New music and fireworks: Maxim Emelyanychev and Scottish Chamber Orchestra announce concerts for January to May 2022

Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Maxim Emelyanychev (Photo Ryan Buchanan)

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) has announced the remainder of its 2021/22 season with an array of concerts and online events for January to May 2022 with concerts in Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Inverness, Aberdeen and Perth.

Chief conductor Maxim Emelyanychev conducts five programmes, as well as performing Schubert's Trout Quintet with SCO principals. Emelyanychev's concerts range from collaborations with cellist Steven Isserlis and with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor to an all-Mozart programme with Emelyanychev directing Piano Concerto No. 20 from the keyboard. Stravinsky features twice, with Pulcinella given as part of the SCO's digital season, and The Firebird Suite in a concert which also features Alina Ibragimova in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1.  Emelyanychev conducts an Easter performance of Handel's Messiah with Anna Dennis, Xavier Sabata, Andrew Staples and Matthew Brook and the SCO Chorus (the first time chorus and orchestra will have performed together for two years). 

The SCO Chorus also features in Andrew Manze's concert with the orchestra, A Very British Adventure which includes RVW's Flos Campi with Timothy Ridout (viola), Britten's Lachrymae, Grace Williams' Sea Sketches and the world premiere of Anna Clyne's The Years. This latter is an SCO commission as part her role as SCO Associate Composer. Clyne has also been working with three emerging composers, Electra Perivolaris, Gillian Walker and Georgina MacDonell Finlayson and each has written a new work inspired by the art of storytelling and these three will be premiered as part of SCO's digital season.

Pekka Kuusisto has a three concert residency, directing three concerts from the violin including two American programmes, one with the SCO Chamber Ensemble featuring music by Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and Steve Reich, and another including the UK premiere of Nico Muhly's Violin Concerto alongside music by Missy Mazzoli, Stravinsky, Copland and Barber. Kuusisto's third concert features the world premiere of Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy's Seek the Light, an SCO Commission. Other new music in the season includes the world premiere of Laurent Petitgirard's oboe concerto Souen Wou K'ong performed by oboist Francois Leleux, for whom it was written.

Lorenza Borrani joins the orchestra for the first time, directing a concert from the violin that pairs the music of Haydn with that of Bruno Maderna (1920-1973).

The SCO's digital season includes a Mendelssohn weekend in May with Kristian Bezuidenhout and Nicola Benedetti including the Violin Concerto and Octet.

The orchestra is also continuing its five-year intergenerational community residency in the Greater Craigmillar area of Edinburgh with projects with everyone from nursery school pupils to people living with dementia. Beyond the project, the orchestra's Creative Learning programme provides inclusive and accessible creative workshops and performances in schools, hospitals and community venues across Scotland and online.

Full details from the SCO website.