Live Verdi Requiem Fri 6 – Sat 7 November

Patrick Hahn is Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, General Music Director of Sinfonieorchester und Oper Wuppertal and Principal Guest Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester of the Bayerischer Rundfunk. He is one of the most sought after and exciting conductors of his generation.

In his last season as General Music Director in Wuppertal, Patrick Hahn presents Wagner’s monumental Ring cycle in concert across the season with an internationally renowned cast featuring Catherine Foster, Benjamin Bruns, Michael Kupfer-Radecky and Karen Cargill amongst others.

As a guest conductor in the 2025/26 season, Patrick Hahn makes his first appearances at Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Sol Gabetta, Staatskapelle Dresden, WDR Sinfonieorchester with Ilya Gringolts and Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg with Timothy Ridout. Return visits include Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Fazil Say on a five-concert tour in China. Opera highlights include his debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin with Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Richard Strauss’ Intermezzo at Semperoper Dresden, and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Bayerische Staatsoper.

Previous seasons’ highlights include his first appearances at hr-Sinfonieorchester, Brussels Philharmonic with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Anastasia Kobekina, RAI with Truls Mørk, and Staatsoper Hamburg with Wagner’s Parsifal. Successful return visits include Wiener Symphoniker in Vienna and on tour and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich.

In his second season as Principal Guest Conductor at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Patrick Hahn was joined by Frank Dupree with his jazz trio for Gershwin’s Concerto in F in a programme which also saw Patrick Hahn on the piano for Antheil’s A Jazz Symphony. His other programmes include Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Kian Soltani alongside Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy. His collaboration with Münchner Rundfunkorchester continues with an all-Johann Strauss programme and Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem.

CD releases this season include an all-Gottfried von Einem album with Royal Scottish National Orchestra on Linn Records and Ethel Smyth’s opera Der Wald with Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal on the CPO label, marking the first time Der Wald is recorded in its original German language.

Aside from his work in classical music, Patrick Hahn accompanies himself on the piano singing cabaret songs by the Austrian satirist and composer Georg Kreisler. As a jazz pianist, he received awards from the Chicago Jazz Festival and the ‘Outstanding Soloist Award’ from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as the best jazz pianist of the 37th Annual Jazz Festival.

From Cahir in Ireland, Jennifer Davis has been propelled to international attention following a series of sensational roles debuts, earning praise for her gleaming, silvery tone, and dramatic characterisations of remarkable immediacy.

The 2025/26 season sees Davis make house and role debuts as Elisabeth in Wagner Tannhäuser for Grand Théâtre de Genève & Marie in Berg Wozzeck at the New National Theatre Tokyo, as well as a return to the Irish National Opera for a role debut in the title role in Dvořák Rusalka.

On the concert platform, Davis makes her BBC Proms debut in a performance of Delius A Mass of Life with Sir Mark Elder and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and gives her debut performance of Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles. Recent concert highlights include Mozart Requiem with the Athens Philharmonic, as well as various performances with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, including Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Beethoven Symphony no. 9 at Cadogan Hall and a New Year’s gala concert led by Gavin Maloney.

Last season Davis made her debut as the title role in Strauss Arabella and appeared as Elsa von Brabant Lohengrin at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She also made her house debut as Fiordiligi Così fan tutte at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in the role of Leonore in Beethoven Fidelio. In the 2023/24 season, Davis made critically acclaimed debuts as the title role in Janáček Jenůfa for the English National Opera, and also as Marguerite Faust for the Irish National Opera. She has won particular acclaim for her interpretation of Elsa von Brabant Lohengrin, which she has sung at the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Stuttgart Opera & Opera Ballet Flanders.

Other recent highlights include Leonore Fidelio for the Wiener Staatsoper, Freia Das Rheingold for Semperoper Dresden, Helmwige The Valkyrie for English National Opera, Pamina Die Zauberflöte for Irish National Opera, Donna Anna Don Giovanni for Opera North, Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte for Welsh National Opera, Countess Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro for Lyric Opera Productions, as well as Lena in Sokolović Svadba for Festival d’Aix en Provence. Her appearances at Wexford Festival Opera include the title role in Dvořák Armida, Adina L’elisir d’amore, and Agata in Cagnoni Don Bucefalo. In future seasons, Davis makes her house debut at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, and returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin & Irish National Opera.

Davis is an alumna of Jette Parker Young Artist Programme. Her various roles with the Royal Ballet and Opera have included Elsa von Brabant Lohengrin, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Gretel Hänsel und Gretel, Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte, Ifigenia Oreste, Arbate Mitridate, re di Ponto and Ines Il Trovatore.

See Jennifer Davis perform Verdi’s Requiem with the RSNO on 6 and 7 November 2026.

Turkish-German mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun is a graduate of Bloomington’s Jacobs School of Music / Indiana University and was a recent winner of the Elizabeth Connel Prize 2022 and the Eva Marton Prize 2021. She was a Member of the Young Artist Program of the Bavarian State Opera. 

Deniz is a former member of the ensemble of Opernhaus Zurich and Komische Oper Berlin, where her roles included Sonyetka in Lady Macbeth of Mzensk, Krista in Vec Makropulos, Bradamante in Alcina, Emilia in Otello, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Ino in Semele, Page in Salome, Lucilla in La scala di seta, Meg Page in Falstaff and Third Lady in Die Zauberflote. 

Throughout the course of her career Deniz has worked with conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Ádám Fischer, Franz Welser-Möst, Nello Santi, Simone Young, Oksana Lyniv, Kirill Petrenko, Vladimir Jurowski, Jakup Hrůša, Jérémie Rhorer, Vasily Petrenko, Markus Poschner, Gianandrea Noseda and William Christie, as well as with directors such as Barrie Kosky, Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Andreas Homoki, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Marie-Ève Signeyrole. 

Deniz proudly made her debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester in Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst and with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Drei geistliche Gesänge under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis; with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Sea Pictures under the baton of Róbert Farkas; as well as in Die Fledermaus as Orlofsky at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova under the baton of Fabio Luisi and as Una Donna in Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 as the season opening at Komische Oper Berlin. 

Highlights in previous seasons have included: her debut at Mupa Budapest as Waltraute in Götterdämmerung under the baton of Ádám Fischer; title roles such as Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Massimo Palermo, Carmen at the Landestheater Salzburg, Mascagni’s Zanetto in a semi-staged concert series in Switzerland, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, L’Enfant in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Ronja in Ronja die Räubertochter, Jacob in Evers’ Gold! as well as Zelim in Vivaldi’s La Verità in Cimento at the Opernhaus Zurich. In the past seasons she also partecipated in the season’s opening of the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari as Rubria in a new production of Boito’s Nerone as well as in the celebrated Barrie Kosky’s production of Eugene Onegin at the Komische Oper Berlin. 

Passionate in the Lied- and concert genre, Deniz performed also at the revived Festival Capuchos 2023 in Portugal alongside pianist David Santos with songs by Berlioz, Brahms, Korngold, Berg, Marx, A. Mahler, Montsalvage and Gershwin. In the season 20/21 she gave three recitals accompanied by pianist Yulia Levin titled “Opera goes Folk” with songs by Ravel, Schostakovic, Rodrigo and Kodaly as part of the Zurich Opera House’s alternative program. 

In the past Deniz has performed a wide range of repertoire for mezzo-soprano and contralto such as Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring at Bayerische Staatsoper, Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Jurmala Music Festival in Latvia, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, Ruggiero in Alcina and Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel with Indiana University Opera and Ballet, Annina in La Traviata and Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri for children at Baden Baden Festspielhaus, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Danish Radio Symphony, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and Irish National Symphony Orchestra, Page in Salome with Dallas Symphony, Third Maid in Elektra at Salzburger Festspiele and Isaura in Tancredi at the Festival de Beaune. 

Among the engagements of the past season are: a return to the Dallas Symphony as Fricka and Waltraute in the Ring Cycle; Die Zauberflöte at the Konzerthaus Berlin; Pikovaya Dama at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Les Dialogues des Carmélites at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice; La Traviata and Rigoletto at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl; Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Fricka) at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. 

Among the highlights of the 2025-26 season are: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Pordenone, Trieste, and Istanbul; Farnace in Madrid, Paris, and Geneva with the Ensemble I Gemelli; Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (concert version) in Wuppertal; Rigoletto in Marseille; and Verdi’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall in New York and in Miami; and Falstaff at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw.
 

See Deniz Uzun perform Verdi’s Requiem with the RSNO on 6 and 7 November 2026.

Mario Lerchenberger studied singing with Tom Sol, Lied with Joseph Breinl, oratorio with Robert Heimann, conducting with Johannes Prinz, and vocal pedagogy/singing teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. In the course of his studies he appeared on stage as Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Leopold (Im weißen Rössl) and Fenton (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor).

From 2019 to 2024, the Carinthian tenor has been an ensemble member of the Graz Opera, where he has performed ao. Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer), Hans (Die verkaufte Braut),
Kudrjasch (Katja Kabanova), Macduff (Macbeth) and Asle (Eötvös: Sleepless) and as tenor soloist in Britten’s War Requiem as well as in concert performances as Ferrando or Duca (Rigoletto). 

From the 2024/25 season he is an ensemble member of the Semperoper Dresden. Here he appears on stage as Steuermann, Jaquino (Fidelio),
Narraboth (Salome), Alfred, The Bridegroom/Tuomas (Saariaho: Innocence) and as Tamino. 

His extensive concert repertoire includes works such as Bach’s Mass in B Minor, St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives, Britten’s War Requiem, Dvorak’s Requiem and Stabat Mater, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Seasons and Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang and Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle or Verdi‘s Requiem. 

Mario Lerchenberger has performed at the Salzburg Felsenreitschule, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Graz Musikverein, the Sala Sinfonica Madrid, the International Bach Festival in Leipzig, the Bruckner Festival in Linz, the Musikwochen Millstatt and the arsonore, styriarte and La Strada festivals in Graz and has been nominated for the Austrian Music-Theatre-Award in 2022 and 2024.

See Mario Lerchenberger perform Verdi’s Requiem with the RSNO on 6 and 7 November 2026.

Possessing a voice “deep, stable and imbued with authority,” (Olyrix, 2025) Anglo-French bass Edwin Crossley-Mercer has forged a career defined by his exemplary musicianship. Since the outset of his career, Crossley-Mercer has been a regular presence on Europe’s major stages, embracing a wide-ranging repertoire of roles with many of the finest conductors of our day including Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Philippe Jordan, Riccardo Minasi and Leonardo García Alarcón. 

From an earlier bass-baritone repertoire focused principally on the baroque and classical repertory, today Crossley-Mercer’s bass voice lends itself to a rich repertoire of roles by composers including Beethoven, Berg, Britten, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. The upcoming season features several significant role debuts including Tirésias in Dusapin’s Antigone staged by Netia Jones for Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä, Raimond in Lucie de Lammermoor for Opéra Comique under Speranza Scappucci, Nicolas in Denisov’s L’Écume des jours for Opéra de Lille under Bassem Akiki, and Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte for Festival d’Aix en Provence under Leonardo García Alarcón. In concert his appearances will include Bach Matthäus Passion with both Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Kent Nagano and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Riccardo Minasi, Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri with Orchestre national de France under Philippe Jordan, Bruckner Te Deum with Tonkünstler-Orchester under Yutaka Sado, and Berlioz Roméo et Juliette with Slovenian National Orchestra under Charles Dutoit.  

Recent highlights of an extensive and diverse career have included Biterolf in Romeo Castellucci’s Tannhäuser at Osterfestspiele Salzburg under Andris Nelsons, Osiride in Tobias Kratzer’s new production of Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon at Opéra national de Lyon under Daniele Rustioni, and Reimann’s Lear in Christoph Marthaler’s new production at Bayerische Staatsoper under Jukka-Pekka Saraste.  Other significant appearances include Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) for Opernhaus Zürich/Riccardo Minasi and Bayerische Staatsoper/Antonello Manacorda, Colline (La bohème) with Orchestre National de Lille/Alexandre Bloch, von Weber’s Der Freischutz at Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin/Daniel Barenboim, Nourabad (Les pêcheurs de perles) for Festival d’Aix en Provence/Marc Minkowski, and at Theater an der Wien both Guillame Tell under Diego Matheuz and Peter Grimes under Thomas Guggeis.  Recent baroque projects include Handel’s Jeptha at Händel Festspeiele Halle, Les Indes galantes at Opéra national de Paris under Leonardo García Alarcón, Platée for Gran Teatre del Liceu and Theater an der Wien under William Christie, and most recently Hidraot in Lully’s Armide and Créon in Charpentier’s Médée for Opéra Comique.  

A sought-after recitalist and former student of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Crossley-Mercer has presented lied and art song programmes at Bad Kissingen, Festspeiele Mecklenburg, Musée d’Orsay, Festival de Pâques, Festival International de Colmar, and at the Louvre. Twice a Grammy-Award nominée, Edwin Crossley-Mercer’s discography includes several baroque programmes, a collaboration with American composer Michael Linton on Carmina Catulli and Wilde Songs, a compilation of mélodies by Nadia Boulanger, and Schubert Die Winterreise. This season Edwin sings Hydaspe on the world premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s Esther with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits, for upcoming release by Pentatone.   

See Edwin Crossley-Mercer perform Verdi’s Requiem with the RSNO on 6 and 7 November 2027.

Stephen Doughty has been Chorus Director of the RSNO Chorus since the start of the 2022:23 Season. Since his arrival the Chorus has seen an influx of new members, and an abundance of varied and critically acclaimed performances, including Verdi’s Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Bruckner’s E Minor Mass and the Scottish premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio. He has also directed the Chorus in new and imaginative programmes in their own right, including Rheinberger’s glorious Mass in E flat for double choir, and concerts with percussion and organ featuring Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, the European premiere of McIntyre’s Missa Brevis and Ives’ final major choral work, Psalm 90.  Stephen’s previous 12-year tenure as Chorus Master of Belfast Philharmonic Choir included a number of world premieres, most significantly James Whitbourn’s The Seven Heavens and Philip Hammond’s Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic, performed exactly 100 years since the liner went down, and further European premieres of both Stuart Scott’s Requiem Brevis, which saw the 100-strong choir separated into eight choirs spaced around the audience, and Christopher Marshall’s Earthsong.

Stephen particularly enjoys working with amateur singers, not least leading regular singing days frequently involving up to 800 amateur singers. He was Musical Director of Edinburgh Bach Choir for 7 years and has enjoyed the directing the Garleton Singers for over 30 years, performing with them recently at the Lammermuir Festival.

Stephen plays harpsichord/organ continuo and orchestral piano and has given frequent organ recitals, including several on the grand Mulholland Organ in the Ulster Hall, Belfast. He is also in demand as an arranger and orchestrator, with a large portfolio of work particularly for young voices. He has produced a plethora of arrangements of the music of pianist Christopher Norton, including two publications of piano duets and a suite for wind sextet, and has received commissions from Children’s Classic Concerts, the Ulster Orchestra and the RSNO. Commissions from the BBC have seen his work being performed on BBC Alba and at the Last Night of the Proms, and his pieces feature on several recordings, including with the RSNO Chorus.

Finally, Stephen is an Examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Born in Huddersfield in 1964, Paul Whittaker has been profoundly deaf all his life yet pursued a career as a musician. A pianist and organist, he has a music degree from Wadham College, Oxford, a postgraduate performance diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music and holds ALCM and ARCO diplomas.

In 1988, he founded Music and the Deaf, a charity to help deaf people enjoy music, which he ran for 27 years. In 2007, he was awarded an OBE for Services to Music and he also holds honorary degrees from the University of Huddersfield and Open University.

For the past 13 years, Paul has been working with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on their Feel the Music project, visiting many different countries around the world introducing deaf children to orchestral music. In 2023, he was invited to work with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin on a project involving deaf children and adults and in 2024 will work with an ensemble in Malmo on a similar project.

Since May 2015 he has been working freelance as a motivational speaker, signed song performer and workshop leader, and currently runs several signing choirs across the UK.

Paul has signed many musical shows and concerts, and performed with The King’s Singers, Tenebrae, Dunedin Consort, VOCES8, the Royal Liverpool, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Halle orchestras, with Children’s Classic Concerts and at many festivals, including the Cumnock Tryst and BBC Proms. He is delighted to be returning to the RSNO after joining them last November for James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio.

See Paul Whittaker perform Ode to Joy on 12 and 13 June 2026.