New appointments at Royal Liverpool Philharmonic & Royal Academy of Music

Nicholas Chalmers

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has appointed a former Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company musician as Principal Second Trumpet, whilst the Royal Academy of Music has appointed a new Fernside Chair of Choral Conducting, leading the Academy’s postgraduate Choral Conducting programme.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has announced the appointment of Hannah Mackenzie as Principal Second Trumpet. Her first performance in the role will be Thursday 30 November 2023. Hannah Mackenzie was raised on the Wirral and joined the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company when she was 16. The Youth Company is the largest community of young musicians in the North West created to develop young musical talent. During her time in Youth Company, Hannah won the Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist.

Hannah Mackenzie

She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2016, where she studied for her Master’s Degree. She is also a passionate educator, teaching in several schools across Merseyside. She has recently set up a thriving youth group, Wirral Youth Brass, alongside Simon Cowen who is the Principal Trombone of the orchestra.
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The Royal Academy of Music has announced the appointment of Nicholas Chalmers as its new Fernside Chair of Choral Conducting. From September 2024, Nicholas will lead the Academy’s postgraduate Choral Conducting programme, the UK’s longest-established specialist course in conducting for choirs.

Nicholas Chalmers is Principal Conductor of the National Youth Choir 18-25 and Associate Conductor, Learning for the BBC Singers. He is also a Senior Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House, where he will make his conducting debut in A Quiet Place by Leonard Bernstein in October 2024. 

In 2012, Nicholas Chalmers founded Nevill Holt Opera and established an award-winning education and associate artists programme. I chatted to Nicholas about the company back in 2019 [see my interview]. The company has introduced countless young people to opera in the East Midlands and its year-round education programme works with schools across the region. With Nevill Holt Opera, operas he has conducted include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cosí fan tutte [see my review] and La traviata [see my review].
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Liverpool Philharmonic's new partnership with Barrow-in-Furness

On Saturday 20 January 2024, Domingo Hindoyan will conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 as part of the orchestra's concert at the Forum Theatre, Barrow in Furness. The concert is the opening event in a three-year partnership between the orchestra and Barrow-in-Furness. In collaboration with Westmorland & Furness Council, Cumbria Music Education Hub and the cultural, learning and community partners across Barrow, the project will produce a series of concerts, community events, music-making projects and educational activities, giving more people the opportunity to enjoy live music.

There will be the offer of visits and inspirational performances to every primary school in Barrow, co-designed creative residencies with secondary schools, supporting young people as music creators.  In addition, Cumbria Music Education Hub and Liverpool Philharmonic will work collaboratively to embed a singing culture in all primary schools and to boost group singing for children and young people across the town.

Other events coming up include By the sea (26/3/2024), a dementia-friendly concert, and Party Time (27/3/2024) for the under 5s from members of the orchestra at Barrow Library. The strings of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra return on 7 June 2024 for Four Seasons of Buenos Aires ­at the Town Hall lead by violinist and Liverpool Philharmonic Artist in Residence Simone Lamsma. The orchestra will be performing at Saint Mary's Church on 21 June, and at the Forum Theatre on 30 June.

Further information from the orchestra's website.

Sing out loud: the Manchester Song Festival at Stoller Hall in 2024

The Manchester Song Festival at Stoller Hall in March 2024 is about much more than just song recitals. There are concerts from major artists including jazz-singer Cleveland Watkiss, tenor Mark Padmore, and Korean opera singer Hera Hyesang Park, but there will also be a day of participatory vocal workshops across many genres from classical to pop, musical to opera - aimed at singers of all abilities, as well as interactive sessions for families. There will also be sessions on performance anxiety, how to look after your vocal health and more, plus for aspiring and early-career musicians, there will also be chances to talk 1-to-1 with the experts.

The festival opens on 1 March 2024 with Cleveland Watkiss and VocalSuite, for concert blending voice and technology for a unique display of a cappella vocal talent with influences ranging from classical to African rhythm, to jazz and choral music. Mark Padmore's recital on 2 March moves from Schumann to Frank Bridge, Michael Tippett and Rebecca Clarke, as well as celebrating the music of contemporary composer Tansy Davies. Finally on 3 March, Hera Hyesang Park will mix Korean art songs with operatic classics.

Full details from the Stoller Hall website.

New season, new venues: the North-West's longest-standing chamber orchestra, the Northern Chamber Orchestra's 2022-23 season

Northern Chamber Orchestra in Macclesfield, January 2022

The Northern Chamber Orchestra is the North-West's longest-standing chamber orchestra and its recently announced 2022-23 season features a series of concerts in two contrasting venues in Macclesfield, the brand new, purpose built, auditorium at The Kings’ School and the beautiful, intimate St Michael’s Church, along with Christmas appearances at Tatton Park.

The season opens with the Hallé’s assistant conductor Delyana Lazrova directing an all-Beethoven programme including the Violin Concerto with Jennifer Pike. Other highlights including Jamie Phillips directing Finzi's Clarinet Concerto with soloist Elizabeth Jordan, cellist Guy Johnston in Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 2 in a concert directed by Guy's brother Magnus Johnston which also includes music by RVW and Shostakovich, Rudolf Karel’s Nonet (written in Theresienstadt prison during WWII) alongside Spohr's Nonet, Four Seasons from Piazzolla and Vivaldi, and a Baroque sequence directed by Christopher Jones and with soprano Caroline Taylor and countertenor Ralph Thomas Williams in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater alongside music by the Soviet-born American composer Lera Auerbach.

The season ends with a pair of concerts contrasting old and new, a focus on wind instruments pairs Mozart's Gran partita with music by Joachim Raff and the 20th century British composer Ruth Gipps. Then Spanish violinist Jorge Jimenez directs the orchestra in three of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos alongside two 20th century works, Arvo Pärt's Fratres and Alfred Schnittke's Suite in the Old Style.  

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Principal string players of Northern Chamber Orchestra in the ensemble's first visit to Chester

Northern Chamber Orchestra in Macclesfield in January 2022 (Photo Chris Payne)

Over the weekend there is a chance to hear musicians from the string section of the Northern Chamber Orchestra in more intimate mode, as the principal string players, led by artistic director Nicholas Ward (violin), perform a programme of string quartets, Haydn's String quartet in C op. 33 No. 3 Bird, Beethoven's String quartet in F op. 135, and Dvorák's String quartet op. 96 American in Christ Church in West Didsbury, Manchester (12/2/22) and Storyhouse, Chester (13/2/22), the ensemble's first visit to Chester.

Further ahead, in May, they return to both venues with a larger ensemble performing Rossini's String Sonata No. 3 in C, Mozart's Horn Quintet in E flat major, Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel, Einmal Anders op. 28, Franz Hasenöhrl brilliant de-construction of Strauss' tone poem for quintet, and Beethoven Septet in E flat major op. 20.

Full details from the Northern Chamber Orchestra's website.