Live Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Fri 8 – Sat 9 December

2022/23 marks Andrey Boreyko’s fourth season as Music and Artistic Director of Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. They celebrated the orchestra’s 120th birthday last season, toured across the US, Spain, and Dubai, and performed at the annual Chopin & His Europe Festival and the International Chopin Piano Competition. Their upcoming plans together include a return to the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in 2023, further tours across Spain, China and Japan.

Now in his first season as Resident Conductor of Orchestra Sinfonica de Milano (formerly “La Verdi”), Boreyko conducted their season-opening concert at the Teatro alla Scala in a programme that featuring Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, Wagner’s Prelude from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Two Pianos in Major with Luca and Arthur Jussen. He returns later this season for further subscription concerts, including monumental works such as Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony No. 7, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, and a performance at the Kissinger Sommer Festival.

In high demand as a guest conductor, this season’s highlights include Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (world premiere of Silvestrov’s Symphony 8), Prague Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonisches Staastorchester Hamburg, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Aarhus Symphony at the Rachmaninov Festival, Janáček Philharmonic. Plans further ahead include Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Spanish Radio Symphony (RTVE), and the ORF Vienna.

Last season Andrey Boreyko concluded his eighth and final season as Music Director of Artis—Naples. His inspiring leadership raised the artistic standard of the Naples Philharmonic and, throughout the course of his tenure, he explored connections between art forms through interdisciplinary thematic programming. Significant projects he led include pairing Ballet Russes-inspired contemporary visual artworks of Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave with performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and The Firebird, and commissioning a series of compact pieces by composers including Giya Kancheli to pair with an art exhibition featuring small yet personal works by artists such as Picasso and Calder that were created as special gifts for the renowned collector Olga Hirshhorn.

Previous highlights include tours with Filarmonica della Scalla (to Ljubljana, Rheingau, Gstaad, and Grafenegg festivals), The State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (to Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich), and performances with Cleveland Orchestra (most recently returned in 2019), Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, Sinfonia Varsovia (with whom he appeared in the Budapest Palace of Arts’ Bridging Europe Festival with Piotr Anderszewski), Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Frankfurt Museumsgesellschaft, Sydney, Toronto, Seattle, Minnesota, San Francisco, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, and Houston Symphony.

An advocate for modern and lesser-known works, Boreyko championed compositions by Victoria Borisova-Ollas in an extensive concert and recording project with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017. With the Warsaw Philharmonic, Boreyko has recorded several albums including André Tchaikowsky’s Violin Concerto, Giya Kancheli’s Libera me. Their fourth album together features Pendercki’s Piano Concerto and Symphony 2, and releases in autumn 2022. During his tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, he recorded Arvo Pärt’s Lamentate and Valentin Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 6 (both for ECM records), the premiere recording of his original version of the Suite from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Shostakovich symphonies No. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 15, all five albums on Hänssler Classics. He has also recorded Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and Lutosławski’s Chain 2 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Yarling Records. Nonesuch released a recording of the Górecki’s Symphony No. 4 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, shortly after Andrey Boreyko conducted the world premiere in concert with them, subsequently performing the American premiere with Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Previous appointments include Music Director positions of the Jenaer Philharmonie, Hamburger Symphoniker, Berner Sinfonieorchester, Düsseldorf Symphoniker, Winnipeg Symphony, and of the Orchestre National de Belgique. As young musicians, Boreyko explored the music of the medieval and renaissance eras, and was an active member of the Soviet Union’s first two early music ensemble, Res Facta and Baroque Consort. As a student at St Petersburg Conservatory, he founded one of the USSR’s first rock group with a focus on progressive rock. Off the podium, Andrey Boreyko revels in the beauties of literature, cinema, and nature.

Ilya Gringolts wins over audiences with his highly virtuosic playing and sophisticated interpretations and is always seeking out new musical challenges. As a sought-after soloist, Ilya Gringolts devotes himself to the great orchestral repertoire as well as to contemporary and rare works; he is also interested in historical performance practices. His concert programmes include virtuosic early repertoire by Paganini, Leclair, and Locatelli. At the beginning of the year, he premiered his own arrangement of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. He also launched new works by Peter Maxwell Davies, Christophe Bertrand, Bernhard Lang, Beat Furrer, and Michael Jarrell and premieres by Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Jarrell, Christophe Bertrand, and Albert Schnelzer. In the summer of 2020, Ilya Gringolts and Ilan Volkov founded the I&I Foundation for the promotion of contemporary music, which awards commissions to young composers. A first series of short solo works was created last season, including works by Yu Kuwabara and Sky Maclachlan, which debuted on BBC Radio Scottish and at the Accademia Chigiana.

Ilya Gringolts began the 2022/23 season with Nicolas Altstaedt and Lawrence Power at the Musikfest Berlin, in celebration of Wolfgang Rihm’s 70th birthday. Further invitations brought him to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the ORF Radio-Symphonic Orchestra Vienna, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Andrey Boreyko, the Helsinki Philharmonic and Radio Filharmonisch Orkest under Hannu Lintu, the Oslo Philharmonic under Klaus Mäkelä and the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan. He will conduct the Camerata Bern from his violin at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and an extensive tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra will once again bring him to Australia.

Ilya Gringolts has performed with renowned orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Recent highlights have been joint projects with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Bamberger Symphoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. From his violin, he has recently conducted projects with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Bern, and Ensemble Resonanz.

For his Diapason d’Or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award-winning recording of Locatelli’s Il labirinto armonico (2021), Ilya Gringolts also led the Finnish Baroque Orchestra from the podium. This was followed in the same year by the solo CD Ciaccona with works by Bach, Pauset, Gerhard, and Holliger, which also received the Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award. His extensive discography of highly acclaimed CD productions for Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, and Hyperion, among others, also includes the critically acclaimed recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices for solo violin and the second part of his recording of the complete violin works of Stravinsky (2018), recorded with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia under Dima Slobodeniouk and awarded the Diapason d’Or.

As first violinist of the Gringolts Quartet, he has enjoyed great success at the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus Dortmund, and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. A highly esteemed chamber musician, Ilya Gringolts regularly collaborates with artists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich, James Boyd, Itamar Golan, Peter Laul, Aleksandar Madzar, Christian Poltera, David Kadouch, Lawrence Power and Jörg Widmann.

After studying violin and composition with Tatiana Liberova and Zhanneta Metallidi in St. Petersburg, he attended the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman. He won the International Violin Competition Premio Paganini (1998) and is still the youngest winner in the competition’s history; he was also named a BBC New Generation Artist at the outset of his career. In addition to his professor position at the Zurich University of the Arts, Ilya Gringolts was appointed to the renowned Accademia Chigiana in Siena in 2021. He plays a Stradivari (1718 “ex-Prové”) violin.

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.