Live Ethan Loch Plays Gershwin Fri 27 – Sat 28 March

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is the Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as Principal Guest Conductor, as well as the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

He has appeared with many notable orchestras in leading European centres, such as Berlin (including Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin), Munich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk), Zurich (Tonhalle Orchester Zurich), Leipzig (Gewandhausorchester), Paris (Orchestre National de France), London (London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic) and is a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic. North American appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Houston and Seattle. He has also made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Highlights with the RSNO this season include Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2, a collaboration with Dunedin Consort, and closing the season with a celebration of the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. With the Minnesota Orchestra in 2024/25, Thomas leads a diverse range of programmes, including a Nordic Composers Festival, concert performances of Puccini’s Turandot, and projects with leading soloists such as Yunchan Lim, Isabelle Faust, Julia Bullock and Bruce Liu. Other highlights for Thomas this season include his debut with Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin (Elektra), Den Norske Opera (Peer Gynt), and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Thomas will also lead a project with the Aarhus Symfoniorkester celebrating the 750th anniversary of the city of Holstebro – his home city.

As part of the 2015 anniversary celebrations of both Sibelius and Nielsen, he conducted a wide variety of their works with many leading orchestras. A passionate supporter of the music of Carl Nielsen, his performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony of his Symphony No. 5 was praised as “equal of the great pioneers of Nielsen interpretation… It’s hard to imagine a finer performance of this remarkable symphony.” (Dagens Nyheter); and in 2019 participated in a special concert to celebrate Nielsen’s works with the Royal Danish Academy of Music Copenhagen.

Following his acclaimed debut for Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial), he has since returned regularly to conduct a broad repertoire, including Die Walküre, which won the 2022 Reumert Award for Best Opera Production, Elektra, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La bohème, Cunning Little Vixen, Il viaggio a Reims; and has also made short concert tours with the Royal Danish Orchestra. He has also enjoyed successful collaborations with Norwegian Opera and Royal Swedish Opera. His Stockholm productions of Tosca and Turandot (both with Nina Stemme) led to his Bayerische Staatsoper debut, conducting main season and Opera Festival performances of Turandot with her and he most recently returned to for the Opera’s Akademiekonzert series. He made his Deutsche Oper Berlin debut with the World premiere of Scartazzini’s Edward II and has since returned for Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet.

His discography covers a broad range of contemporary and mainstream repertoire, including Carl Nielsen (The Royal Danish Orchestra, Naxos Records), Poul Ruders (Arhus Symphony, Norwegian Radio, Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial) for Da Capo and Bridge Records); Sibelius symphonies and tone poems with BBC NOW and Prokofiev and Richard Strauss with RSNO for Linn Records; Lutoslawski and Dutilleux concertos with ‘cellist Johannes Moser and Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Pentatone); and Vilde Frang’s celebrated debut recording (WDR Koln for EMI).

In October 2023, Thomas was a recipient of the Carl Nielsen and Anne-Marie Carl Nielsen’s Foundation award for his outstanding contribution to Danish musical life. In January 2022, Thomas was decorated with a prestigious Royal Order of Chivalry – the Order of Dannebrog (Ridder af Dannebrogordenen) by Her Majesty Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark.

Hailing from Scotland, pianist Ethan Loch has been inspiring and connecting with audiences from a young age. Winner of the Keyboard Category of the BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of 18, Ethan has performed with some of the UK’s most celebrated orchestras and conductors throughout the UK. Born in 2004, Ethan was diagnosed completely blind since birth and as a toddler would be found exploring sound and music on the piano for hours. His formal piano lessons began at the age of four with his mother and now studies with Professor Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Following Ethan’s mesmerising and emotive BBC Young Musician of the Year performance with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, orchestral engagements from around the UK quickly followed. From a series of sold-out performances with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Mark Wigglesworth to engagements with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Ethan has continued to inspire audiences on the concert platform. Equally at home in recital, Ethan has performed as part of Verbier Festival Academy, throughout his homeland in Scotland as well as the rest of the UK. In competition, Ethan has won the Scottish International Youth Piano Competition (2019), 7th James Waterhouse Loretto Piano Competition ‘Advanced’ class (2017), Premio Asoluto prize at the 15th International ‘Giuseppe Sciacca’ awards (2016), was a finalist in the EPTA Belgium International Piano Competition (2018) as well as second place at the first ever Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition (2023).

Ethan’s passion for the piano goes beyond the classical cannon with an enthusiasm for composition as well as jazz and classical improvisation. Ethan’s first CD, Mysterious Pathways Volume One was featured on Classic FM and on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio documentary featuring his collaboration with the Canadian artist Tony Luciani who painted the cover image. His second album, Mysterious Improvisations 2020, is a collection of one-shot, single-take classical improvisations.

BBC Scotland commissioned the TV documentary Ethan Loch: Making Music Talk in 2024 following him throughout his journey of composing a new concerto. Other TV appearances include The One Show in 2018 and on ITV’s Little Big Shots with Dawn French.

See Ethan Loch perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the RSNO on 27 & 28 March 2026.

Scottish mezzo-soprano Katie Coventry returned to the Salzburg Landestheater for 24/25, her roles included Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel and Marchesa Melibea Il Viaggio a Reims.

She started the 2023/24 season with her role debut as Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville at the Salzburg Landestheater. Other roles in 23/24 Salzburg include Orlofsky Die Fledermaus, Cecilio Lucio Silla, and Daisy Anthropocene.

In 2022/2023, Katie made her debut at The Royal Danish Opera covering the role of Offred in Paul Ruder’s Handmaid’s Tale. In a season full of debuts, Katie also made her debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra singing the solo line in the Scott of the Antarctic film with orchestra under the baton of Andrew Manze as well as her debut with English Touring Opera singing the role of Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia and covering the role of Sesto in Giulio Cesare. A last-minute stand-in, Katie reprised Scott of the Antarctic with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Martyn Brabbins.

In the 2021/22 season, Katie made her debut at Reisoper in the role of Sesto in Giulio Cesare; a production which then transferred to the Handelfestspiele Göttingen. Later that season, Katie made her delayed debut with the Hallé Orchestra as Kate Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly before returning to the Glyndebourne Festival covering Ruggiero in Alcina, stepping in to sing three performances, marking her stage debut with them. Previous cover roles at Glyndebourne include Zaida in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia and Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte.

In summer 2020, Katie returned to the Salzburg Festspiele singing the role of second maid in Strauss’s Elektra under the direction of Krzysztof Warlikowski and baton of Franz WelserMöst.

As a previous Harewood Artist, Katie has a close relationship with ENO. She made her ENO début as Edith in Pirates of Penzance and in 2017 made her role début there as Cherubino. Previous roles include cover Offred in Handmaid’s Tale, Second woman in Harrison Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus, the title role of Marnie and Shadow Marnie 2 and Kitchen Boy in Rusalka. The Rusalka production was due to transfer to the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, which would have been Katie’s house debut, however this was unfortunately affected by the pandemic.

During the 2018/19 season, Katie was part of the ensemble at the Salzburger Landestheater. Roles there included Rosette Manon,  Doralice La Gazzetta, Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina Don Giovanni and in Philip Glass’s The Trial. Other recent engagements include her house debut at the Teatro Real, Madrid as Jennie Hildebrand in Street Scene, covering the role of Annio for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the second soprano solo in Mozart’s C minor mass, with Sir Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg.

A participant of the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singer Project in 2018, Katie is a recent graduate from the Royal College of Music International Opera School where she studied with Tim Evans-Jones as an Independent Opera Voice Scholar. Her roles for RCMIOS include Ramiro La Finta Giardiniera, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Prince Orlofsky Die Fledermaus, Nancy Albert Herring and L’Écureuil and La Chatte L’enfant et les sortilèges. Other roles include Ariodante Ariodante (London Handel Festival), Kate Julian Owen Wingrave, The Fox The Cunning Little Vixen (British Youth Opera), Mazet La Colombe (Opera Danube/ West Green House Opera) and Stephano Roméo et Juliette (Opera Bearwood).

Katie was a finalist for the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition, the winner of the 2017 Joaninha Award and is also an Independent Opera Voice Fellow.

On the concert platform, Katie has performed in such works as the Mozart Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall, Duruflé Requiem at Southwark Cathedral, Haydn Nelson Mass at Riga Dom and numerous other oratorio works at St James’ Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Other concert works include Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne and most recently Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Vladimir Jurowski and the RCM Symphony Orchestra.

See Katie Coventry perform Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with the RSNO on 28 & 29 November 2025 and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on 27 & 28 March 2026.

Founded in 1978 by Jean Kidd, the RSNO Youth Chorus (formerly known as the RSNO Junior Chorus) is one of the leading children and youth choirs in the UK, with over 400 members aged seven to eighteen. It has built up a considerable reputation singing under some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and appearing on radio and television.

Patrick Barrett is a conductor specialising in choral music and opera. He is currently Chorus Director of the RSNO Youth Choruses, Royal Opera House Youth Opera Company, Irish Youth Training Choir and the award-winning Farnham Youth Choirs.

Recent work has included conducting the RSNO Youth Chorus alongside soloists Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Benjamin Grosvenor and Nicola Benedetti in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s All-Star Gala performances, and preparing them for the recording of Jonathan Dove’s Gaspard’s Christmas, which is available on all streaming services. Over the summer, he led FYC to success at the Hull International Choral Competition and the International Choir Competition in Provence, winning the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices and Children’s Choir categories respectively, and will be competing with them in the World Choir Games 2024 in New Zealand. In the past year, he has also premiered a number of new works including Jonathan Brigg’s The Sapling with the ROH Youth Opera Company and pieces by Emma O’Halloran and DJ and producer R.Kitt with IYTC. This summer, he took up the position of Guest Conductor with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s Girls’ Choir and has been invited back for 2024.

Much of Patrick’s work revolves around championing young people within choral music and, for the past two years, he has been invited to address the annual conference of the Post Primary Music Teachers Association in Ireland. His work in this area began as a Trainee Music Leader with Spitalfields Music between 2015-16 and he is now firmly established as a music educator, having delivered projects for organisations including the BBC Singers, Sonoro, The Sixteen, Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Young Musicians, and Ark Schools.

In opera, Patrick works with many of the UK’s major companies including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Garsington Opera. For the ROH, he is the Musical Director of the Youth Opera Company, preparing them for main stage performances of Verdi’s Otello under Sir Antonio Pappano and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel under Sebastian Weigle, and conducting them in the world premieres of specially commissioned works including Lewis Murphy’s A Different Story in the Linbury Theatre. He is also a regular leader on their Create and Sing programme, working with secondary school teachers to stage specially-devised operas in classrooms across the country. For the ENO, he has prepared the children’s chorus for Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen under Martyn Brabbins and Bizet’s Carmen under Kerem Hasan. For Garsington Opera, he has worked on a specially-commissioned community opera called Dalia by Roxanna Panufnik as the Youth Chorus Director.

Patrick was previously the conductor of the University of Birmingham’s Upper Voices Choir and Brockham Choral Society.