A very warm welcome to a special 50th Anniversary Season from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. We’re excited to celebrate with you, taking you on some fantastic musical adventures, and with a few surprises along the way.

Since our inaugural concert in Glasgow’s City Halls on 27 January 1974, we’ve been bringing exceptional live performances to listeners across Scotland and far beyond, in music from Bach and Handel right through to premieres by some of today’s most inspiring composers.

We’ve now entered an era of new excitement, energy and exuberance with our Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, and I’m thrilled to announce that Maxim will continue in the role for at least five more years, taking us to 2028. His exhilarating musical insights are hugely cherished and admired by the Orchestra’s musicians, and I know by you as well. Maxim directs some particularly exciting concerts this season, kicked off by Beethoven’s magnificent ‘Eroica’ Symphony on a grand tour of Scotland in September and October.

We’re delighted that so many of our close friends and regular musical collaborators are joining us for this special season, including Nicola Benedetti, Colin Currie, Sir James MacMillan, Karen Cargill, François Leleux and Richard Egarr. And we’re looking forward to welcoming back close friend Pekka Kuusisto in a characteristically eclectic trio of concerts.

Conductor Andrew Manze returns to bring his remarkable musical insights to two concerts this Season, in a visionary, all-Vaughan Williams concert featuring The Lark Ascending, and also Ravel’s Piano Concerto with Steven Osborne as soloist. We’re excited to welcome one of Britain’s most inspirational and influential musical figures: composer and conductor Thomas Adès, who joins us in April.

Finally, in our 50^th Anniversary year, we very positively reaffirm our commitment to commission new work and supporting Scottish artists at every stage of their career.

We do hope you enjoy this Season of musical celebrations.

Gavin Reid
SCO Chief Executive