Philip Sawyers' symphony launches ESO 21st symphony project

The English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) and its chief conductor Kenneth Woods are launching a 21st Symphony Project, a commission for nine composers to write nine symphonies to be premiered by the ESO. The project is being launched with the premiere of the Symphony No. 3 by Philip Sawyers, ESO's John McCabe Composer-in-Association, at St John's Smith Square tonight (28 February 2017). Kenneth Woods conducts the ESO in Sawyers new symphony, Fanfare for Brass and Songs of Loss and Regret (with soprano April Fredrick), plus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466 with Clare Hammond.

Sawyer's Symphony No.3 was commissioned a couple of years ago to celebrate Kenneth Woods new partnership with the English Symphony Orchestra (Woods became chief conductor of the ESO in 2013), and the commission became the starting point for ESO's ambitious symphony project. This continues in 2018 when the orchestra gives the premiere of David Matthew's Symphony No. 9.

Full details from the St John's Smith Square website.