PHILHARMONIA

The Philharmonia Orchestra was founded in 1945, and has worked with a who’s who of 20th- and 21st-century music. Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali took up the baton as Principal Conductor in September 2021. The sixth person to hold the title, he is known for his expressive, balletic conducting style and irrepressible energy. Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, Riccardo Muti and Esa-Pekka Salonen are just a few of the great artists to be associated with the Philharmonia, and the Orchestra has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Errollyn Wallen, Kaija Saariaho and many others.   

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, in the heart of London, has been the Philharmonia’s home since 1995. The Orchestra also has residencies at venues and festivals across England, each embracing a Learning & Engagement programme that empowers people to engage with, and participate in, orchestral music. 

 In the 2022/23 season, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason is the Orchestra’s Featured Artist, performing around the UK and taking part in talks, chamber music performances and projects with young musicians. Anna Clyne is Featured Composer. Her music features in several residency seasons, including a major premiere at the Royal Festival Hall. She curates two free Music of Today concerts, and works with this year’s Composers’ Academy cohort. 

 The Philharmonia’s international reputation is built in part on its extraordinary 76-year recording legacy, which in the last ten years has been built on by pioneering work with digital technology. The Orchestra’s installations and VR experiences have introduced hundreds of thousands of people to the symphony orchestra. The Philharmonia has won four Royal Philharmonic Society awards for its digital projects and audience engagement work.  

 The Philharmonia is the go-to orchestra for many film and videogame composers in the UK and Hollywood, and its music-making has been experienced by millions of cinema-goers and gamers. It has recorded around 150 soundtracks, with film credits stretching back to 1947. The Orchestra releases live recordings with Signum Records.  

 The Philharmonia has over 1m listeners each month on Spotify, and a vibrant YouTube channel with over 126,000 subscribers. The channel features free performances; instrument guides; interviews with artists; and in-depth documentaries. The Philharmonia is Classic FM’s Orchestra on Tour and broadcasts extensively on BBC Radio 3. 

 Throughout its history, the Philharmonia has toured across Europe, Asia and America. In the 2022/23 season the Orchestra performs in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.  

 The Philharmonia’s Emerging Artists Programme aims to increase diversity within the classical music industry,  and develop the next generation of instrumentalists, composers and conductors.  

 The Philharmonia is a registered charity, proud to be supported by Arts Council England, many generous individuals, corporate supporters and Trusts and Foundations.  

 A team of 80 outstanding musicians from 16 countries, the Philharmonia looks forward to bringing music into your life, through great concerts and ground-breaking projects, for many years to come.   

www.philharmonia.co.uk 

 In the 2022/23 season Santtu-Matias Rouvali starts his second year as Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and continues as Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony, alongside his longstanding Chief Conductor and Artistic Director position with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra close to his home in Finland.  

 In summer 2022, Rouvali made his BBC Proms debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra, performing the European premiere of a new violin concerto, Procession, by Missy Mazzoli with Jennifer Koh, alongside extracts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Throughout this season, he continues his relationships with top level orchestras across Europe, including Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Münichner Philharmoniker, as well as returning to the New York Philharmonic for his annual visits. He works with soloists including Víkingur Ólafsson, Nemanja Radulović, Yuja Wang, Nicola Benedetti, Behzod Abduraimov, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Alice Sara Ott, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Vadim Gluzman, Randall Goosby, and Vilde Frang.  

 As well as concerts in London and the rest of the UK, Rouvali and the Philharmonia embark on a tour to Italy in September 2022, with music by Prokofiev and Sibelius. This is the first of many touring highlights this season with the Philharmonia, including trips to Spain, Germany and Hungary.  

 Rouvali continues to build on his discography, not only adding to Gothenburg Symphony’s impressive legacy, but also with his orchestras in London and at home in Tampere. In January 2019 with Gothenburg, he released a celebrated first disc of an ambitious Sibelius cycle, pairing the Symphony No.1 with the early tone poem En saga. The album won the Gramophone Editor’s Choice award, the Choc de Classica, a prize from the German Record Critics and the prestigious French Diapason d’Or ‘Decouverte’. In February 2020 they released the second volume, which features Sibelius’ Symphony No.2 and King Christian II, which has also been immediately awarded a Choc de Classica award. The Sunday Times commented that “Thanks to conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s overall shaping and a rhythmic precision that nevertheless leaves the composer’s characteristically fluid phrases intact, the Gothenburg players’ performance, beautifully balanced and characterfully coloured, is powerfully cogent.”  

 In 2020 his first Philharmonia CD, a live recording of excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, was released by Signum Records, followed by another live recording of Prokofiev No.5, released in early 2021.  

 With Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Baiba Skride, he has recorded five concertos on the Orfeo label: Nielsen, Sibelius, Bernstein, Korngold and Rózsa.  

© Marco Borggreve

Bruce Liu was brought to the world’s attention in 2021, when he won the First Prize at the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. 

Following his competition’s success, he immediately embarks on a world tour, appearing at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, BOZAR Brussels, Tokyo Opera City, Sala São Paulo, Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, U.S tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Past highlights include performance with ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as North-America tour with the China NCPA Orchestra. 

 His upcoming highlights include debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, European tour with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker at Musikverein, festival appearances at la Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau, Edinburgh, Chopin and his Europe, Duszniki, and Gstaad Menuhin.  

 An exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, his first album featuring the winning performances from the Chopin Competition won a Fryderyk Award and received international acclaim including both the Critics’ choice and Editor’s choice from the Gramophone Magazine, as well as being included in its list of Best classical albums from 2021.  

« What we all have in common is our difference », the young pianist likes to say. Born in Paris to Chinese parents, Bruce Liu grew up in Montreal. His life has been steeped in cultural diversity, which has shaped his differences in attitude, personality and character. He draws on various sources of inspiration for his art: European refinement, Chinese long tradition, North American dynamism and openness.  

Following his artist path with optimism and a smile, his teachers include Richard Raymond and Dang Thai Son.

© Yan Zhang