Friday 5 August 2022

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra launches 2022/23 season under music director Joanna MacGregor

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra logo

2022/23 sees the Joanna MacGregor's second full season as music director of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the orchestra leading up to its centenary in 2025. The season opens on 2 October with an all-American programme conducted by Sian Edwards including Gershwin with soloist Joanna MacGregor, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman. The season ends on 26 March 2023 with MacGregor joined by new leader Ruth Rogers and principal cello Peter Adams in Beethoven's Triple Concerto plus the Emperor Concerto, and Barber's Adagio.

Other concerts in the season include conductor laureate Barry Wordsworth directing Mahler's Symphony No. 4, with soprano Carolyn Sampson, and Robert Howarth directing Bach's St Matthew Passion. In January the orchestra strike out in a new direction, playing on Saturday evening rather than Sunday afternoon, and celebrating the natural world in a collaboration with visual artist Kathy Hinde. The music will mix avant-garde, minimalist, rock, jazz and more including Philip Glass, Rolf Wallin, John Luther Adams, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Jonny Greenwood.

There is also a chamber music programme including Joanna MacGregor and BPO principals in Frank Martin, Shostakovich and Brahms, Brighton Festival Chorus and BPO Brass in Gabrieli and Paul Mealor, and for Christmas Roger Allam narrates Dickens' A Christmas Carol. In the New Year, concerts include MacGregor and BPO principals in Rebecca Clarke and Elgar.

For those who have never seen a classical concert or heard the BPO before, there are a limited number of £10 LoveMusic tickets available for three of the concerts.

The orchestra was formed in 1925 by Herbert Mengs as the Symphonic String Players. By 1928 it had already moved into the Brighton Dome and become the fully orchestral Symphonic Players. Menges remained as Principal Conductor and in 1932 Sir Thomas Beecham was appointed as the orchestra’s first President (a position later held by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten). The orchestra became the fully-professional Southern Philharmonic in 1945, with annual seasons in Hastings and Portsmouth, before becoming the Brighton Philharmonic in 1958.

Full details from the BPO website.

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