'Against a backdrop of increasing uncertainty in arts funding and wider cultural upheaval, it feels both encouraging and necessary to be founding a new opera company at this moment – standing alongside fellow arts organisations across the UK, we aim not only to contribute to the musical landscape, but actively to deepen the operatic artform in the fibres of our society. By drawing on the wealth of international talent available both from these shores and abroad, we aim to create meaningful opportunities for artists and audiences alike. Oxford, steeped in history, drama and beauty, feels a fitting home for operas that are equally rich in these qualities. To have Sir Bryn Terfel leading the way artistically is a profound honour, and we are excited for this new chapter in our organisation’s journey – bringing to Oxford's stages not only scintillating classical music, but vivid visual storytelling, and what better way to begin than with Puccini’s Tosca.'
Marios Papadopoulos, Music Director
'This year, we see the launch of Oxford International Opera. An amazing initiative with the Oxford Philharmonic, alongside the orchestra’s founder Marios Papadopoulos, I shall be the Artistic Director. And our aim is simple: bring amazing opera performers young and old, bring international creatives and world class musicians on to the stages here in Oxford.
We begin a new and exciting journey together where, along with a great team, we are launching a truly ambitious venture – international and forward-looking in reach and rooted in the beautiful and historic streets of this great city.
From the grandeur of the palaces of Rome, to the historic landscapes of Oxford –Oxford International Opera is born.'
Sir Bryn Terfel, Artistic Director
Cast:
Sir Bryn Terfel Scarpia
Carmen Giannattasio Tosca
Saimir Pirgu Cavaradossi
Jamie Woollard Angelotti
Fabio Previati Sacristan
Colin Judson Spoletta
Steffan Lloyd Owen Sciarrone
Marios Papadopoulos Conductor
Creatives:
P Burton-Morgan Director
Anthony Lamble Designer
Tim Mitchell Lighting Designer
Anthony Flaum Producer
Oxford International Opera is grateful for the support from our Principal Donor, the Laidlaw Opera Trust.
passion, power and revolution
Sir Bryn Terfel Scarpia
Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel has forged an extraordinary international career, performing regularly on the world’s most prestigious concert stages and opera houses.
After winning the Song Prize at the 1989 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, Sir Bryn made his professional operatic debut in 1990 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with Welsh National Opera. The following year, he made both his international operatic debut as the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and his American debut as Figaro with Santa Fe Opera.
Throughout his distinguished career, he has performed roles such as Méphistophélès (Faust), both the title role and Leporello (Don Giovanni), Jochanaan (Salome), the title role (Gianni Schicchi), Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), and the Four Villains (Les contes d’Hoffmann).
Recent operatic engagements include Scarpia in Tosca at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, and The Met; Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore and Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Vienna Staatsoper; and the title role in Gianni Schicchi at the Verbier Festival.
Other notable operatic highlights include his acclaimed debut as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, Wotan in The Ring Cycle at both the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera, his role debut as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, and Sweeney Todd for English National Opera.
In concert, recent highlights include recitals at the Herbstgold Festival, Staatsoper Hamburg, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Müpa Budapest, and
Tanglewood Festival, as well as Belshazzar’s Feast with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Adam Hickox and a gala debut in Mexico with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería under Roberto Kalb.
Highlights of the 2024–25 season include Scarpia in Tosca at Opernhaus Zürich, as well as the title role in Boris Godunov and Captain Balstrode in Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House. Upcoming engagements also include a concert performance of Der fliegende Holländer at Opéra de Monte-Carlo under Gianluca Marcianò, Tosca in concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada, and his debut with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Dinis Sousa at The Glasshouse.
In 2000, Sir Bryn founded the Faenol Festival (Gŵyl y Faenol) near his hometown in North Wales, a vibrant celebration of opera, classical, and popular music that ran for nine years and became a beloved cultural fixture.
A Grammy, Classical Brit, and Gramophone Award winner, his extensive discography includes operas by Mozart, Wagner, and Strauss, along with over fifteen solo albums spanning Lieder, American musical theatre, Welsh song, and sacred repertoire.
Sir Bryn was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2003, received the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2006, and was knighted for services to music in 2017. He holds the title of Austrian Kammersänger, was the final recipient of the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, and in 2022 was honoured with a European Cultural Award at the Tonhalle, Zurich. He also received the Freedom of the City of London in 2015.
Carmen Giannattasio Tosca
Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio graduated from the Avellino Conservatory and was a member of the Opera Studio at La Scala in Milan. Giannattasio's international career was launched in 2002 when she won the prestigious Operalia competition in Paris, organised by Plácido Domingo. Since then the soprano has been in demand at all the major Italian and foreign theatres (La Scala in Milan, San Carlo in Naples, Arena in Verona, Comunale in Bologna, Sferisterio in Macerata, Fenice in Venice, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Opernhaus in Zurich, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper in Berlin, La Monnaie in Brussels, Kungliga Operan in Stockholm, Staatsoper in
Reims, Margherita in Mefistofele, Tosca, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, Norma, Giovanna d'Arco, Giorgetta in Tabarro, Tatiana in Onegin, Anna in Le Villi, Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Gioconda, Aida, Minnie in La Fanciulla del West. Among the engagements of the 2025-26 season are: Tosca at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Royal Opera House in Muscat, and the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv; and Rota's Napoli Milionaria at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. On February 28, 2017, she received the honour of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella della Repubblica Italiana. In December 2021, she received the prestigious Callas Prize in New York. In 2024, she was the only singer to perform for the heads
'England is where I was forged — where I learned discipline, freedom, and fearless storytelling. It believed in me when as a young girl I was still a rough diamond, and London was my home for eight intense, defining years. Returning here to sing Tosca is not just a debut: it is a homecoming, a reckoning, and a celebration. I come back as a woman and as an artist — crowned by experience, fire, and truth.'
Vienna, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo, Bolshoi in Moscow, De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Teatro Perez Galdos in Las Palmas, Los Angeles Opera, Teatro Municipal in Santiago del Chile).
In her career she has been: Micaela in Carmen, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Anna in Maometto secondo, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Elena in La donna del lago, Violetta Valéry in La traviata, Liù in Turandot, Mimì in La Bohème, Elisabetta I in Maria Stuarda, Nedda in Pagliacci, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Desdemona in Otello, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Madama Cortese in Il Viaggio a
of state attending the G7 Cultural Summit in Pompei. Known not only for her vocal virtuosity, but also for her remarkable acting skills, she has been chosen by film directors such as Ferzan Ozpetek, Edoardo De Angelis, Franco Zeffirelli and John Schlesinger. She has been described by the Telegraph as 'the Anna Magnani of opera'. For many years she lived in London, the city where she made friends who have been fundamental to her human and artistic experience, including the iconic actress Judy Dench and Ezio Bosso, who dedicated to her the celebrated composition for solo piano Following a Bird; she has been the muse of Karl Lagerfeld, Alberta Ferretti and Antonio Riva.
Saimir Pirgu Cavaradossi
Saimir Pirgu is regarded as one of the world's most important interpreters of lyric tenor roles and appears regularly at the most prestigious opera houses such as Teatro alla Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and Bayerische Staatsoper, in addition to maintaining strong relationships with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Philippe Jordan, Zubin Mehta and Sir Antonio Pappano.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season include a house debut at Dallas Opera as Don José in Bizet's Carmen, as well as returns to the Wiener Staatsoper as Pinkerton Madama Butterfly and to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Rodolfo La bohème. On the concert platform, Pirgu sings Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Gustavo Gimeno and Toronto Symphony Orchestra and appears as the title role in concert performances of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust for Opernhaus Zürich.
Pirgu recently made his role debut as Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca at the Roma Caracalla Festival, and his Edinburgh International Festival debut as Don José Carmen. Other recent operatic highlights include the title role in Verdi's
Ernani at the Bregenzer Festspiele, Pinkerton Madama Butterfly for Teatro di San Carlo, Rodolfo La bohème for Wiener Staatsoper, Il Duca di Mantova Rigoletto & Rodolfo La bohème with Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden, Don José Carmen for Opernhaus Zürich, Lensky Eugene Onegin for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, as well as title roles Idomeneo for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and Les Contes d'Hoffmann & Faust for Opernhaus Zürich.
In 2009 Pirgu was awarded the Franco Corelli Prize of the Teatro delle Muse of Ancona for his performance in La traviata, and in 2013 he was awarded the prestigious ‘Pavarotti d’Oro’. The DVD/Blu-Ray recording of Król Roger from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Saimir as Shepherd received a nomination in the Best Opera Recording category at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards 2016. Pirgu has released multiple solo albums with Opus Arte, including ‘Il Mio Canto’ in 2016, and most recently his eponymously titled album ‘Saimir’ in 2024.
Pirgu has been an ambassador for Down Syndrome Albania, a foundation dedicated to helping children with Down Syndrome, since 2013.
'I am delighted to be joining the Oxford International Opera for their inaugural performance of Puccini’s Tosca in the role of Cavaradossi. I am also very excited to be reunited with and perform alongside my colleague Sir Bryn Terfel, who sings Scarpia, in addition to his acting as Patron and Artistic Director for the new opera company.'
Jamie Woollard Angelotti
Jamie Woollard is a British bass. Highlights of the 25/26 season include returns to Glyndebourne as Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Royal Ballet & Opera for Count Ceprano in Rigoletto. He will also make his debut at Opera North as Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, and at The Grange Festival as Colline in La bohème.
He was a Jette Parker Artist at the Royal Ballet & Opera for the 2023 to 2025 seasons. His roles here included Zuniga in Carmen, Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, Dumas in Andrea Chénier, and Sciarrone in Tosca. In Summer 2023, Jamie performed with
Glyndebourne Festival Opera as a Jerwood Young Artist, where he covered Snug in Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and played Thierry in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. Other credits include Apollo & Titye (La descente d'Orphée, Charpentier) for the Vache Baroque Festival; Commendatore (Don Giovanni) for Brunswick Vocal Arts and Waterperry Opera, Saul (Saul, Handel) with Consort of Twelve, and Polyphemus (Acis & Galatea) for Eboracum Baroque. He is a Samling Artist, a BBC Music Magazine ‘Rising Star’ 2023, and was awarded second prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards 2021.
Fabio Previati Sacristan
Fabio Previati began his studies with Maestro Carlo Polacco and graduated in 1989 with top marks and honours from the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice. He won two international competitions: the ‘Toti Dal Monte’ in Treviso and the ASLICO in Milan.
He has performed at major theatres such as the Verona Arena, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Carlo Felice in Genoa, La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Rome Opera, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Teatro Regio in Parma, and more.
He has performed numerous leading roles thanks to his stagecraft, as well as his vocal versatility, such as Marcello, Belcore, Germont, Leporello and Don Giovanni, Figaro and Don Bartolo, Guglielmo, Adelson, Taddeo, Malatesta, Sulpice, Mercutio, Ping, Sharpless, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Silvio, Alfio, and Don Magnifico, and others.
He has worked with many important conductors including Oren, Mehta, Maazel, Viotti, Gatti, Campanella, Campori, Arena, Renzetti, Maag, Argiris, Nesling, Carella and Santi. He has also made numerous recordings and DVDs.
Colin Judson Spoletta
Colin Judson is widely recognised as one of the leading character tenors of his generation and appears at major opera houses worldwide. Recent and future engagements include Spoletta Tosca, Goro Madama Butterfly and Don Basilio Le nozze di Figaro at RBO, Monostatos Die Zauberflöte, Flute and Snout A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opera North, Bardolpho Falstaff for Glyndebourne Festival, Dr Caius Falstaff for Garsington, Don Basilio Le nozze di Figaro ENO and Steuermann Der Fliegende Höllander for Opera Holland Park.
Other appearances include Mime Siegfried for Longborough, Monostatos, Pang Turandot, Kunz Vogelgesang Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg RBO, Bob Boles Peter Grimes for Bergen National Opera, Vogelgesang, Bardolfo, Squeak Billy Budd and the Schoolmaster Cunning Little Vixen for Glyndebourne, High Priest of Amon Akhnaten for ENO, Opéra National du Rhin and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon. He has sung the role of Sellem The Rake’s Progress in productions across Europe.
Welsh baritone Steffan Lloyd Owen is the winner of the 2025 Paris Opera Competition and the 2025 Joseph Palet Competition. He is currently a member of the International Opera Studio at Zürich Opera.
This season, his roles at Zürich include Marullo in Rigoletto, Silvano in Un ballo in Maschera and the title role in the Studio’s production of Gianni Schicchi. His future plans include debuts with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and at Edinburgh International Festival and a return to Zürich Opera. Highlights of the 2024/2025 season included Usciere in Rigoletto, Silvano in
Un ballo in Maschera, and Hermann in Les Contes d’Hoffmann for Zürich Opera. He joined the orchestra of Welsh National Opera as Ragondin in Serch yw’r Doctor.
In 2024, he made his role debut as Escamillo in Le tragédie de Carmen at the Buxton Festival to great critical acclaim, described as ‘striking’ in The Times. Other roles include The Doctor in Verdi's Macbeth for Mid Wales Opera, Brenin in the premiere of the children’s opera Cyfrinach y Brenin by Mared Emlyn, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte for Opera Cymru.
Steffan Lloyd Owen Sciarrone
Marios Papadopoulos Conductor
Described by The Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as having ‘all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Marios Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor. In 1998, Papadopoulos founded the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and has continued at its helm as Music Director ever since. Under his direction the Orchestra has gained an international reputation as one of the UK’s finest orchestras. Other than a series of concerts at its home in Oxford and other parts of the UK, the Oxford Philharmonic have toured abroad under Papadopoulos’s baton in a number of European cities, the USA, the Middle East and Asia, including a tour of nine concerts in Japan in 2024. Papadopoulos has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s great orchestras in prestigious venues, including at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Over the years, Papadopoulos has forged close relationships with a host of eminent musicians with whom he collaborates regularly. They include Maxim Vengerov, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin and Víkingur Ólafsson. As pianist and conductor, Papadopoulos has directed from the keyboard the complete cycle of all the Mozart and Beethoven Piano Concertos. As one of the leading exponents of Beethoven’s music, he has also conducted the complete cycle of the symphonies on several occasions. 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). 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 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. He conducts the Oxford Philharmonic in new recordings of Mozart’s Symphonies Nos 40 and 41 and the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. As a pianist, he and Vengerov have recorded the complete Brahms violin sonatas and also performed these in a recital at Vienna’s Musikverein. In 2020, Papadopoulos released two new recordings on the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra record label: Piano Favourites, featuring well-known works by Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninov and more. In the summer of 2021, Papadopoulos published his first book – a memoir titled Beyond Dreams and Aspirations: My Journey to Oxford which charts his early career, the creation of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and his thoughts on musical interpretation.
Papadopoulos is dedicated to nurturing young talent and imparts knowledge to young artists through his vast experience, particularly during the annual Oxford Piano Festival which he founded in 1999. He served on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2015, the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 2016 and most recently at the Classic Violin Olympus International Competition in Dubai. Marios Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in music from City University and is Fellow by Special Election of Keble College, Oxford. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2010 and was awarded Oxford City’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.
P Burton-Morgan Director
P Burton-Morgan is a librettist, director and Artistic Director of Metta Theatre (V&A Opera Company in Residence 2018). Opera directing credits include Cosi fan tutte (Wild Arts / UK tour), Madame Butterfly (Opera Up Close / UK tour), I’m Not A Bit Like A Clown/ I Do Need Me (V&A / Tete-a-tete), Roles (V&A), Palace of Junk (Mahogany Opera Group Various Stages
Festival), Così fan tutte (New Theatre, Oxford), Flicker (Lilian Baylis Studio), The Elephant's Child (Grimeborn Festival and Trafalgar Studios). Other directing credits include Sherlock Holmes and the PoisonWood (Watermill), The Rhythmics (Southwark Playhouse), In the Willows (Exeter Northcott / UK tour), Little Mermaid (Theatre By The Lake / UK tour).
Anthony Lamble Designer
Anthony has designed extensively in theatre, film, dance and opera for companies including RSC, National Theatre, Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Soho Theatre, ROH, ENO, The Purcell Quartet. This is Anthony’s first design for the Oxford Philharmonic Opera.
Anthony’s Dance and Opera Credits Include Facing Viv (English National Ballet); L’Orfeo (Japan tour); Test Rock Opera (Scala Basel); Palace in The Sky (English National Opera); Broken Fiction (Royal Opera House).
Other Recent Credits Include Credits include Uncanny: Fear of the Dark (UK Tour); The Plays The Thing; A One Person Hamlet (Wilton’s Music Hall, New Diorama); The Dinosaur That
Pooped A Rock Show (UK Tour); Alice By Heart (LSMT at Bridwell Theatre); The Dreams I Had: Andrea Dunbar (Bradford City of Culture); The Spongebob Musical (Watford Palace); Pond Life (Open Palm Films); Cinderella, Robin Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Dick Whittington and His Cat, Jack and the Beanstalk (Oxford Playhouse); Friendsical (National Tour); The Woods, COPS, Allegro, Three Sisters, Shivered (Southwark Playhouse); The One, Blueberry Toast, Roller Diner, First Love is the Revolution (Soho Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (York Theatre Royal); The Inn at Lydda, Omeros, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); A Month of Sundays (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch); The Bastard of Istanbul (Istanbul International Theatre Festival).
Tim Mitchell Lighting Designer
Tim is an Associate Artist for the RSC and Chichester Festival Theatre and a Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Awards include: Knight of Illumination Award for Taken At Midnight (Chichester) and Nalieda Award for King Kong (Fugard Theatre).
Nominations include: Olivier Award for Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (RSC), Green Room Award for Singin’ in the Rain (Australia), Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Royal Lyceum), and Fleur du Cap Award for King Kong and Kinky Boots. Credits include: Sister
Act (West End, UK & International Tour); Singin’ in the Rain (International Tour); Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (Leeds Playhouse & UK Tour); A Christmas Carol (RSC); Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Live, Upstart Crow (West End); Wicked (Oslo); HMS Pinafore, The Force of Destiny, Fidelio, Iolanthe (ENO); L’Orfeo, Fairy Queen (Longborough); Atlantis (Tivoli); A Streetcar Named Desire (Orlando/ Nashville); Kinky Boots, West Side Story (Cape Town); Funny Girl, Guys and Dolls (Théatre Marigny, Paris); Margrethe Pressure (Toronto) and 14 productions for Grange Park Opera.
Anthony Flaum Producer
Anthony is part of a growing breed of performers – heart on the stage and behind it! Originally trained as a tenor, he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. He has sung principal roles with UK opera companies including English National Opera, Scottish Opera and notably Grange Park Opera, where he sung Motel Kamzoyl, in Fiddler on the Roof with Bryn Terfel as Tevye (2015). He began his career singing Rodolfo in the original Olivier award-winning production of La bohème (OperaUpClose, 2009). He made his acting debut as Edgar in King Lear alongside Sir John Tomlinson and Sir Thomas Allen (The
Grange Festival, 2021). Whilst still performing, he has also begun producing. He founded his own opera theatre company Prologue Opera in Hastings. Prologue’s next project is Monster in the Maze (Jonathan Dove), premiered at The Crucible, Sheffield (Music in the Round, 2024) where he sung Theseus. Jonathan’s community opera story began in Hastings and Anthony is excited to continue this legacy. He has produced tours, galas and educational projects for Barefoot Opera amongst other companies and is very honoured to be involved with Oxford International Opera. He began his professional life in banking!
Fidelio
New Theatre, Oxford 18 & 20 NOVEMBER 2027
'...such a great evening of music-making. The Oxford Philharmonic is a superb ensemble, achieving a rich and deeply satisfying blend; section by section, these are some of the finest musicians I have ever heard. And when solo moments popped up, the individual players played like gods and goddesses.'
'The orchestra bowled me over with their epic playing.'
'The Oxford Philharmonic is a superb ensemble, achieving a rich and deeply satisfying blend'
Oberon’s Grove, June 2022 (Carnegie Hall debut)
'wonderfully spirited Oxford Philharmonic
The Times, June 2025
'Argerich was putting in an appearance with the Oxford Philharmonic orchestra, or OPO, an orchestra whose reputation has grown ten-fold in the past few years, largely due to the tireless work of conductor and musical director, Marios Papadopoulos.’
'An exciting performance all round – this Argerich-Papadopoulos combination with OPO will prove to be a real winner with audiences.'
ArtMuse London, February 2025
'World-class quality is what beamed from the stage at the orchestra's New York debut'
Blogcritics, June 2022 (Carnegie Hall debut)
'Marios Papadopoulos, now 70, is an excellent and experienced pianist, conductor, administrator and orchestra builder.'
'Papadopoulos clearly knows whatever music he conducts and conveys his musical ideas within what seems to be a musical a dialogue with his musicians. No matter what the music is or who the musicians are, Papadopoulos communicates with clarity and sincerity.'
Seen and Heard, February 2025
Philharmonic Orchestra'
'a fine professional ensemble'
New York Classical Review, June 2022 (Carnegie Hall debut)
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
Since 1998, the Oxford Philharmonic has brought inspirational performances to Oxford and beyond. The Orchestra prides itself on creating unique musical experiences, bringing new and engaging interpretations to well-loved works in the classical repertoire. Its continual search for excellence is underpinned by the uncompromising standards of its Founder and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos, who with some of the UK’s and Europe’s finest instrumental musicians has shaped the Orchestra’s distinctive sound.
The Oxford Philharmonic works regularly with some of the world’s greatest classical artists, among them Maxim Vengerov, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Sir András Schiff, Evgeny Kissin and Sir Bryn Terfel.
Violinist Maxim Vengerov became the Oxford Philharmonic’s first ever Artist-in-Residence in 2013 for an unprecedented four seasons. Since then, Vengerov has performed with the Orchestra across the UK and recorded the violin concertos of Brahms and Sibelius, as well as leading an ensemble of OPO Principals in a recording of Mendelssohn’s Octet.
In addition to its annual concert season in Oxford, performances across the UK, family concerts and annual Piano Festival and Chamber Music Series, the Oxford Philharmonic is in growing demand internationally. It appeared at the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen in June 2019 and, in June 2022, made its critically acclaimed US debut at Carnegie Hall. In the 2023/24 season, the Orchestra returned to Dubai in February for six concerts at Dubai Opera and made a debut tour of Japan in May, performing nine sold-out concerts across four cities, including Tokyo. The 2024/25 season saw the Orchestra return to Carnegie Hall.
In February 2023, the Orchestra celebrated its 25th anniversary with a gala concert at the Barbican, in which Maxim Vengerov played Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Other engagements during the Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee year included concerts in Dubai in February 2023 and a tour of Germany and Austria, where the Orchestra made its debut at Musikverein, Vienna and at Isarphilharmonie, Munich with soloist Martha Argerich.
In December 2020, the Orchestra filmed a concert in a tribute to all those working on developing a vaccine for Covid-19 at the University of Oxford, including the world premiere of John Rutter’s Joseph’s Carol, commissioned for the occasion.
Since its founding, the Oxford Philharmonic has been firmly committed to outreach work, with projects taking music to areas of social and economic disadvantage, hospitals, Special Educational Needs schools, and partnerships with Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council. In December 2021, the Orchestra’s SubPrincipal Violin Jamie Hutchinson was awarded the prestigious Salomon Prize, a joint prize between the Royal Philharmonic Society and Association of British Orchestras, in recognition of the educational initiatives she spearheaded with the Orchestra during the pandemic.
The Oxford Philharmonic was appointed Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford in 2002, the first relationship of its kind between a symphony orchestra and a higher education institution. Through its Academy Programme, which has now been expanded nationally and internationally, the Orchestra continues to offer
students unparalleled training opportunities and a platform for their work.
The Oxford Philharmonic has appeared on several recordings including albums of cello concertos by Shostakovich and Solo Cello Mats Lidström on BIS Records, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy; A Merton Christmas with the Choir of Merton College; Haydn’s The Creation with the Choir of New College; the Handel/Mendelssohn Acis and Galatea with Christ Church Cathedral Choir; and works by Nimrod Borenstein for Chandos. The Enlightened Trumpet, a CD by the Orchestra with soloist Paul Merkelo, was released on Sony Classical. In 2023, the Oxford Philharmonic signed a recording contract with the label Platoon and recorded a selection of Mozart’s symphonies.
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.
