Emma Johnson clarinet, conductor; Orchestra for the Environment

July 16th 2025 at 13:00 – 14:00

The African Concert Series

Music by Tunde Jegede

July 19th 2025 at 11:30

Programme
Still Moment
Layline Ripples
Reflections/By The Will
Shuna
Moon Waters
All Our Yesterdays
Songs of the Eternal
3 Mandé Songs
The Elements

Tunde Jegede – kora
Jan Hendrickse – flute
Vincent Ademola Haastrup – violin

Deep knowledge of western classical composition and the timeless oral tradition rooted in Malian culture have nourished the music of composer, producer, cellist and kora virtuoso Tunde Jegede. Having journeyed from his native London to Gambia during childhood, he absorbed the ancient griot tradition of West Africa and continues to develop its legacy in compositions that speak to the heart.

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Bellini Oboe Concerto

August 1st 2025 at 19:30 – 21:30

Mark Simpson & Richard Uttley

August 6th 2025 at 11:00 – 12:30

Programme

Sir James Macmillan – After The Tryst
Mark-Anthony Turnage – Cradle Song
Jay Capperauld – So My Tears Flow
Mark Simpson – Echoes and Embers
Brahms – Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op.120 No.1
Zoë Martlew – Pyrrhos
Mark Simpson – Lov(escape)
Gavin Higgins – Three Broken Love Songs
Brahms – Clarinet Sonata in E flat, Op.120 No. 2

Mark Simpson – clarinet
Richard Uttley – piano

Mark Simpson brings dual talents as composer and clarinettist to an intimate programme featuring Johannes Brahms and his own works.

A virtuoso clarinettist with a ‘glittering composing career’ (The Arts Desk), Mark Simpson is joined on stage by Richard Uttley, Piano Professor at the Royal College of Music. Together, they perform a selection of Simpson’s own compositions alongside works by Brahms.

Since becoming the first-ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year competitions in 2006, Simpson has forged a dual career, championing new music while delivering insightful, nuanced interpretations of the clarinet repertoire. Uttley is celebrated for the integrity and breadth of his musicianship as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist.

Simpson’s performances of Brahms have been praised for their ‘real sense of shape and flow’ and ‘cathartic’ emotion (The Guardian), qualities that will bring out the warmth and richness of Brahms’s contemplative music.

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Soweto Kinch/LSO: Soundtrack to the Apocalypse

November 13th 2025 at 19:00- 21:00

Programme to be announced

London Symphony Orchestra
Soweto Kinch – saxophone

The saxophonist, rapper and composer Soweto Kinch presents the final instalment of a trilogy of works in collaboration with the LSO, which began with The Black Peril and White Juju.

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SCO – John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons – Maximiliano Martín

December 11th 2025 at 19:30 – 21:30

Programme

Adams – Shaker Loops
Adams – Gnarly Buttons
Adams – Fearful Symmetries

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Andrew Manze – conductor
Maximiliano Martín – clarinet

Once a self-identifying minimalist, radical American composer John Adams quickly jumped from cool, hypnotic pulsations to red-hot emotion and vast cinematic soundscapes in his colourful, witty music. Experience that thrilling journey in three iconic pieces by this pioneering musician.

Minimalist classic Shaker Loops is a rippling soundscape of quivering energy – sometimes frenetic, sometimes meditative, but never less than mesmerisingly beautiful.

Mooing cows and ancient American hymns are among the inspirations behind Adams’ zany clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons – played by charismatic SCO Principal Clarinet Maximiliano Martín – which blends humour and heart in music that spans jazz, pop, folk and the surging repetitions of minimalism. Fearful Symmetries is one of Adams’ boldest and brightest pieces, a high-energy workout of driving rhythms and larger-than-life orchestral sound.

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SCO – John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons – Maximiliano Martín

December 12th 2025 at 19:30 – 21:30

Programme

Adams – Shaker Loops
Adams – Gnarly Buttons
Adams – Fearful Symmetries

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Andrew Manze – conductor
Maximiliano Martín – clarinet

Once a self-identifying minimalist, radical American composer John Adams quickly jumped from cool, hypnotic pulsations to red-hot emotion and vast cinematic soundscapes in his colourful, witty music. Experience that thrilling journey in three iconic pieces by this pioneering musician.

Minimalist classic Shaker Loops is a rippling soundscape of quivering energy – sometimes frenetic, sometimes meditative, but never less than mesmerisingly beautiful.

Mooing cows and ancient American hymns are among the inspirations behind Adams’ zany clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons – played by charismatic SCO Principal Clarinet Maximiliano Martín – which blends humour and heart in music that spans jazz, pop, folk and the surging repetitions of minimalism. Fearful Symmetries is one of Adams’ boldest and brightest pieces, a high-energy workout of driving rhythms and larger-than-life orchestral sound.

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Kebyart Ensemble

February 5th 2026 at 19:30- 21:00

Works by Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw and others

Kebyart
Pere Méndez – soprano saxophone
Víctor Serra – alto saxophone
Robert Seara – tenor saxophone
Daniel Miguel – baritone saxophone

It’s all in the mix: Original works, visionary new creations, and original arrangements combine in the Kebyart saxophone quartet’s programs to create a distinctive work of art. With explosive staging, the four likeable Catalans transform each of their concerts into an experience. These excellent musicians share not only a passion for chamber music, but also a strong desire to breathe new life into the traditional communication of classical music. Their brimming tour schedule demonstrates their success: from Barcelona to Paris and across Europe, Kebyart is in demand at festivals and concert series with innovative aspirations. The saxophone has never been so multifaceted before.

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Berlage’s Vision

Berlage Saxophone Quartet + Vincent Bijlo

March 5th 2026 at 20:15 – 22:00

Bach – selection from Goldbergvariations (arr. Peter Vigh)
Erwin Schulhoff – Fünf Stücke (arr. Peter Vigh)
Claude Debussy – Pagodes (arr. Peter Vigh)
Joey Roukens – Quodlibet

Berlage Saxophone Quartet
Lars Niederstrasser – soprano saxophone
Peter Vigh – alto saxophone
Juani Palop Tecles – tenor saxophone
Eva van Grinsven – baritone saxophone

At the centre of the concert evening is the brilliant Jess Gillam, one of the most exciting musicians of our time. With her soprano saxophone, she combines technical virtuosity and charismatic stage presence like rarely seen. Two works put the saxophone in the spotlight: Dave Heath’s “The Celtic” and James MacMillan’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and String Orchestra. Both works are tailor-made for Jess Gillam. Heath’s “The Celtic” combines Celtic melancholy with rhythmic energy, while MacMillan’s work explores the boundaries of the instrument’s timbres and expressive possibilities. His most famous is certainly the Ninth, but for many, Antonín Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony is his best. This music feels rugged and melancholic, yet compact and strict. There is no superfluous note here, every motif is worked through, every counterpoint has something to say. No question: this is not cozy folk music from a Bohemian village tavern, but highly concentrated symphonic music in the spirit of Beethoven and Brahms.

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Saxophone Dreams with Jess Gillam

March 11th 2026 at 19:30 – 21:30

ANNA CLYNE – Sound and Fury†
DANI HOWARD – Saxophone Concerto*
GEORGE WALKER – Lyric for Strings
CAROLINE SHAW – Entr’acte
DAVE HEATH – The Celtic*
JOHN HARLE – Rant!*

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Ben Glassberg – conductor
Jess Gillam – saxophones*
†Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

An inspiring fixture on radio and TV, Cumbrian-born Jess Gillam is first and foremost a world-class saxophonist. She brings her invigorating musical personality to a typically adventurous collection of music across diverse styles and sounds for the last of our New Dimensions concerts.

Young British composer Dani Howard wrote her effervescent new Saxophone Concerto specially for Gillam, while Dave Heath throws you into the whirling energy of a raucous ceilidh in his galvanising concerto The Celtic.

Haydn provides the calmer inspiration for Anna Clyne’s scintillating Sound and Fury, written for the SCO in 2019, and also for Caroline Shaw’s mercurial Entr’acte. The great African American composer George Walker, meanwhile, regularly moves listeners to tears with his striking Lyric for Strings.

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Saxophone Dreams with Jess Gillam

March 12th 2026 at 19:30 – 21:30

ANNA CLYNE – Sound and Fury†
DANI HOWARD – Saxophone Concerto*
GEORGE WALKER – Lyric for Strings
CAROLINE SHAW – Entr’acte
DAVE HEATH – The Celtic*
JOHN HARLE – Rant!*

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Ben Glassberg – conductor
Jess Gillam – saxophones*
†Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

An inspiring fixture on radio and TV, Cumbrian-born Jess Gillam is first and foremost a world-class saxophonist. She brings her invigorating musical personality to a typically adventurous collection of music across diverse styles and sounds for the last of our New Dimensions concerts.

Young British composer Dani Howard wrote her effervescent new Saxophone Concerto specially for Gillam, while Dave Heath throws you into the whirling energy of a raucous ceilidh in his galvanising concerto The Celtic.

Haydn provides the calmer inspiration for Anna Clyne’s scintillating Sound and Fury, written for the SCO in 2019, and also for Caroline Shaw’s mercurial Entr’acte. The great African American composer George Walker, meanwhile, regularly moves listeners to tears with his striking Lyric for Strings.

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Saxophone Dreams with Jess Gillam

March 13th 2026 at 19:30 – 21:30

ANNA CLYNE – Sound and Fury†
DANI HOWARD – Saxophone Concerto*
GEORGE WALKER – Lyric for Strings
CAROLINE SHAW – Entr’acte
DAVE HEATH – The Celtic*
JOHN HARLE – Rant!*

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Ben Glassberg – conductor
Jess Gillam – saxophones*
†Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

An inspiring fixture on radio and TV, Cumbrian-born Jess Gillam is first and foremost a world-class saxophonist. She brings her invigorating musical personality to a typically adventurous collection of music across diverse styles and sounds for the last of our New Dimensions concerts.

Young British composer Dani Howard wrote her effervescent new Saxophone Concerto specially for Gillam, while Dave Heath throws you into the whirling energy of a raucous ceilidh in his galvanising concerto The Celtic.

Haydn provides the calmer inspiration for Anna Clyne’s scintillating Sound and Fury, written for the SCO in 2019, and also for Caroline Shaw’s mercurial Entr’acte. The great African American composer George Walker, meanwhile, regularly moves listeners to tears with his striking Lyric for Strings.

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Lowell Liebermann Flute Concerto No 2 – Gareth Davies

March 26th 2026 at 19:30

Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story’
Lowell Liebermann – Flute Concerto No 2 (European premiere)
Dvořák – Symphony No 9, ‘From the New World’

London Symphony Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier – conductor
Gareth Davies – Flute

An American dream: Dvořák’s ode to the US and Bernstein’s gritty portrait of New York frame a new concerto.

The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story are Bernstein’s own exhilarating whistle-stop tour through his greatest musical, with every great moment given a dazzling orchestral make-over with moments of heart-stopping beauty.

We turn next to New York-born composer Lowell Liebermann, whose 2023 Flute Concerto No 2 has been lauded for its tunefulness and fizzing energy, and finally Dvořák and his epic hymn to the vast and infinite beauty of rural America.

Gareth Davies, the LSO’s Principal Flute, takes to the stage for Liebermann’s concerto, all conducted by one of today’s most dynamic and engaging conductors, Anja Bihlmaier.

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