Dame Sarah Connolly and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gateshead and Wigmore Hall

Dame Sarah Connolly with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gatesheada

Dame Sarah Connolly is one of the Royal Northern Sinfonia's (RNS) Artists in Focus this season (the other is Benjamin Grosvenor). Connolly, who is something of a local girl having been born in Middlesbrough and who grew up near Darlington, started the season with a concert celebrating the native return of the Lindisfarne Gospels [you can see the film made on the Sage Gateshead website].

This week Connolly rejoins the RNS for a pair of concerts, one in London and one at Sage Gateshead. On Thursday 12 January 2022, she will join Dinis Sousa (piano) and players from the RNS at Wigmore Hall in a programme that includes Jake Heggie's chamber arrangement of Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis, two works by Lili Boulanger and Franck Villard's chamber arrangement of Chausson's Poème de l’amour et de la mer [see Wigmore Hall website]. Then on Saturday (14/1/2023), there will be an expanded version of the programme at Sage Gateshead.

Further ahead, Connolly returns to Sage Gateshead and joins Dinis Sousa and the RNS in Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, plus Schubert's Symphony No. 7 (another symphony he never finished) and Brahms' Symphony No. 3. Full details from the Sage Gateshead website.