Scottish Chamber Orchestra launches 2024 summer programme

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) has announced its 2024 summer programme marking the orchestra’s 50th birthday as well as the 45th anniversary of its Scotland-wide summer tours.

The season will include a range of concerts including SCO Chorus performances, UN:TITLED gig format shows, and Re:Connect concerts, specially created for those living with dementia and their carers.

SCO chief executive Gavin Reid said: ‘As we continue to mark our 50th Anniversary this year, we are so excited once again to be off on a tour across the length and breadth of Scotland to share the joy of live music-making. With Maxim Emelyanychev and many of our own players at the helm, it’s fitting that our 45th Summer Tour showcases more than ever the sheer range of what the SCO has to offer audiences, wherever and whoever they are.’

This year’s anniversary celebrations will see the SCO’s summer tours extend to over 20 more remote Scottish locations to build relationships with local communities, provide a larger platform for SCO musicians and offer audiences in remote locations the experience of diverse concerts.

The summer season opens in Perth and Stirling with the SCO Chorus and director Gregory Batsleer performing concerts including Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, alongside works by John Tavener, Roxanna Panufnik, Tariq O’Regan and associated composer Jay Capperauld’s work.

This is followed by the orchestra presenting four programmes from June to September, beginning with conductor Paul Meyer who teams up with two of the SCO’s principal players, flautist André Cebrián and clarinetist Maximiliano Martín to perform a French Romantic programme. Their programme including works by Fauré, Chaminade and Saint-Saëns, and Louise Farrenc’s powerful Symphony No 3, will be performed in Inverness, Thurso and Findhorn.​

Early July will see the SCO’s principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev tour Helensburgh, Blair Atholl, Kinlochleven and Callander with a concert bringing together Elgar’s Serenade for Strings with Schumann’s Cello Concerto – performed by SCO principal cellist Philip Higham – and concluding with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

The programme then travels to Stirling, Stranraer and Galashiels where violinist Viviane Hagner directs a full-orchestral programme pairing works by Schubert and Mendelssohn. The fourth programme features the SCO’s Principal Players performing works at St Andrews, Paisley Abbey and Linlithgow that include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Beethoven’s Symphony No.2.

The programme will also see the SCO perform at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the East Neuk Festival. Maxim Emelyanychev leads the celebrations with an improvised piano solo, before closing the festival with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.