Welcome to a sneak peek of our new 2024-2025 season, where we will be exploring themes of storytelling, journeys and dreams. Stories make sense of life; the journeys we take through life are shaped by those stories, and dreams give our lives the indispensable quality of enchantment.
We will hear stories told by our Associate Artist Anton Lesser – an acclaimed actor from the world of theatre, television and film – to illuminate performances of Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The four classical elements are presented through Jean-Féry Rebel’s Chaos, Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance, Debussy’s La Mer and Air, a new commission by David Gordon and jazz saxophonist Tim Whitehead, featuring students from the Warwick Schools Foundation.
Our popular Night Owl series continues with intimate and accessible chamber-style performances, which often incorporate the spoken word and a thrillingly eclectic range of music. Wildwood examines the life-sustaining qualities of trees through 1000 years of songs from rural Britain and the words of Peter Wohlleben and Roger Deakin. Stories of revelation and redemption are featured in The Long Road, a performance that presents six inspiring journeys, moving from darkness and adversity to understanding and acceptance – narrated by members of our Warwickshire community.
2024/25 sees the premiere of two new words and music projects devoted to writers Thomas Hardy and George Eliot, created in association with Hambletts. Our critically acclaimed Red Sky at Sunrise show featuring the words of Laurie Lee continues its run of performances around the UK.
This season, we will also be focusing on women in music, with performances that include music by Florence Welch, Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, Sandy Denny, P J Harvey, Nadine Shah and FKA Twigs sung by English singer/songwriter SuRie. Dynamic conductor Rebecca Miller returns to work with the orchestra and present inspirational workshops for student conductors. Actor Harriet Walter joins us at St Mary’s Guildhall in Coventry and Wilton’s Music Hall in London for performances of a new show devoted to the life and works of George Eliot.Â
Our first concert of the season Mendelssohn at the Manor sees our principal string players perform Mendelssohn’s astonishing Octet in the beautiful barn at Armscote Manor. Tickets are available now, please book here.
Our new season will launch to our Friends for priority booking on Tuesday 23 July, and then to the general public on Tuesday 30 July.
If you would like to receive an email version of the brochure please contact us at info@orchestraoftheswan.orgÂ
"As you can see from the ambitious scope of our new season, Orchestra of the Swan continues to reach out and to explore the outer limits of what it means to be an orchestra. We recognise that storytelling is central to what we do - in the concert hall and in the community - and that our journey should reflect not only events in the wider world but also those less tangible areas of our inner lives. As the confusion of 21st century life threatens to overwhelm us we can find solace in music and its inherent ability to shape the stories of our life and our journeys through it."
