Hill Auditorium
London Philharmonic Orchestra
It’s been 13 years since the London Philharmonic performed in Hill Auditorium, and we’re thrilled to welcome them back in their first US tour under principal conductor Edward Gardner, with both Gardner and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja making their UMS debuts.
This uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating ensemble has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since its 1932 founding by Sir Thomas Beecham and through conducting tenures by Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt, and Kurt Masur, among others. Heard by millions of people on the soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings and other films, the orchestra performs works by its composer-in-residence Tania León and Benjamin Britten (whose Sinfonia da Requiem has not been performed on a UMS program in over 50 years), as well as Jean Sibelius’s triumphant Symphony No. 5. The boundary-breaking violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja (aka “Pat Kop”) brings her “rare expressive energy and disarming informality” (The New York Times) to UMS, as soloist in Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which was originally composed for the great 20th-century violinist David Oistrakh.
Program
Benjamin Britten Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20
Dmitri Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in a minor, Op. 77
Tania León Raices (Origins)
Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82
[Encore] Edward Elgar Variation IX, Adagio “Nimrod,” from Enigma Variations
Join host Doyle Armbrust for “The Society of Disobedient Listeners” — a special pre-performance talk, 6:15 pm in the Modern Languages Building. This evening’s special guest will be Hannah Edgar, classical critic for The Chicago Tribune.
Valet parking is available beginning at 5 pm for $30 per car (cash only) on N University Ave in front of Hill Auditorium.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
PERMANENTLY ENDOWED SUPPORT
- Permanently Endowed Support for Principal Conductor Edward Gardner: The Menakka and Essel Bailey Endowment Fund for International Artistic Brilliance
PRESENTING SPONSOR
- Max Wicha and Sheila Crowley
PRINCIPAL SPONSOR
- Doris and Herbert E. Sloan Endowment Fund
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
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- Debra Weinstein and Tony Rosenzweig
PATRON SPONSOR
- Susan B. Ullrich Endowment Fund
MEDIA PARTNERS
Edward Gardner is Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and currently undertaking Music Directorship of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet (DNO&B), having been their Artistic Advisor since February 2022.
Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of The Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include being named Royal Philharmonic Society Award Conductor of the Year (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and receiving an OBE for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).
In demand as a guest conductor, recent seasons saw Edward debut with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Wiener Symphoniker; while returns included engagements with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Montreal Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. He also continued his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms.
A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School of Music, and with the Royal Academy of Music who appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us — now and here. With a combination of depth, brilliance and humour, Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Described by The New York Times “a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition”, Kopatchinskaja’s distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a traditional violin repertoire classic or with an original staged project she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.
Her absolute priority is music of the 20th and 21st century and the collaboration with living composers such as Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, György Kurtág, Márton Illés, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Kopatchinskaja directs staged concerts at venues on both sides of the Atlantic and collaborates with leading orchestras, conductors, and festivals worldwide. This season, she channels her creative prowess and versatility into eccentric reinterpretations and innovatively curated projects as part of her residencies at the Southbank Centre in London, the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie Essen. Kopatchinskaja is the youngest honorary member of the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft, with this year’s most extensive portrait being dedicated to her. Furthermore, she holds the position of Associated Artist of the SWR Experimentalstudio, one of the most important international research centres in the field of electronic music.
Doyle Armbrust is a Chicago-based violist and co-founder of the three-times Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet. His writing has infiltrated program books at the Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras as well as publications including Crain’s Chicago Business, Chicago Magazine, Time Out Chicago, and The Chicago Tribune.
In UMS’s 2022/23 season, Doyle hosts “The Society of Disobedient Listeners” — an interactive pre-concert experience reconnecting listeners to the subversive, visceral, and even revolutionary elements of the evening’s program. Conceived as an anti-lecture, “Disobedient Listeners” draws the great music of the past into proximity with the felicities and calamities of modern life.
Hannah Edgar is a Chicago-based music writer, editor, researcher, and radio producer. They write about music for The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and WBEZ and regularly contribute to ARTnews, The University of Chicago Magazine, and Tone Glow.