After a spectacular debut last year the young Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev takes over at Scottish Chamber Orchestra for 2019/20 season

Maxim Emelyanychev & Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Photo SCO/Stroma Films)

The young Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev is perhaps best known in the UK for his performances of Baroque opera as a visitor with Il Pomo d'Oro accompanying artists such as Joyce DiDonato and Franco Fagioli, but UK audiences will now be seeing rather more of him as he has taken over as conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 

He gives his first concert as principal conductor in November 2019, with a programme which includes the UK premiere of French composer Philippe Hersant’s Five Pieces for Orchestra alongside music by Mozart and Prokofiev. In Baroque music with the ensemble Emelyanychev is evidently interested in a blended approach with a mix of period and modern instruments and there will be a chance to hear the results in January 2020 with a programme which includes music from Lully’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme plus Telemann and Rameau. Emelyanychev's final concert of the season combines Debussy with Louise Farrenc’s Third Symphony, and a Mozart Piano Concerto which Emelyanychev will direct from the keyboard. Emelyanychev will also be perfoming at the keyboard with the SCO soloists for one of SCO's Chamber Sundays concerts.

SCO Featured Artist for 2019/20 is the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto whose concerts will include music by Bryce Dessner, the UK premiere of Nico Muhly's Violin Concerto, and the double violin concerto, with violinist Benjamin Marquise Gilmore, Prince of Clouds by Anna Clyne. Clyne is SCO's new Associate Composer, and her work with the orchestra includes a new piece to be premiered in November. Scottish composer, Helen Grime is writing a percussion concerto for Colin Currie to be premiered in May 2020.



29 year old Emelyanychev made his debut with the orchestra in March 2018 when he stepped in at short notice to conduct Schubert’s Great C Major Symphony and Dvořák’s Violin Concerto with the orchestra, and the response from orchestral players, audiences and critics was unanimous in its praise [see the review on Bachtrack.com].

Full details from SCO website.