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| Maria Włoszczowska & Dinis Sousa – Royal Northern Sinfonia (Photo: Thomas Jackson / Tynesight Photograph) |
This Autumn marks 20 years since the Royal Northern Sinfonia moved into its present home, at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (formerly Sage Gateshead) and Autumn also marks the second three-year term of principal conductor Dinis Sousa, and a new position of artistic partner for violinist Maria Włoszczowska, and they will be joined by a new appointment, principal guest conductor Nil Venditti.
The sinfonia’s new season, recently announced, features 50 concerts with classical series across the region – at their home at The Glasshouse, and in Carlisle, Kendal, Middlesbrough, and Sunderland. These five series have been grown substantially by Sousa and Włoszczowska, reaching thousands of new audience members.
This new season includes the second major participation project under the umbrella Share the Stage, an initiative led by Sousa offering people who love making music the opportunity to perform with the orchestra and chorus on the world-renowned stage of Sage One alongside some of the world’s greatest singers. This time around the focus is Tippett’s deeply moving A Child of Our Time with soloists Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Sarah Connolly, Nicky Spence and Willard White.
Two major anniversaries are celebrated during the season, those of Ravel and Schoenberg. Ravel’s 150th is celebrated through his symphonic music with a concert by the BBC Philharmonic with pianist Bertrand Chamayou, his works for chamber forces including Mother Goose from Royal Northern Sinfonia and an ensemble concert led by artistic partner Maria Włoszczowska plus a new music and digital collaboration with the new media arts collective Mediale. Attention turns to Schoenberg for two concerts, including Pierrot Lunaire (with soprano Claire Booth) and Verklärte Nacht, both directed by Włoszczowska.
Dinis Sousa opens the season with pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, plus Mendelssohn’s complete music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And there is more Mozart, along with Bach, when pianist David Fray directs the sinfonia from the keyboard.
Sousa’s other concerts with the sinfonia during the season include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Stephen Hough plus Unsuk Chin and Mozart, Handel’s Messiah with Amanda Forsythe, Reginald Mobley, Guy Cutting and John Chest, Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Víkingur Ólafsson plus Kajia Saariaho and Bartok, and Benjamin Grosvenor in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 plus Grażyna Bacewicz and Tchaikovsky. And in the smaller Sage Two, Sousa directs a programme of John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Pierre Boulez and Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto.
Other visitors during the season include John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London with Sheku Kanneh-Mason; singers Veronique Gens and Roderick Williams, the BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Hallé and The Philip Glass Ensemble, Opera North in a concert performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, and conductors Sofi Jeannin and Ricardo Minasi. Soprano / composer Heloise Werner will be directing and performing The Cuckoo’s Hour, a programme that pairs her own music with that of Colin Alexander, Freya Waley-Cohen, John Lely, Oliver Leith and Nico Muhly.
In the coming weeks they will also announce a new series for young people and their families, alongside concerts of orchestral music from video games, soundtracks, films and tv.
Further details from the Royal Northern Sinfonia website.
