The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is an
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
-based UK
chamber orchestra
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
. One of Scotland's five
National Performing Arts Companies, the SCO performs throughout Scotland, including annual tours of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland. The SCO appears regularly at the Edinburgh, East Neuk, St Magnus and Aldeburgh Festivals and
The Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
. The SCO's international touring receives support from the
Scottish Government. The SCO rehearses mainly at Edinburgh's
Queen's Hall.
History
The SCO was formed in 1974, with Roderick Brydon as its first Principal Conductor, from 1974 to 1983. The founding leader of the SCO was John Tunnell, and by 1977 he had been joined by Carolyn Sparey as principal viola, and
Haflidi Halgrimsson as principal cello. With Michael Storrs managing the orchestra for much of its first decade, the schedule, which for a while included work as the orchestra for
Scottish Opera, offered a full diary of concert performances, recordings and touring. In 1978 there was a tour to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the first of two summers as orchestra in residence for the
festival in Aix-en-Provence. A year later a tour of the Scottish Highlands and islands was the first of its kind ever to take place on the islands of th
West coast of Scotland and was followed by the official opening by Queen Elizabeth II of the
Queen's Hall in Edinburgh on July 6.
A highlight of the year 1980 was a BBC TV recording with
Raymond Leppard o
all six Brandenburg Concertosand over the next couple of years the relentless schedule continued with concerts in Barcelona, a residency in the Scottish Highlands, performances at the
St. Magnus Festival in
Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, a recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with violinist
Jaimie Laredo, tours of the UK and Europe with mezzo soprano
Teresa Berganza, concerts with the Polish conductor,
Jerzy Maksymiuk, and an introduction to the up and coming young English conductor,
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principa ...
in a concert involving the American opera singer,
Jessye Norman.
Other principal conductors have included
Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1987–1991) and
Ivor Bolton (1994–1996). The American violinist and conductor Joseph Swensen served as Principal Conductor from 1996 to 2005, and is now the SCO's Conductor Emeritus. Sir
Charles Mackerras held the position of Conductor Laureate until his death in 2010. The Estonian conductor
Olari Elts
Olari Elts (born April 27, 1971 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He was the principal conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2006. He is the founder and director of the contemporary music ensemble NYYD Ensemble.
...
served as the SCO's Principal Guest Conductor from October 2007 to September 2010.
Robin Ticciati
Robin Ticciati (born 16 April 1983, in London) is a British conductor of Italian ancestry.
Biography
Ticciati's paternal grandfather, Niso Ticciati, was a composer, arranger, cellist, and keyboardist. His father is a barrister, and his mother ...
was principal conductor from 2009 through 2018. with an initial contract of 3 years.
Emmanuel Krivine became the SCO's principal guest conductor in September 2015.
In March 2018,
Maxim Emelyanychev Maxim Yuryevich Emelyanychev (Максим Юрьевич Емельянычев; born 28 August 1988, Dzerzhinsk) is a Russian conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and cornetist. From a musical family, Emelyanychev studied music at the Nizhny Novgor ...
first guest-conducted the SCO, as an emergency substitute for Ticciati. Based on this appearance, in May 2018, the SCO announced the appointment of Emelyanychev as its sixth principal conductor, effective with the 2019-2020 season. In November 2019, the SCO announced the extension of Emelyanychev's contract as principal conductor through 2025.
Contemporary music
The SCO's work in contemporary music has included collaborations with Gordon Crosse, John McLeod, and
Peter Maxwell Davies, notably the series of
Strathclyde Concertos
The ''Strathclyde Concertos'' are a series of ten orchestral works by the English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
History and character
Commissioned by Strathclyde Regional Council, each work features an instrumental soloist and small orchestr ...
.
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Einojuhani Rautavaara (; 9 October 1928 – 27 July 2016) was a Finnish composer of classical music. Among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. T ...
's ''Autumn Gardens'' received its world premiere with the SCO in 1999. The SCO premiered
Sally Beamish
Sarah Frances Beamish (born 26 August 1956) is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music. She has also worked in the field of music, theatre, film and television, as well as composing for c ...
's ''Concerto for Orchestra'' (''Sangsters'') in November 2002. The SCO has commissioned over 100 new works, from composers including Peter Maxwell Davies (the SCO's Composer Laureate),
Mark-Anthony Turnage,
Judith Weir, Sally Beamish,
Karin Rehnqvist
Karin Rehnqvist (born 21 August 1957) is a Swedish composer and conductor of classical music. She composes chamber music, orchestral works, music for the stage, and particularly vocal music, incorporating elements of folk music such as the vocal t ...
,
Lyell Cresswell
Lyell Richard Cresswell (13 October 1944 – 19 March 2022) was a New Zealand composer of contemporary classical music. He was the younger brother of philosopher Max Cresswell. Cresswell studied in Wellington, Toronto, Aberdeen and Utrecht and l ...
,
James MacMillan,
Hafliði Hallgrímsson
Hafliði Hallgrímsson (born 1941 in Akureyri) is an Icelandic composer, currently living in Bath, England. Hafliði was the principal cellist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, but left that position in 1983 to pursue a full-time career as a co ...
, Einojuhani Rautavaara,
Stuart MacRae, Edward Harper and
Martin Suckling
Martin Suckling (born 23 November 1981) is a British composer. He is also a violinist and teacher.
Education
Suckling was born in Glasgow and attended Bearsden Academy. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge and went on to study composition ...
(appointed SCO Associate Composer in 2013).
The SCO has recorded for a number of labels, including
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
and
Hyperion. It has a recording partnership with the Glasgow-based record company,
Linn Records, with whom it has recorded 12 albums, including several recordings of Mozart symphonies conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras and an album of Berlioz conducted by Ticciati.
Principal conductors
* Roderick Brydon (1974–1983)
*
Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1987–1991)
*
Ivor Bolton (1994–1996)
* Joseph Swensen (1996–2005)
*
Robin Ticciati
Robin Ticciati (born 16 April 1983, in London) is a British conductor of Italian ancestry.
Biography
Ticciati's paternal grandfather, Niso Ticciati, was a composer, arranger, cellist, and keyboardist. His father is a barrister, and his mother ...
(2009–2018)
*
Maxim Emelyanychev Maxim Yuryevich Emelyanychev (Максим Юрьевич Емельянычев; born 28 August 1988, Dzerzhinsk) is a Russian conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and cornetist. From a musical family, Emelyanychev studied music at the Nizhny Novgor ...
(2019–present)
Past SCO chief executives have included Roy McEwan-Brown. In April 2016, the SCO announced the appointment of Gavin Reid as its current chief executive, effective 29 August 2016.
References
External links
Official website of the Scottish Chamber OrchestraFarlex biography of Roderick Brydon
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 1974
Scottish orchestras
Culture in Edinburgh
National performing arts companies of Scotland
Chamber orchestras
Organisations based in Edinburgh
1974 establishments in Scotland
Erato Records artists