Rimsky Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” (or “Fingal’s Cave”) are two of the best-loved pieces of orchestral music.
Both are on the program Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. as London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) returns to Hodgson Concert Hall after a dozen years. This season’s UGA Presents Artist in Focus, Isata Kanneh-Mason, appears as soloist in Clara Schumann’s “Piano Concerto.” RPO Music Director Vasily Petrenko conducts.
The RPO’s mission to enrich lives through orchestral experiences that are uncompromising in their excellence and inclusive in their appeal, places it at the forefront of music-making in the U.K. and internationally. Typically performing approximately 200 concerts a year and with a worldwide live and online audience of more than 60 million people, the orchestra is proud to embrace a broad repertoire and reach a diverse audience. Whilst artistic integrity remains paramount, the RPO is unafraid to push boundaries and is equally at home recording video game, film and television soundtracks and working with pop stars, as it is touring the world performing the great symphonic repertoire.
Petrenko has served as music director since 2021. He is conductor laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, following his 15-year tenure as their chief conductor from 2006-2021. He is chief conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (since 2015), associate conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and has also served as chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020) and principal conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009-2013). He stood down as artistic director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov” in 2021 having been their principal guest conductor from 2016 and artistic director from 2020.
Kanneh-Mason is in great demand internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She offers eclectic and interesting repertoire with recital programs encompassing music from Haydn and Mozart via Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, Chopin and Brahms to Gershwin and beyond. In concertos, she is equally at home in Felix Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann (whose piano concerto featured on Isata’s chart-topping debut recording) as in Prokofiev and Dohnányi.
This performance is supported by Charles B. and Lynne V. Knapp, Julia Marlowe Swagler and the late Roger Swagler, Sandy Strother Hudson and Cecil C. Hudson, Libby and Van Morris, Sally Haushalter, and June M. Ball.
Three ways to get tickets
- Purchase tickets online at pac.uga.edu.
- Call the Performing Arts Center box office at 706-542-4400, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Visit the UGA Performing Arts Center box office, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (five-minute parking is available in the drop off circle at the Performing Arts Center for purchasing or picking up tickets.)
Single tickets begin at $25, and UGA student tickets are just $10. Parking is free.
To learn more about all UGA Performing Arts Center events, visit pac.uga.edu.