A Look Back at 2025 Posted Thu 1 January 2026
As we move into 2026, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the last year. It was a year filled with national and international tours, world premieres and lots of work in communities across Scotland – here are some of our highlights.
January 2025 – Rather unusually, we began 2025 in China! We were on a six-concert tour with Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn and, needless to say, the international audiences loved our brilliant piper David Shedden who brought in the New Year with Auld Lang Syne. You can read more about the tour here.
February 2025 – February brought with it another tour but this time, we took Sounds of the Deep: A Musical Adventure to over 8,000 primary pupils across Scotland. Specially created for primary 4 to 7s, this live concert experience explored the majesty, drama and importance of the ocean and its inhabitants, through a range of nautical repertoire. The show included a bespoke animation, Ballet of the Blue, created by EYEBOLLS production studio which we then recorded with pianist Ethan Loch and released separately – watch it here.
March 2025 – In March, we performed the Scottish premiere of Jonathan Dove’s community opera Uprising. A drama of protest, youth activism and the human cost of climate change, the semi-staged opera featured the RSNO Youth Chorus, RSNO Changed Voices, RSNO Glasgow Chorus Academy and members of the RSNO Chorus. Uprising received great critical acclaim and won the 2025 Ivor Novello award for Best Community and Participation Composition.
‘Ultimately, though, it was the opera’s message of hope and youthful power that really moved.’ – David Kettle, The Scotsman ★★★★★
April 2025 – More than 2,800 primary children took part in our Sounds of the Deep Livestream in April. Presenter Lucy Drever was joined by Associate Principal Clarinet Will Knight and cellist Niamh Molloy on an interactive adventure filled with fun, games and music…
May 2025 – May saw the installation of nine new artworks by Scottish illustrator Katie Smith in the Clyde Foyer of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. These illustrations feature RSNO Music Director Thomas Søndergård and eight musicians in Katie’s signature, colourful style and originally appeared in the RSNO’s 2023:24 Concert Season brochure.
June 2025 – A month of firsts for the RSNO in June. All our Choruses (RSNO Chorus, RSNO Buggy Choir, RSNO Workplace Choir, RSNO Youth Choruses, RSNO Chorus Academy Dundee and RSNO Chorus Academy Glasgow) came together for the first time at the Chorus Jamboree.
We held the RSNO’s first-ever Big Music Weekend at the Pyramid in Anderston. A family-friendly festival, the weekend included performances from the RSNO, folk-singer Kris Drever and Scottish National Youth Jazz Orchestra, workshops for young and old alike and a community fair in partnership with Refugee Scotland.
And then we rounded out our June with accompanying the legendary Diana Ross on the stage at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro!
July 2025 – Although the Orchestra were on their summer holidays, we still managed to keep busy entertaining the crowds in July with a performance of Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsTM at Edinburgh Castle. The next in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, has just been announced for this July! You can book your tickets here.
August 2025 – In August, it was all things festival! The Orchestra played in the 8-hour performance of Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple which opened the Edinburgh International Festival. The RSNO Youth Chorus performed Puccini’s Suor Angelica with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Thomas Søndergård led the RSNO, Edinburgh Festival Chorus and a cast of soloists in the EIF Closing Concert: Mendelssohn’s Elijah. The Orchestra also performed the Music of James Bond at the Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick.
September 2025 – We took our 2022 animated film Yoyo & The Little Auk on tour in September, visiting over 1,500 primary children in Bo’ness, Forres, Greenock, Inverness, Prestonpans, Stirling and Stranraer. Gaelic Medium Education pupils in Oban enjoyed Yoyo & a’ Cholcach Bheag, the Gaelic language version of the film narrated by singer Kathleen MacInnes.
We were also thrilled to announce that we won the Art & Culture Award at the Inspiring City Awards 2025 for our world-class recording studio!
October 2025 – October took the RSNO and the RSNO Chorus all over Europe. The Orchestra headed out on a nine-day, seven-concert tour to Antwerp, Eindhoven, Heilbronn, Ljubljana, Paris, Salzburg and Zagreb with Music Director Thomas Søndergård. Meanwhile, the Chorus were in Budapest for their own tour which included a concert with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Róbert Farkas.
And at the end of October, we performed the World Premiere of Matthew Rooke’s new concerto, Tamboo-Bamboo, with timpanist Paul Philbert taking the spotlight.
‘Philbert managed to play with both power and sensitivity perched high on his platform, and Rooke’s concerto feels like a piece that’s worth your time, not just a novelty.’ – Simon Thompson, The Times ★★★★
November 2025 – November was a month of celebration! We raised a toast to the 10-year anniversary of the RSNO Centre at our Winter Party. Then we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the RSNO’s Changed Voices with the World Premiere of a new commission. You Have to be Realistic About a Perfect Day by composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad and librettist Kate Wakeling was written especially for, and in collaboration with, the group’s members. And we welcomed new Assistant Conductor Celia Llácer to the RSNO family.
We published our Economic and Social Impact Assessment which looks at the RSNO’s economic and well-being contributions to the Scottish economy, a big component of which is our recording work. In fact, two big Hollywood films that we recorded the soundtracks for were released – Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and Nuremberg – in November too.
December 2025 – We wrapped up the year with lots of festive fun including five Christmas Concerts featuring The Snowman in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow; three sold-out performances of Home Alone in Concert; three Christmas Wishes shows with Children’s Classic Concerts; two performances of A Festive Celebration; and a pop-up performance in Haymarket Station with the RSNO Brass Quintet and the City of Edinburgh Council Instrumental Music Service’s Senior Brass Band!