We are delighted to announce our first complete season of full-length concerts in more than two years. Led by Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, the Season features classical masterworks, choral greats, diverse collaborations and new music.

Returning for his third Season as Principal Conductor, Maxim’s connection with the SCO and audiences continues to flourish and in the 2022/23 Season he leads eight programmes performing as both conductor and soloist.

Highlights of Maxim’s programmes include two premieres by Sir James MacMillan. We open the Season with the world premiere of his Second Violin Concerto performed by Nicola Benedetti and in March, we perform the UK premiere of the composer’s football-themed Eleven.

In February, Maxim conducts an all-Brahms programme including his life-affirming Violin Concerto with rising star Aylen Pritchin and a lavish Baroque-inspired programme in November.

The SCO Chorus perform in six concerts this Season, presenting some of the best-loved choral works in the classical cannon. Led by Chorus Director Gregory Batsleer, highlights include Haydn’s The Creation and Handel’s Israel in Egypt. The Chorus and Orchestra close the 2022/23 Season in May with Brahms’ deeply moving German Requiem.

Handel’s lavish music for royal occasions is celebrated in a concert featuring music from Zadok the Priest and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne in March, while the women of the Chorus join Maxim Emelyanychev and sopranos Hilary Cronin and Jessica Cale for a performance of Mendelssohn’s music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A much-loved fixture in the festive musical calendar, the SCO Chorus’ Christmas Concert will feature music by Bax and Rutter as well as the SCO commission The Heart of Night by Anna Clyne.

The SCO is delighted to welcome a starry host of guest artists to its 2022/23 Season; including conductor Mark Wigglesworth, who leads the Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 alongside Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 2 with Laura van der Heijden.

Powerful Finnish conductor John Storgårds leads the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5 and the Scottish premiere of Cassandra Miller’s Viola Concerto, performed by outstanding British viola player Lawrence Power.

Multi-award-winning South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Sonbrings gracefulness and crystalline clarity Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat K595 conducted by much-loved SCO collaborator Andrew Manze.

As part of its commitment to introducing new audiences across Scotland to classical music, the SCO continues to present collaborations with artists from different musical worlds.

Inspirational Finnish multi-musician Pekka Kuusisto returns to the SCO with a residency in March. For his first performance he’s joined by friend and colleague, US neo-folk singer/songwriter Sam Amidon, for a performance featuring music from Sibelius and Janáĉek, Missy Mazzoli and new arrangements of Appalachian Folk Songs.

For the second concert in his Residency, Pekka presents the long-awaited Scottish premiere of Nico Muhly’s exuberant violin concerto Shrink, alongside Britten’s larger-than-life Les Illuminations sung by tenor Allan Clayton.

As part of Celtic Connections 2023, two of Scotland’s best-known traditional musicians – fiddler Chris Stout and harpist Catriona McKay come together to work with the SCO for the first time, playing traditional duo pieces, new music and intimate chamber works, alongside special guests including acclaimed ‘Shetlandic’ poet Christie Williamson and conductor James Lowe.

The SCO celebrates the music of Felix Yaniewicz, largely forgotten today but a remarkable figure in Scottish music – a Polish-Lithuanian composer and virtuoso violinist, and co-founder of the very first Edinburgh Music Festival in 1815. Conductor Peter Whelan and violinist Colin Scobie present his dramatic Third Violin Concerto, alongside a programme of music he performed and presented during the Scottish Enlightenment.

We hope you can join us for this Season of musical adventures!