As Welsh National Opera’s Autumn season continues on tour, WNO Orchestra’s concert programme gets underway, which will see them joined by internationally renowned singers for concerts as well as taking to the road for their popular seasonal tours.
The programme begins with WNO Orchestra joined by tenor Nicky Spence for a concert under the baton of maestro Carlo Rizzi at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s Dora Stoutzker Hall in Cardiff. Nicky Spence will sing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, ahead of his performances with WNO in the title role of Peter Grimes in 2025. The concert programme will also include the Overture from Leonard Bernstein’s lively operetta Candide, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 The Great. Performances will take place on the 9 and 10 November.
WNO Chorus will perform side by side with singers from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on Friday 6 December at Tabernacl chapel, Cardiff under the baton of WNO Chorus Master Frederick Brown and RWCMD Director of Music Tim Rhys-Evans. The concert will include opera, musical theatre, sacred repertoire, Welsh choral pieces and Christmas music, and will be the perfect way to start the festive season.
Later in December, WNO Orchestra will join celebrated Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel on tour when he takes his very special Christmas show, Bryn’s Christmas, to London, Swansea, Manchester and Bristol. The concert will include festive carols in English and Welsh, as well as popular Christmas songs and Orchestral pieces. Sir Bryn and WNO Orchestra will be joined by special guest soprano Pumeza Matshikiza and the performances will be conducted by Paul Bateman.
Bryn’s Christmas will be performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London (16 December), Swansea Arena (17 December), Bridgewater Hall in Manchester (19 December) and Bristol Beacon (20 December).
To ring in the New Year, WNO Orchestra will once again fill the air with some of the finest examples of Viennese music for their New Year Celebration concert tour. Leader of WNO Orchestra David Adams will lead a selection of waltzes, polkas and classical favourites from the likes of Josef Strauss and Johann Strauss II, with the Orchestra joined by two of WNO’s latest Associate Artists, Erin Gwyn Rossington and William Stevens.
The concert tour will open in Swansea’s Great Hall on 3 January before visiting Southampton (4 January), Brecon (5 January), Bangor (10 January), Newtown (11 January), Truro (12 January) and finishing up in Cardiff at RWCMD’s Dora Stoutzker Hall for two performances on 17 January.
In March, WNO Orchestra return to the Dora Stouzker Hall for a concert conducted by WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus. Mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly will join the Company ahead of her performances in Peter Grimes to sing Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). The concert also includes Schubert’s Symphony No.8 Unfinished, Sibelius’s Symphony No.7 and Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No.5.
Two performances of the concert will take place at RWCMD’s Dora Stoutzker Hall in Cardiff, on 15 and 16 March.
June will see WNO Orchestra perform alongside acclaimed West End and opera performers for two concerts at the Grange Festival in Hampshire under the baton of Karen Kamensek. Bernstein on Broadway will include some of the best legendary composer Leonard Bernstein’s music, from West Side Story to Candide and On the Town. The concerts will take place on 26 and 29 July.
WNO Orchestra will round off their year with a Summer Concert Tour across Wales and Southern England under the baton of Tomáš Hanus. They will be joined by Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans who will sing Mozart’s concert aria Ah, lo previdi. The programme will also include one of the best-known pieces of classical music, Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 (Beethoven Symphony No.3 Eroica will replace the 5th Symphony in Truro only).
The Summer tour will open in Cardiff at RWCMD’s Dora Stoutzker Hall on 2 July before visiting Aberystwyth (3 July), Newtown (4 July), Bangor (8 July), Brecon (9 July), Southampton (10 July) and Truro (12 July).
WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus said:
“It is always such a delight to showcase our incredible musicians on the concert stage, and to visit our audiences across the country with music-making of the highest quality. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to perform a number of concerts this year at the stunning Dora Stoutzker Hall in Cardiff – and to be joined by our friends Nicky Spence, Sarah Connolly and Rebecca Evans – in concerts which will please and intrigue in equal measure. We can’t wait to see you!”
wno.org.uk
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Welsh National Opera is the national opera company for Wales, funded by the Arts Councils of Wales and England to provide large-scale opera, concerts and outreach across Wales and to major cities in the English regions. We endeavour to provide transformative experiences through our education and outreach programme and our award-winning digital projects. We work with our partners to discover and nurture young operatic talent, and we aim to show future generations that opera is a rewarding, relevant and universal art form with the power to affect and inspire.
WNO production images are available for download at wno.org.uk/press
Further information on WNO’s productions can be found at wno.org.uk
- The role of WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus is supported by Marian and Gordon Pell
- Leader of WNO Orchestra is Supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
- WNO Orchestra is Supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
- WNO Orchestra Chairs are Supported by Principal Players Circle
- WNO is grateful for the generous support of the Shirley & Rolf Olsen Bursary, Sheila and Richards Brooks Bursary, Anthony Evans Scholarship, The Eira Francis Davies Bursary, Bateman Family Charitable Trust, Joseph Strong Frazer Trust, Stanley Picker Trust, and Chris Ball Bursary towards our WNO Associate Artist Scheme.
- Bryn’s Christmas is presented by Temple Live Entertainment
For more information, photos or interviews please contact:
Christina Blakeman, Press Manager
Rachel Bowyer, Head of Communications