Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra - Promotional Pack

Oxford

Philharmonic

Orchestra

Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford

Music Director Marios Papadopoulos MBE

Ceiling of Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre, home of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

OxfOrd PhiLhArMONiC OrChEsTrA ‘Clearly the Oxford Philharmonic has a full house of virtuosos in its ranks, because the level of orchestral partnership is really impressive’ – The Strad, July 2018 In just 20 years the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra has established itself as one of the UK’s leading orchestras. Praised as ‘excellent’ by Gramophone magazine and ‘thoroughly impressive’ by BBC Music Magazine, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s reputation is based on the uncompromising artistic standards of its Founder and Music Director, Marios Papadopoulos, and maintained by some of the finest musicians in the UK. In 2002, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra was appointed as the University of oxford’s first ever orchestra in residence. In this prestigious post the Orchestra collaborates with the University’s famous Faculty of Music to provide unique opportunities for the student community, including tuition from members of the Orchestra and visiting international artists, performance opportunities, apprenticeships in orchestral practice and a platform for young composers.

The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra has been firmly committed to outreach work from its earliest days. Its various projects focus on taking music to areas of social and economic disadvantage, including work in special schools and hospitals.

The Orchestra and its Music Director were awarded the City of oxford’s Certificate of Honour in 2013, in recognition of their contribution to education and performance in Oxford.

The continual search for excellence underpins the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s reputation, and is reflected in an orchestra that strives to create bold musical statements with every concert it presents.

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ArTisT COLLABOrATiONs As an orchestra of the highest quality, the Oxford Philharmonic attracts some of the world’s greatest artists to appear in its series at Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre. In the 2018-19 season alone highlights include appearances from angela Gheorghiu, yefim Bronfman, Steven osborne, Vadim repin, Krzysztof Penderecki, nicola Benedetti and the Orchestra’s 20th Anniversary gala concert at London’s Barbican, featuring anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov and Martha argerich.

Highlights in recent seasons include appearances

by Valery Gergiev, yuri Temirkanov, lang lang, andrás Schiff, Janine Jansen, Pinchas Zukerman, Menahem Pressler and the Orchestra’s Patron, Vladimir ashkenazy.

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Following his remarkable Oxford debut with the Orchestra in 2013, world-renowned violinist Maxim Vengerov became its first Artist in Residence. Over an unprecedented four-season collaboration, Vengerov and the Oxford Philharmonic performed across the UK and recorded the violin concertos of Brahms and Sibelius. With a commercial release pending, both recordings have received exclusive plays on WQXR, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Recent projects with Vengerov include a recording of Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic - a tight-knit group of musicians described by The Times as the orchestra’s ‘glorious individual players’ and by Jessica Duchen (former Classical Music Correspondent of The Independent) as ‘a line-up to match any top notch international ensemble and beat them on their own turf.’

MAriOs PAPAdOPOULOs MBE

Founder and Music Director

Described by The Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as ‘having all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor. He has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s great orchestras, and worked with a host of eminent musicians including Vladimir ashkenazy, Hélène Grimaud, anneSophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov, renée Fleming and lang lang. His recordings of the Beethoven sonatas have been set on a level with Schnabel, Brendel, Barenboim, and Wilhelm Kempff (Daily Telegraph, Classic FM Magazine Critics’ Choice).

Guest conductor and soloist appearances have included a 2015 UK tour with the london Philharmonic orchestra and alison Balsom, Philharmonia orchestra & Chorus, european Union Chamber orchestra, and the royal Philharmonic orchestra. In November 2018, he will be conducting a new production of The Marriage of Figaro at the Greek national opera’s newly created opera house in Athens.

complete Brahms violin sonatas and performed these in a recital at Vienna’s Musikverein in September 2016.

Papadopoulos is dedicated to nurturing young talent and through his vast experience is able to impart knowledge to young artists, particularly during the prestigious Oxford Piano Festival, which he founded in 1999. In 2015, he served on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition and, in 2016, the Weiniawski Violin Competition.

Marios Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in music from City University and is both a member of the Oxford University Faculty of Music and Fellow

by Special election of Keble College oxford.

He became an Honorary Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2010 and was awarded the City of oxford’s Certificate of Honour in 2013.

Papadopoulos was awarded an MBe in the Queen’s 2014 New Year’s Honours List for services to music in Oxford.

With vast experience in directing from the keyboard, Papadopoulos has conducted the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies and directed the five piano concertos from the keyboard, most recently to celebrate the Oxford Philharmonic’s Orchestra’s 15th anniversary in the 2013-14 season. As part of the worldwide celebrations for Mozart’s 250th anniversary year, Papadopoulos directed the composer’s complete cycle of piano concertos from the keyboard, and in 2018, he performed a minicycle of the Mozart concertos in China with the Guangzhou Symphony orchestra. The Oxford Philharmonic’s 2018-19 season sees Papadopoulos direct Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds from the keyboard.

A prolific recording artist, Papadopoulos’s catalogue includes his critically acclaimed Beethoven sonatas, performances of Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Hyperion), works by Mozart, Mussorgsky, César Franck and the twenty-four Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. He conducts the Oxford Philharmonic in new recordings of the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. As a pianist, he and Maxim Vengerov have recorded the

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‘he is a great musician, not just a wonderful conductor but also a lovely pianist. When he plays on the piano you can hear the orchestra. That’s something i’ve only experienced before when i’ve played with Barenboim.’

MAXIM VENGEROV

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‘The Oxford Philharmonic is a very special orchestra because every musician is practically a soloist. Most of the members of the violin sections regularly play concertos as soloists and they’re also wonderful chamber musicians. The orchestra comes together like a team of great football players, and Marios Papadopoulos is a marvellous conductor.’

MAXIM VENGEROV

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Maxim Vengerov performs with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Marios Papadopoulos at the Sheldonian Theatre

‘…a packed audience obviously agreed that [the performance of The Messiah] must have been one of the most effective and enjoyable events in the long history of the sheldonian.’

THE OXFORD TIMES

Oxford Choirs As Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford, the Oxford Philharmonic is uniquely placed to collaborate regularly with the famous college choirs of Oxford. In the 2018-19 season alone the Orchestra performs with the Choir of the Queen’s College,

Schola Cantorum and Christ Church Cathedral Choir for masterworks including Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Vaughan-Williams’s An Oxford Elegy, and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.

COLOURS CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Page Nos.

Haydn The Creation

HAYDN THE CREATION

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Choir of New College Oxford Mhairi Lawson soprano, Rufus Müller tenor David Stout bass, Edward Higginbottom conductor ‘Thoroughly impressive, too, is the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, the ensemble’s strongly characterised tone and imaginatively used to realise Haydn’s many ‘pictorial’ effects’ BBC Music Magazine, December 2008 «««««

May 2008

Oxford Philomusica Choir of New College Oxford Edward Higginbottom

Mhairi Lawson soprano Rufus Müller tenor David Stout bass

‘“[Edward Higginbottom] gets disciplined, colourful playing from his excellent modern-instrument orchestra’ Gramophone Magazine, December 2008 «««««

Handel arr. Mendelssohn

Handel arr. Mendelssohn Acis and Galatea

Acis & Galatea

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford Jeni Bern soprano, Benjamin Hulett tenor, Nathan Vale tenor, Stephen Darlington conductor ‘The Oxford Philharmonic are on sparkling form’ Gramophone Magazine, 2012 Jeni Bern  Benjamin Hulett  Nathan Vale  Brindley Sherratt

Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford  Oxford Philomusica Stephen Darlington

O Holy Night A Merton Christmas

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Choir of Merton College, Oxford Benjamin Nicholas director Delphian Records ‘There are many vibrantly, energetic moments’ BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2017 RECORDING OF THE WEEK Presto Classical, December 2017

rECENT rECOrdiNGs ANd UPCOMiNG rELEAsEs Maxim Vengerov Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Brahms

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77

Sibelius

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47,

(1904 version)

Marios Papadopoulos conductor

MaXiM VenGeroV: BraHMS & SiBeliUS Violin ConCerToS Pre-releaSe

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Maxim Vengerov violin Marios Papadopoulos conductor

LIMITED GIFT EDITION

SHoSTaKoViCH & lidSTrÖM

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Mats Lidström cello (Principal Cello of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra)

Vladimir Ashkenazy Record label: BIS

WQXR’s ‘Best New Classical Releases’, May 2018 ‘Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Oxford Philharmonic deliver a full-blooded performance.’

‘Ashkenazy has [the Oxford Philharmonic] dig into the Shostakovich with gusto’ Gramophone Magazine, July 2018 ‘Clearly the Oxford Philharmonic has a full house of virtuosos in its ranks, because the level of orchestral partnership is really impressive...

Both dramatic and tender, Lidström’s performance has a depth that makes you listen afresh to this familiar concerto’ Strad Magazine, July 2018

niMrod BorenSTein

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Irmina Trynkos violin Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Record label: Chandos

BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Concerto Choice of the Month’, December 2017 ««««« ‘The orchestral playing and engineering is of bracing impact and captivating allure.’

Julian Haylock, BBC Music Magazine

‘A terrifically entertaining, optimistic disc, performed with abundant zip and pizzazz’ The Arts Desk,October 2017

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oxfordphil.com H.K. Leventis Foundation

& Celia and Andrew Curran

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