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| Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev in Aberdeen (Photo: Christopher Bowen) |
The 2024/25 season sees Maxim Emelyanychev returning for his sixth season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) with nine concerts, both as conductor and as soloist. Andrew Manze takes up a new role as SCO’s principal guest conductor, directing three concerts during the season from Scandinavian contemporary music to Mozart to Faure’s Requiem.
The SCO will be giving seven premieres during the season including Bruckner’s Skull by Jay Capperauld, the SCO’s associate composer. Bruckner’s Skull delves into Bruckner’s macabre fascination with fellow composers Schubert and Mozart. SCO will also be premiering Capperauld’s Carmina Gadelica, inspired by the wonders of Gaelic hymns, incantations and lore, whilst his The Great Grumpy Gaboon, a musical adventure written in collaboration with children’s author Corrina Campbell, returns after sell-out performances throughout Scotland in 2023.
Mark Wigglesworth conducts the UK premiere of Péter Eötvös‘ Aurora with SCO’s principal double bass Nikita Naumov. Eötvös, who died in March aged 80, dreamt up the work while contemplating the Northern Lights aboard a plan high above Alaska. And there will be music from the SCO’s youngest-ever commissioned composer, Georgian teenager Tsontne Zédginidze.
As part of Nordic Music Days, Andrew Manze conducts Scottish premiere of Anders Hillborg‘s Viola Concerto with Laurence Power is the soloist, alongside music by Madeleine Isaksson and Sir James MacMillan’s powerful Second Symphony, written for the SCO in 1999. This concert is also part of a new SCO concert series, New Dimensions, with a more informal concert format and programmes designed to encourage audiences to stretch musical imaginations. Other concerts in the series are Ad Absurdum, with Maxim Emelyanychev conducting Jörg Widmann’s Ad Absurdum, Sir James Macmillan’s Tryst and John Adams’ Chamber Concerto, and Parabola where violinist Pekka Kuusisto and pianist/conductor Simon Crawford-Phillips join the SCO for an eclectic programme of music by Thomas Adès, Timo Andres, Sally Beamish and Haydn.
The SCO’s long-standing Re:Connect programme for people living with dementia will continue to be delivered at Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Building this, and developing the SCO’s ongoing partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, the SCO presents four dementia-friendly concerts in the 2024-25 Season. The performances offer an afternoon of music and light refreshments designed especially for people living with dementia, their friends and carers.
The SCO will enter the fourth year of its residency in Craigmillar in Edinburgh, continuing to deliver workshops, events and performances across the community through its regular schools’ programme, which sees the SCO working with one local nursery, four primary schools and the local high school throughout the academic year and a programme of community projects with different local partners across the Greater Craigmillar area. And the SCO will also offer a programme of open rehearsals for secondary school pupils so they can discover how a professional orchestra works, see a performance take shape and observe how the Orchestra prepares for a public performance
