A Look Back at 2024 Posted Wed 1 January 2025
Happy New Year! As we welcome in 2025, we take a look back at 2024 – a year that featured national and international tours, exciting collaborations, community engagement and, of course, lots of music. Read on to discover our highlights.
January 2024 – We kicked off 2024 with an 8-day European tour, visiting beautiful concert halls in Antwerp, Eindhoven, Munich, Mannheim, Ludwigsberg and Lucerne, with Music Director Thomas Søndergård, guest soloist Ray Chen and 90 musicians and staff! Find out all about the tour and see more behind the scenes photos over on our tour blog.
February 2024 – A month of great music performed across Scotland. Extraordinary musician Felix Klieser joined us for Mozart’s Horn Concerto No4 (you can see a short clip from rehearsals here); the RSNO Chorus performed beautiful music in the stunning spaces of Greyfriars Kirk and St Aloysius, and our 2023:24 Artist in Residence Simon Trpčeski played Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No2 in our Valentine’s concert. We also celebrated the 92nd Birthday of the legendary film composer John Williams at our annual tribute performance.
March 2024 – Following a successful live concert tour, we premiered the film of Still I Rise: Stories of Hope and Justice for secondary 1-3 and primary 7 transition pupils. The film, which was available in English, BSL and Gaelic, explored the life and music of three marginalized composers – Ethel Smyth, Julius Eastman and Viktor Ullmann, through the lens of Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise poem. Presented by Simone Seales and conducted by RSNO Engagement Conductor Ellie Slorach, over 12,000 children engaged with the programme.
April 2024 – We travelled to London’s Royal Albert Hall to perform at Classic FM Live with the RSNO Chorus, conductors Ben Palmer and Sir Karl Jenkins, soprano Rachel Duckett, tenor Freddie De Tommaso and pianist Hayato Sumino. Hosted by Alexander Armstrong and Myleene Klass, the show opened with Handel’s Zadok the Priest and featured classics such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Puccini’s Nessun dorma and Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, before the world premiere of an arrangement of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy by British composer Paul Mealor.
On Instagram? Watch one of our favourite reels from the event here.
May 2024 – To mark the first anniversary of the Coronation, His Majesty The King was announced as the RSNO’s Patron, a patronage that was awarded to the Orchestra by The Late Queen Elisabeth II in 1977. This month, we also celebrated the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Symphony No9. You can watch our performance of Ode to Joy on our YouTube channel here.
June 2024 – 165 musicians, 132 singers, 18 timpani and four brass bands came together for Berlioz Grande Messe. Conducted by Music Director Thomas Søndergård and featuring tenor Magnus Walker, students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the RSNO Chorus, the rarely performed piece was a wonderful way to close our 2023:24 Concert Season.
July 2024 – We launched our brand-new, state-of-the-art control room in Scotland’s Studio. The space, which features world-class acoustics, has already seen visits from the likes of Warner Bros., Netflix, Sony Pictures, Disney, Ubisoft and Apple TV+. Studio highlights this year include Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga (see photos above); the trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning; Apple TV+’s Argylle and Silo; Netflix’s Mary and The Deliverance, and Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws video game. Find out more about Scotland’s Studio here.
August 2024 – We returned to the Edinburgh International Festival for three concerts. Opening the festival, we performed Osvalda Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos with the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, conducted by Joana Carneiro. Then, the RSNO Youth Chorus joined the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for a special performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Our final concert saw us reunited with former Principal Guest Conductor Elim Chan for Three Concerti – Wynton Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto with Alison Balsom, Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.
The critics loved the performances with 5-star reviews from The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman and The Herald.
September 2024 – We celebrated the anniversary of composer and alumni of the RSNO trombone section, Gustav Holst’s 150th Birthday with the release of our performance of The Planets, which can be watched on our YouTube channel here. Earlier in the year, our Head of Orchestra Management Ewen McKay wrote a fascinating blog post about Holst’s connection with the RSNO. You can read it here.
This month, we also went on tour with music-education platform and our partners, Charanga. We visited venues and schools in Aberdeen, Dumfries, Dundee and Stewarton to perform classical music and Charanga songs with primary school children. Find out more on our YouTube channel.
October 2024 – We opened our 2024:25 Concert Season to sold-out crowds and rave reviews! Our performance of Mahler’s Symphony No2 with Music Director Thomas Sondergard and the RSNO Chorus saw 5 stars from The Scotsman: “a truly unforgettable experience”, 4 stars from Bachtrack and 4 stars from The Herald: “a masterclass in conducting”.
November 2024 – One of the world’s oldest music festivals came to Glasgow for the first time in its 136–year history! Nordic Music Days saw work by over 120 composers and sound artists performed in venues across the city. We were delighted to have been involved in three concerts – Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony was paired with a celebration of new music that starred the incredible violinist Isabelle Faust; the RSNO String Quartet performed an intimate chamber concert of music created by the Danish String Quartet, and the world premiere of phōnḗ by Tytti Arola, a piece for voices and tin can telephones, was performed in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, by choirs that included the RSNO’s Chorus Academy.
December 2024 – We closed the year with festivities! Our beloved Christmas Concerts featuring The Snowman returned, presented by Still Game’s Sanjeev Kohli and conducted by Stephen Bell; we screamed ‘Kevin!’ at the big screen as we performed Home Alone in Concert, and we broadcast a suite from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which can be viewed on our YouTube channel here.
From everyone at the RSNO, thank you for joining us, supporting our projects and engaging with our work in 2024. We couldn’t do it without you. Here’s to a musical 2025!
Photo credits:
January: Rosie Clark and Chris Hart
February: Jess Cowley
March: Martin Shields
April: Classic FM & Matt Crossick
May: Sally Jubb
June: Martin Shields, Jess Cowley and Craig Swindells
July: Jess Cowley
August: Andrew Perry
September: Still from video created by Ross Williamson
October: Jess Cowley
November: Martin Shields
December: Martin Shields
