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91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra announces 2008-09 concert season
In his final season as Chief Conductor of the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony
Orchestra, Ilan Volkov leads an impressive roster of conductors that includes his
successor Donald Runnicles, Associate Guest Conductor Stefan Solyom and a number of
distinguished guests.
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Ilan Volkov is renowned for his adventurous programming and
distinctive style, and he conducts
performances in Glasgow City Halls, at the Music Hall in Aberdeen,
at the 91Èȱ¬ Proms and the
Edinburgh International Festival.
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Associate Guest Conductor Stefan
Solyom will lead four
concerts and will make his debut at the 91Èȱ¬ Proms.
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The season includes visits by some of the world's foremost
conductors including Andrew
Litton, John Storgårds, Michal Dworzyñski, Mikhail Agrest and Carlo
Rizzi, and also features
appearances by a string of celebrated soloists including Viviane
Hagner, Yevgeny Sudbin, Louis
Lortie and Karen Cargill.
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91Èȱ¬ Proms 2008
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At the 91Èȱ¬ Proms, the 91Èȱ¬ SSO's Chief Conductor-Elect Donald
Runnicles will conduct
Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, which will be broadcast live on 91Èȱ¬
Radio 3 and 91Èȱ¬ Four.
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The
91Èȱ¬ SSO's contribution to the Proms also features the UK Premiere
of Jonathan Harvey's
Speakings, for orchestra and live electronics, and the UK Premiere
of Soundings by Elliott Carter,
both conducted by Ilan Volkov.
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO is also the backbone of
Proms In The Park in
Scotland, the pan-UK celebration of the last night of the Proms,
which once again comes from
Glasgow Green.
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Edinburgh International Festival 2008
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO continues its close association with the Edinburgh
International Festival in a
performance of Messiaen's final work Eclairs sur l'au delà and
Thomas Adès's recent work Tevot.
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The orchestra will close the 2008 Festival with Tippett's oratorio,
A Child of Our Time.
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Olivier Messiaen Centenary
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In three concerts, the 91Èȱ¬ SSO will celebrate the centenary of the
birth of Olivier Messiaen.
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At
the Edinburgh International Festival Ilan Volkov conducts the
orchestra in Messiaen's final work,
Eclairs sur l'au-delà . At the 91Èȱ¬ Proms, the orchestra performs
Concert à quatre, a work
completed after Messiaen's death by his widow Yvonne Loriod, and at
Glasgow City Halls in
November, as part of 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3's Messiaen season, George Benjamin
conducts Messiaen's
orchestral masterpiece Des Canyons aux Etoiles.
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Glasgow City Halls
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO's 2008/09 flagship Thursday Night Series at its home
base in Glasgow City Halls
comprises 15 concerts which have been divided into three separate
collections.
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They are: The
Symphonic Collection, which includes a live 91Èȱ¬ Two broadcast of
Beethoven's Choral
Symphony conducted by Ilan Volkov; The Story Tellers – five
concerts linked through myths,
fairy tales and classic literature and Russian Winter; and a five
concert series focusing on the music
of Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Ìý
The latter includes some of the
finest pianistic talents in the
world today performing all four of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos
and the Paganini Rhapsody.
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Each pianist will also be featured in recital at the RSAMD.
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The
series also includes some of
Stravinsky's greatest and most revolutionary scores, including The
Rite Of Spring conducted by
Ilan Volkov.
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Live at 7: The Thursday night concerts in the Russian Winter series
will be broadcast live at
7.00pm on Radio 3.
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Preludes and Codas: before every Thursday Night Series concert,
eminent conductors, soloists
and guests will discuss topics relevant to the programme in a pre-concert Prelude.
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Guests
include Vicki Featherstone, Artistic Director of the National
Theatre of Scotland, Ashley Page,
Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet, and the leader of the 91Èȱ¬
SSO, Elizabeth Layton.
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All
Thursday Night Series concerts will also include a post-concert
Coda, presenting all guest
soloists in a short recital.
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO's permanent recording, rehearsal, broadcasting and
performance base, City
Halls is a hive of activity all year round.
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The orchestra will
continue its series of concerts and
broadcasts for Radio 3 which includes four editions each of
Afternoon Performance,
Discovering Music and Hear And Now, live broadcasts of the drivetime show In Tune, editions
of Classics Unwrapped for 91Èȱ¬ Radio Scotland as well as live
concerts for 91Èȱ¬ Two Scotland.
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Listen Here! City Halls Open Weekend with the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony
Orchestra
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In a brand new initiative, the 91Èȱ¬ SSO will throw open the doors of
its home at City Halls from
Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 June 2008 to show off its renowned
versatility with four days of
completely free music-making.
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Under the banner Listen Here!, these
events will cover the full
range of the orchestra's repertoire.
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Led by Ilan Volkov, the weekend will feature performances by violinist Christian Tetzlaff, one of the most highly regarded musicians in the world.
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As soloist-in-residence, Christian will perform the UK premiere of Jörg Widmann's Violin Concerto, and will be showcased in his own recital with pianist Lars Vogt. Ìý
Two of the talented young Scottish finalists
from 91Èȱ¬ Two's Classical Star
programme, guitarist Ian Watt and bassoonist Karen Geoghegan, will
perform with the
orchestra.
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The public also have a chance to engage directly with
the orchestra in its popular
access events Play It Again and Our Planet.
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Aberdeen Concert Season 2008/09 – Empire State
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The energy and diversity of American music provides a backdrop to
the 91Èȱ¬ SSO's 2008/2009
Aberdeen Season, entitled Empire State.
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Music by that doyen of
living American composers,
Elliott Carter, is coupled with music by Gershwin, Adams, Bernstein,
and Barber.
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The season will
also showcase performances by American artists, including
conductors Andrew Litton and Xian
Zhang, violinist Anne Akiko Myers and pianist Adam Golka, and at
Christmas the orchestra will
present a festive centenary celebration of the music of Leroy
Anderson.
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New Music
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO continues its commitment to the promotion of new music
and will present the
consecutive UK and Scottish premieres of Jonathan Harvey's
Speakings, maintaining its critically-acclaimed collaboration with IRCAM.
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The orchestra will present
portrait concerts of Xenakis
and Mark-Anthony Turnage conducted by Ilan Volkov. The Turnage
concert will include the
world premiere of Five Views Of A Mouth and the UK premiere of From
All Sides.
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Other UK
premieres include Elliott Carter's Soundings at the 91Èȱ¬ Proms, Jörg
Widmann's Violin
Concerto, performed by Christian Tetzlaff as part of the Listen
Here! weekend in June 2008,
and John Mackey's Redline Tango in October 2008.
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Also in Autumn
2008, an edition of
Radio 3's new music programme Hear And Now features Nigel Osborne
at 60, and a world
premiere by young Scottish composer Anna Meredith.
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The orchestra will continue its longstanding collaboration with
Aberdeen University's Music
Department under the auspices of the Aberdeen Music Prize – an
international competition for
composers.
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Last year's winner, South Korean composer Woojun Lee,
will present the
commission which forms part of that prize at a 91Èȱ¬ SSO concert in
October 2008.
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Across Scotland and the UK
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The 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra will also give concerts in
Inverness, Ayr and
Haddington, and once again joins forces with the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra and Royal
Scottish National Orchestra to present the Scottish Orchestras
Series at Perth Concert Hall.
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In
addition the orchestra will perform at the Snape Proms Aldeburgh,
and in Leeds as part of the
city's International Concert Series.
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Learning and Outreach
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO is a partner in the progressive social and orchestral
learning programme, Sistema
Scotland.
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Sistema Scotland will bring the distinctive methodology
and philosophy of Venezuela's
El Sistema to the Raploch area of Stirling in this Scottish pilot
initiative.
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This unique social project
has made orchestral musicians out of half-a-million young
Venezuelans, and has transformed the
lives of many underprivileged and at-risk youths in the process.
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO continues its commitment to lifelong learning and
participation with two
initiatives which allow performers of all ages to play alongside
members of the orchestra: The
Merchant Sinfonia is a thriving community orchestra based at City
Halls, with sections led by
members of the 91Èȱ¬ SSO. Play It Again, which began as a pan-91Èȱ¬
project in 2007, continues
in Scotland under the auspices of the 91Èȱ¬ SSO, encouraging complete
beginners and those
who haven't played for years to perform alongside the full 91Èȱ¬ SSO.
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO will present Our Planet, a unique multimedia event
combining music and science
designed specifically for children and families.
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Featuring BAFTA
award-winning visuals from the
91Èȱ¬'s Natural History Unit, and music by composers including
Beethoven, Holst and Vaughan
Williams, Our Planet is presented by C91Èȱ¬'s Kirsten O'Brien, and
Scotland's foremost weather
forecaster, Heather Reid.
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Broadcasts
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO continues to be an integral part of 91Èȱ¬ Scotland's
broadcast output, contributing
more than 80 programmes to Radio 3, including concerts from the 91Èȱ¬ÌýProms and Edinburgh
International Festival.
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The orchestra's appearances on 91Èȱ¬ Television, including Donald Runnicles'
performance at the 91Èȱ¬ Proms, will be available on the
91Èȱ¬ iPlayer for seven
days after broadcast, and all its performances on Radio 3 and
Radio Scotland are
available online for seven days after broadcast.
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The 91Èȱ¬ SSO will also contribute to Scotland's History, a major
multi-platform project for 91Èȱ¬
Scotland beginning in November 2008.
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Harnessing television, radio
and online, the orchestra
will provide the soundtrack to the 91Èȱ¬ One programme A History Of
Scotland, and will present
a series of concerts in historic Scottish locations showcasing
music and visuals from the series.
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Gavin Reid, Director of the 91Èȱ¬ SSO, said of the new season: "More
than ever, there are three
essential elements that we must all consider when planning our
programmes; adventure, excellence
and accessibility.
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"I hope you will agree that the 91Èȱ¬ SSO's 2008/09
season is packed full of all
three."
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91Èȱ¬ Scotland Press Office
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