Live Ethan Loch Plays Gershwin Fri 27 – Sat 28 March

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as the Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as their Principal Guest Conductor. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

He has appeared with many notable orchestras in leading European centres, such as Berlin (including Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin), Munich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk), Zurich (Tonhalle Orchester Zurich), Leipzig (Gewandhausorchester), Paris (Orchestre National de France), London (London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic) and is a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic. North American appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Houston and Seattle. He has also made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

With the Minnesota Orchestra in 2025/26, Thomas leads a diverse range of programmes, including the continuation of their Nordic Composers Festival and projects with leading soloists such as Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma & Kirill Gerstein. In addition to their Scotland series and recording projects, highlights with the RSNO include leading the closing concert of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival and extensive tours of Europe & China. Guest conducting for this season will include returns to the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony & Oslo Philharmonic, alongside debuting with the Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona. Thomas will also sit on the jury of the 2025 London Symphony Orchestra Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.

As part of the 2015 anniversary celebrations of both Sibelius and Nielsen, he conducted a wide variety of their works with many leading orchestras. A passionate supporter of the music of Carl Nielsen, his performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony of his Symphony No. 5 was praised as “equal of the great pioneers of Nielsen interpretation… It’s hard to imagine a finer performance of this remarkable symphony.” (Dagens Nyheter); and in 2019 participated in a special concert to celebrate Nielsen’s works with the Royal Danish Academy of Music Copenhagen.

Following his acclaimed debut for Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial), he has since returned regularly to conduct a broad repertoire, including Die Walküre, which won the 2022 Reumert Award for Best Opera Production, Elektra, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La bohème, Cunning Little Vixen, Il viaggio a Reims; and has also made short concert tours with the Royal Danish Orchestra. He has also enjoyed successful collaborations with Staatsoper Stuttgart, Norwegian Opera and Royal Swedish Opera. His Stockholm productions of Tosca and Turandot (both with Nina Stemme) led to his Bayerische Staatsoper debut, conducting main season and Opera Festival performances of Turandot with her and he most recently returned to for the Opera’s Akademiekonzert series. He made his Deutsche Oper Berlin debut with the world premiere of Scartazzini’s Edward II and has since returned for Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet and R.Strauss’ Elektra.

His discography covers a broad range of contemporary and mainstream repertoire, including Carl Nielsen (The Royal Danish Orchestra, Naxos Records), Poul Ruders (Arhus Symphony, Norwegian Radio, Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial) for Da Capo and Bridge Records); Sibelius symphonies and tone poems with BBC NOW and Prokofiev and Richard Strauss with RSNO for Linn Records; Lutoslawski and Dutilleux concertos with ‘cellist Johannes Moser and Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Pentatone); and Vilde Frang’s celebrated debut recording (WDR Koln for EMI).

In October 2023, Thomas was a recipient of the Carl Nielsen and Anne-Marie Carl Nielsen’s Foundation award for his outstanding contribution to Danish musical life. In January 2022, Thomas was decorated with a prestigious Royal Order of Chivalry – the Order of Dannebrog (Ridder af Dannebrogordenen) by Her Majesty Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark.

Hailing from Scotland, pianist Ethan Loch has been inspiring and connecting with audiences from a young age. Winner of the Keyboard Category of the BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of 18, Ethan has performed with some of the UK’s most celebrated orchestras and conductors throughout the UK. Born in 2004, Ethan was diagnosed completely blind since birth and as a toddler would be found exploring sound and music on the piano for hours. His formal piano lessons began at the age of four with his mother and now studies with Professor Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Following Ethan’s mesmerising and emotive BBC Young Musician of the Year performance with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, orchestral engagements from around the UK quickly followed. From a series of sold-out performances with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Mark Wigglesworth to engagements with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Ethan has continued to inspire audiences on the concert platform. Equally at home in recital, Ethan has performed as part of Verbier Festival Academy, throughout his homeland in Scotland as well as the rest of the UK. In competition, Ethan has won the Scottish International Youth Piano Competition (2019), 7th James Waterhouse Loretto Piano Competition ‘Advanced’ class (2017), Premio Asoluto prize at the 15th International ‘Giuseppe Sciacca’ awards (2016), was a finalist in the EPTA Belgium International Piano Competition (2018) as well as second place at the first ever Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition (2023).

Ethan’s passion for the piano goes beyond the classical cannon with an enthusiasm for composition as well as jazz and classical improvisation. Ethan’s first CD, Mysterious Pathways Volume One was featured on Classic FM and on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio documentary featuring his collaboration with the Canadian artist Tony Luciani who painted the cover image. His second album, Mysterious Improvisations 2020, is a collection of one-shot, single-take classical improvisations.

BBC Scotland commissioned the TV documentary Ethan Loch: Making Music Talk in 2024 following him throughout his journey of composing a new concerto. Other TV appearances include The One Show in 2018 and on ITV’s Little Big Shots with Dawn French.

See Ethan Loch perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the RSNO on 27 & 28 March 2026.

Anglo-French mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany has been praised for her stagecraft and “a superb, glowing, impassioned” voice.

Stéphany was born in the North East of England and studied at the Guildhall School of Music, where she was a recipient of the Gold Medal, and the National Opera Studio. She represented England at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and is a Kathleen Ferrier Award winner. Stéphany was a member of the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich from 2012-2015, where she made her debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.

Further roles in Zürich include Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Siebel in Gounod’s Faust, Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann and Minerva in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria. Her close relationship with the house continued with guest appearances as Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Venus in Purcell’s King Arthur, Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther. One of Stéphany’s most coveted roles is Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, which she has performed in Zurich and at the Bolshoi Theatre, the Royal Swedish Opera, and with which she made her house debut at the Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden. Other opera highlights include her role and company debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon, her debut at the Berlin Staatsoper as Idamante, returning as Dorabella, a return to Covent Garden as Hansel and Cherubino at the Semperoper Dresden. Further opera appearances have included Sesto in a live-streamed concert performance of La Clemenza di Tito, recorded with the Opéra de Rouen in collaboration with Alpha Classics, Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Handel’s Theodora with Rias Kammerchor and the title role in Charpentier’s Médée for Chicago Opera. She made her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as Annio in La Clemenza di Tito, returning as La Musica and Speranza in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. She made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, which also formed part of the 2017 BBC Proms.

On the concert platform Stéphany has appeared with some of the world’s finest orchestras working with conductors including Masaaki Suzuki, Harry Christophers, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Simon Rattle. Recent appearances include Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Narodowe Forum Muzyki at the Berlioz Festival La-Côte-Saint-André, Zemlinsky’s Lieder von Nacht und Traum with the Tapiola Sinfonietta conducted by Clemens Schuldt, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio conducted by Gianluca Capuano with Monte Carlo Opera and Haydn’s Nelson Mass at the Klosters Music Festival with the Munich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Enrico Onofri. She has also performed Bruckner’s Te Deum with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann, Haydn Masses with RIAS Kammerchor and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, and Boulanger’s Psalm 130 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival, with concerts in 2025/26 including Bruckner’s Te Deum with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Gerhard Markson and Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Choral Society at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

See Anna Stéphany perform Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on 27 & 28 March 2026.

Founded in 1978 by Jean Kidd, the RSNO Youth Chorus (formerly known as the RSNO Junior Chorus) is one of the leading children and youth choirs in the UK, with over 400 members aged seven to eighteen. It has built up a considerable reputation singing under some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and appearing on radio and television.

Patrick Barrett is a conductor specialising in choral music and opera. He is currently Chorus Director of the RSNO Youth Choruses, Royal Opera House Youth Opera Company, Irish Youth Training Choir and the award-winning Farnham Youth Choirs.

Recent work has included conducting the RSNO Youth Chorus alongside soloists Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Benjamin Grosvenor and Nicola Benedetti in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s All-Star Gala performances, and preparing them for the recording of Jonathan Dove’s Gaspard’s Christmas, which is available on all streaming services. Over the summer, he led FYC to success at the Hull International Choral Competition and the International Choir Competition in Provence, winning the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices and Children’s Choir categories respectively, and will be competing with them in the World Choir Games 2024 in New Zealand. In the past year, he has also premiered a number of new works including Jonathan Brigg’s The Sapling with the ROH Youth Opera Company and pieces by Emma O’Halloran and DJ and producer R.Kitt with IYTC. This summer, he took up the position of Guest Conductor with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s Girls’ Choir and has been invited back for 2024.

Much of Patrick’s work revolves around championing young people within choral music and, for the past two years, he has been invited to address the annual conference of the Post Primary Music Teachers Association in Ireland. His work in this area began as a Trainee Music Leader with Spitalfields Music between 2015-16 and he is now firmly established as a music educator, having delivered projects for organisations including the BBC Singers, Sonoro, The Sixteen, Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, and Ark Schools.

In opera, Patrick works with many of the UK’s major companies including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Garsington Opera. For the ROH, he is the Musical Director of the Youth Opera Company, preparing them for main stage performances of Verdi’s Otello under Sir Antonio Pappano and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel under Sebastian Weigle, and conducting them in the world premieres of specially commissioned works including Lewis Murphy’s A Different Story in the Linbury Theatre. He is also a regular leader on their Create and Sing programme, working with secondary school teachers to stage specially-devised operas in classrooms across the country. For the ENO, he has prepared the children’s chorus for Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen under Martyn Brabbins and Bizet’s Carmen under Kerem Hasan. For Garsington Opera, he has worked on a specially-commissioned community opera called Dalia by Roxanna Panufnik as the Youth Chorus Director.

Patrick was previously the conductor of the University of Birmingham’s Upper Voices Choir and Brockham Choral Society.