TGF Partners with BSO and AAM
The Grange Festival today announced that Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Academy of Ancient Music are to be its Orchestras in Residence from the beginning of its inaugural season in June 2017. Not only will they perform the major new productions during the main summer season, but will take a key role in working with the festival to extend its work outside the festival season in the years to come.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra will be in residence for the eagerly-anticipated new production of Bizet’s Carmen in the inaugural season, conducted by Jean-Luc Tingaud, as well as a one-off performance of Verdi’s Requiem for which it is joined by its own Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and The Grange Festival Chorus, together with Italian conductor Francesco Cilluffo and a strong line-up of soloists.
Outside of the inaugural summer season, members of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra will also provide the backbone of the orchestra for the world premiere staging of a newly orchestrated version of Mansfield Park, the critically-acclaimed chamber opera by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton in September 2017. BSO will be joined by leading young instrumentalists from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, who will play side-by-side with the professionals, as part of BSO and Trinity Laban’s dynamic new partnership aimed at improving the diversity of the UK orchestral profession and increasing professional development for young musicians pursuing careers as orchestral musicians and soloists.
The Academy of Ancient Music opens The Grange Festival’s first season this June, with Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in the 450th year since Monteverdi’s death. They join forces with The Grange Festival’s Artistic Director, Michael Chance, eminent British stage director, Tim Supple, and designer, Sumant Jayakrishnan, to create a visually arresting production, in which the world-class team of period-instrument players will aim to capture the radical freshness which audiences at the premiere of this revolutionary work may have experienced nearly four hundred years ago.
Michael Chance, Artistic Director of The Grange Festival, said:
“I am thrilled that two highly regarded beacons of excellence have confirmed their willingness to be our partners at The Grange Festival. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Ancient Music are both pioneering organisations with strong international as well as national identities. As a singer I’ve had the privilege of working with the AAM many times and can attest to their brilliance and willingness to embrace the new that make them ideal partners for The Grange Festival. The BSO is a success story on an awe-inspiring scale. They are rightly proud of 10,000 square miles they cover across the South and West of England, both in performance and their inspiring programme of education and outreach. I am restless to hear their Carmen and Verdi’s Requiem this year and look forward to having them back in the years ahead for performances and educational and other collaborative ventures across the south.”
Dougie Scarfe, Chief Executive of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, said:
“The opera programme at the BSO has become a cherished part of our season and we are delighted that through this new partnership we will continue to be part of world-class opera at The Grange. I am very excited by the creative possibilities of working with Michael Chance and his team and am looking forward to our first season together”.
Ed Hossack, Chief Executive of the Academy of Ancient Music, said:
“The leadership of Music Director Richard Egarr has seen a development of the Academy of Ancient Music’s performance of opera, including an acclaimed cycle of semi-staged operas by Monteverdi as Associate Ensemble at the Barbican Centre and the launch of our Purcell opera cycle in 2016. We are delighted to take this further as Orchestra in Residence at The Grange Festival, a hugely exciting new opportunity and partnership. It is particularly exciting that our collaboration will start with Michael Chance himself directing the orchestra, a musician already well-known to and greatly admired by the orchestra and our audience.”
Another partner of The Grange Festival, Aurora Orchestra will perform the anticipated Britten’s Albert Herring.
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