Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Welcome to the SCO. We have been inspiring audiences and connecting with communities since 1974, delivering diverse programmes that are open to all. Embrace the classics, discover exciting new music, and create beautiful musical memories with us!
Coming up
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From Scotland to Persia
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Matinee
Glasgow
Edinburgh
SCO Wind Soloists are joined by exceptional players from RCS.![Against a dark, starry night sky with a large bright star on the left, two silhouettes of faces with mouths opened are tilted up as if singing to the star.]()
Bach's Christmas Oratorio
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Choral
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Celebrate the coming festivities with one of music’s most uplifting seasonal creations.![Violinist Aylen Pritchin stands holding his instrument, looking to the left with a smile on his face, against a dark background with bright red and green shapes.]()
Prokofiev & Brahms
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Edinburgh
Glasgow
Aberdeen
Prokofiev’s darkly lyrical Violin Concerto No 2 is the ideal musical match for the exceptional violinist Aylen Pritchin and conductor Maxim.![SCO clarinettists William Stafford, holding his clarinet and smiling, and Maximiliano Martín, playing the clarinet, are set against a dark background surrounded by bright red shapes.]()
Eine kleine Nachtmusik
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St Andrews
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Maxim Emelyanychev surrounds one of Mozart’s most-loved pieces with rarities created around the same time by Haydn, Krommer and Wranitzky.![A bright green background with light white stars, featuring a cartoon drawing of a church with an illuminated window and a bright star.]()
Silent Night
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Choral
Edinburgh
Join the luminous voices of the SCO Chorus in the intimate setting of Greyfriars Kirk for a much-loved Edinburgh musical tradition.![A cartoon drawing of a champagne bottle with the cork popping out alongside confetti, with a chandelier hanging above, set against a dark green and bright red background.]()
New Year Gala
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1 Matinee
Edinburgh
Ayr
Dumfries
Celebrate the New Year in style with musical glitz and glamour – from both sides of the Atlantic.![Violinist Rachel Podger holds her instrument, smiling at the camera, against a light pink and dark green background.]()
Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
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Matinee
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Aberdeen
Join British violinist Rachel Podger in a concert focusing on some of JS Bach’s most iconic orchestral music.![Geneva Lewis with her violin, smiling at the camera against a dark background with shapes in various shades of pink.]()
Sibelius Violin Concerto
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Edinburgh
Glasgow
SCO Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen directs the fiery Sibelius Violin Concerto, alongside the coolly elegant Sixth Symphony.![Maxim Emelyanychev looking into the camera, hand touching his jawline, against a gradient background of blue, pink, and orange waves.]()
Ad Absurdum
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New Dimensions
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Jörg Widmann’s whirlwind of a trumpet concerto from Sergei Nakariakov forms the centrepiece of a concert to raise a laugh.![A bright yellow, green, and white background with a cartoon drawing of the Great Grumpy Gaboon, a brown creature with white wings, sitting in a bed of flowers.]()
The Great Grumpy Gaboon
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Matinee
Dundee
Aberdeen
Inverness
Join the Grumpy Gaboon and friends on this brand-new musical adventure as they discover the importance of friendship and forgiveness.
7 Latest videos
Serenade in Seven Colours
10:00
Novelletten
13:58
24/25 Season Outline
8:32
Supporting the SCO
2:37
Principal Guest Conductor
3:09
The Great Grumpy Gaboon 2024
0:47
Making of The Gaboon
2:08
Latest news
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The story behind Silent Night and other carols
18 November 2024
The history of Christmas carols is long and surprisingly varied - we look at a few of them.![]()
The clarinet concerto
11 November 2024
It's the clarinet's turn to step centre-stage for a look at their concerto repertoire. It's possible Mozart is mentioned!![Composer Andrea Tarrodi leaning forward with one arm resting on a surface and her face resting on the palm of her other hand.]()
Digital Season: Andrea Tarrodi Serenade in Seven Colours
6 November 2024
Read the programme note for our online performance of Tarrodi's Serenade in Seven Colours.![]()
The search for Beethoven's successor
4 November 2024
Beethoven died in 1827. Who would be worthy to take on his mantle?![]()
Schubert's Unfinished and other incomplete works
1 November 2024
Schubert is far from the only composer to have put a piece of music aside and leave it unfinished ...![]()
Why is there so little classical Christmas music?
28 October 2024
Where are all the Christmas classics from the great composers?![Three men, dressed formally: one Victorian, with a short grey beard, one young and clean-shaven, in sepia, the last (in a painting) with a long grey beard and glasses]()
The lure of the exotic: northern Africa in classical music
21 October 2024
How does the west's fascination with the wider Arab world come across in music? We look at a few examples ...![A historic photograph of Samuel Taylor-Coleridge sitting in a chair, wearing a suit.]()
Digital Season: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Novelletten
17 October 2024
Read the programme note for our online performance of Coleridge-Taylor's Novelletten Nos 1 & 3.![André Cebrián and Marta Gómez play the flute sitting in the SCO desks]()
The flute concerto
14 October 2024
In the third installment of our series looking at the concerto, it's the turn of the SCO flautists to recommend their favourites.![Three Swedish composers: Bellman (in the middle, in 18th century dress) is playing the cittern, with formal photographs of Berwald to his left and Atterberg to his right]()
Not just Eurovision: an introduction to Swedish music
7 October 2024
Wherein we challenge you to think past 'Waterloo' and 'Mamma mia' ...
