We are delighted that our American Friends organisation has been granted public charity status by the Internal Revenue Service in the United States. Funds raised through the rejuvenated American Friends will provide essential support for the Orchestra’s US tours, educational activity at home and abroad and for some of the young American artists who regularly appear with the RPO.
Helen Storey has been playing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for sixteen years as Sub-Principal Bassoon. She has toured with the RPO to destinations as far afield as Korea, the USA and China, but now she has the opportunity to perform in her hometown of Bromley on Friday 31 March, as the Orchestra makes its long-awaited return to the Churchill Theatre. We took the opportunity to ask about her time at the RPO and the thriving musical scene on her doorstep.
Journalist Julian Worricker recently caught up with Artist in Residence at Southbank Centre, conductor Marin Alsop, to talk about our upcoming concert at the Royal Festival Hall (Monday 27 February).
Marin Alsop’s first outing in many years at the helm of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will offer a "triumph of the human spirit" in Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, a touch of joie de vivre in Renaud Capuçon's Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (Alsop taking a "partner role"), and a mammoth response to the 1941 Leningrad siege in Shostakovich's "massive on every level" Symphony No.7.
Six brilliant conductors, ten sparkling soloists, sixteen amazing works, and one legendary orchestra. That, in bald numbers, is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Southbank Centre concert season at the Royal Festival Hall, starting on Tuesday 7 February. However, in the sheer quality of the Orchestra's playing and the music it will be performing, such calculations convey little about the music in store for seasoned concertgoers and classical discoverers alike.
