebrations around the opening.”
Sean Ono Lennon added: “They used to say behind every great man was a great woman. But my parents famously stood beside each other as equals.
"It is a beautiful statement that the University of Liverpool would recognise my mother in this way. In a city synonymous with my father’s achievements it is especially meaningful to acknowledge Yoko Ono for the remarkable human being that she is. I’m just really chuffed to be here.”
The centre includes the 600-seat Paul Brett Lecture Theatre and the Tung Auditorium, a 400-seat acoustically optimised, flexible, music performance space, designed for solo, chamber, choral and orchestral performances, with adjustable acoustics to accommodate a wide variety of jazz, folk, pop, electro-acoustic and experimental music. Yoko Ono Lennon’s Wish Tree installation will be found in the Peace Atrium, and the Fröhlich Café Bar will be open to the public.
Composer and former University of Liverpool student Professor Shirley J. Thompson OBE’s One World – a re-imagining of and homage to John Lennon’s song Imagine - will open tonight's gala. The premiere of Benjamin Hackbarth’s Acoustic Sweep will follow, including performances from The Solem Quartet, Xiaoxiao Hou, Liam Carey, and the University’s Chamber Choir; before the Royal Philharmonic’s contemporary music group, Ensemble 10/10 perform Matthew Fairclough’s Radically Impure.
