RLPO reveals new season of concerts with a focus on female music makers
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has unveiled its 2021/22 season of concerts – the first with new chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan.
The Venezuelan maestro will conduct a total of 23 concerts encompassing 20 separate programmes between the opening evening on September 9 and May 2022.
The season will also include an extension of the current artist-in-residence roles for baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.
And it will have a special focus on women music-makers with 20 works by female composers – including eight new pieces, and appearances on stage by nine female conductors.
But anyone aged 18 and over wanting to attend a concert at the Philharmonic Hall will have to demonstrate their Covid-19 status either by producing proof of a double vaccination, negative Covid test or existence of natural immunity via Covid antibodies based on a positive PCR test within the last 180 days.
People with medical exemption won’t be covered by the new rules.
Top: Domingo Hindoyan. Photo by Mark McNulty. Above: Isata Kanneh-Mason. Photo by Robin Clewley.
The season opens on September 9 with Hindoyan conducting an evening of waltz music and Latin rhythms, and with Kanneh-Mason performing Clara Schumann’s piano concerto.
The new chief conductor, who is following Vasily Petrenko’s 15-year tenure at Hope Street, will also be on the box on October 14 and 16 for the world premiere of Robert Sierra’s Sixth Symphony which is being paired with Beethoven’s Ninth.
And could this be the new ‘Dream Team’ as fellow El Sistema alumni, trumpeter Pacho Flores, who performed alongside Hindoyan on his first triumphant appearance in Liverpool 18 months ago, returns on November 11 for the European premiere of Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano for Trumpet and Orchestra.
Flores will also perform a second, Sunday afternoon, concert on November 14 which will feature the UK premiere of his Cantos y Revueltas: Fantasia concertante for Trumpet, Venezuelan Cuatro and strings.
Works by Rachmaninov, Bruckner, Mozart, Ravel, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Bartok and Britten are also on the programmes of Hindoyan concerts, while in May he will be joined by his wife, soprano Sonya Yoncheva, for two performances where Liverpool audiences will have the chance to hear one of the current greatest opera singers in the world.
Women guest conductors include Alexandra Dunn, Elena Schwarz, Nil Vendetti and Sarah Hicks, and there will be the world premiere of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s In Her Own Valley, and UK premieres for Victoria Borisova-Ollas’ cello concerto Remember Me Giselle, and Katherine Balch’s Like a Broken Clock.
Spirit of Christmas. Photo by Mark Mcnulty.
The RLPO’s principal flute Cormac Henry and principal oboe Jonathan Small will both appear as soloists during the season, joining a wide range of visiting artists including pianists Stephen Hough, Pavel Kolesnikov and Mao Fujita, violinists Diana Tishchenko and Sergei Dogodin, and harpist Catrin Finch.
Festive favourite John Suchet will join the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir for the annual Spirit of Christmas concerts from December 17-23, while there will also be the return of the Chamber Series in the Concert Room at St George’s Hall and a programme of contemporary music presented by Ensemble 10/10.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic chief executive Michael Eakin describes the 2021/22 programme as one ‘with an amazing diversity of music and artists’ and adds: “We’re proud to be at the centre of the cultural life of this extraordinary city.
“Music and creativity are in the DNA of Liverpool and its people and are fundamental to its unique character and spirit.
“It’s a character which has made us what we are as one of the city’s great musical institutions, and which we hope is reflected in this orchestra season and in everything we do on stage and in our learning programmes.”
For full details on all the concerts in the 2021/22 season visit the website HERE