News and Press

RPO Resound has recently returned from China, where the Director of Community & Education, Workshop Leader Tim Steiner and a team of five RPO musicians delivered a bespoke five-day professional development programme for the staff and players of the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra (SZS). More than 40 members of SZS took part in a series of workshops, seminars and live projects aimed at building their practical knowledge and understanding of how participatory outreach work, education and community engagement activity can augment their concert programme, develop new audiences and support capacity building across the organisation.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is greatly saddened to hear of the death of André Previn, one of the most versatile and respected musicians of the past century.

André Previn was appointed as the RPO’s first Music Director in 1985, a position he held for three years until 1988, when he became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor whilst simultaneously holding the role of Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  Previn’s artistic partnership with the RPO which lasted until 1992, was celebrated both on the stage and in the TV and recording studios, providing a golden age of benchmark recordings for all the major labels, including William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast which launched the RPO’s own RPO Records label in 1986.  

The year has started on a high for the RPO, with a hugely successful two week tour of Germany with conductor Lionel Bringuier. Preceded by an extraordinarily busy festive period, we seem well on the way to upholding our recently bestowed accolade of being the ‘Busiest Orchestra of 2018’ (according to Bachtrack)!

Armed with layers of cosy clothing, hours of netflix downloads and dazzling symphonic repertoire, we began our tour with a brief Austrian encounter with the beautiful Alpine city, Innsbruck. This was a postcard scene of wintry luxury and I hopped straight into a snowy cliche: hot chocolate in the sunshine, snuggled under a sheepskin rug, imagining I was on a swanky skiing retreat. The reality was I would be in a different city every day for two weeks, living out of a suitcase and probably in need of an osteopathy appointment by the end! Having said that, I do enjoy touring - the trick is to maintain a tiny grasp on reality whilst embracing the intensity and challenges of travelling around with over eighty of your colleagues. It takes stamina and the RPO certainly has that, in huge supply.