National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

Index

Click the link below for the page index

______________________________________________________

A talented young cellist from Edinburgh is to perform as part of The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

A young cellist from Edinburgh is currently be practising very hard for their forthcoming European Tour with The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.

21 year-old Jennifer Grieve from the Baberton area of Edinburgh, fought off stiff competition from hundreds of young musicians in Scotland when she auditioned to become part of The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland 2009.  She will be joining 127 other young musicians from around Scotland to perform Polish Composer Witold Lutoslawski’s famous Cello Concerto with internationally celebrated cellist Alexander Baillie.

Jennifer is especially looking forward to performing with Baillie, she said: As a cellist, I'm particularly looking forward to working with Alexander Baillie and how better to do so than on such a brilliant piece as Lutoslawksi's cello concerto. This, along with Dvorak’s dramatic Hussite Overture and Strauss’s autobiographical Ein Heldenleben, makes up an exciting and colourful programme. I feel privileged to be playing such excellent works, with talented musicians, and to take the concerto to Lutoslawski's homeland is an honour.

The orchestra’s first performance will take place at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen on the 2 August and will kick start a mammoth tour, during which the orchestra will visit The Sage Gateshead and make their way to Europe to perform concerts in Katowice and Krakow in Poland and Apeldoorn in The Netherlands.

Revered conductor Takuo Yuasa leads, will lead this energetic and dynamic ensemble as they perform Dvorák’s powerfully nationalistic Hussite Concerto and Strauss’s epic tone poem, Ein Heldenleben, the composer’s autobiographical ode to a hero’s journey through love and life.

“.…spectacular, nothing less. This was indeed the crčme de la crčme. Stupendous playing; glorious concert.” The Herald

“an explosion of talent and skill coupled with youthful exuberance” The Courier

Listings Info

Conductor: Takuo Yuasa
Soloist: Alexander Baillie

Repertoire:
Dvorák Hussite Overture op. 67
Lutoslawski Cello Concerto
R Strauss Ein Heldenleben

Concert:
5 August 2009, 7.30pm
His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
Box office: 0191 443 4661
Tickets: Ł10/Ł8/Ł2 (Student/child)

Additional Information

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland is the flagship orchestra of NYOS.  Founded in 1979, it is a symphony orchestra for 12-21 year old musicians in Scotland.

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland is proud of the long list of professional musicians and conductors it has worked with in the past, who have provided outstanding orchestral and instrumental tuition for its students.

The Orchestra performs throughout the year in a variety of high profile venues in Scotland, the UK and around the world, and its young musicians benefit from the invaluable performance experience this provides.

The musicians in The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland are of the highest calibre and many past students have gone on to enjoy successful careers in the musical profession.

Alexander Baillie

Alexander Baillie is internationally recognised as one of the finest cellists of his generation. He began playing the cello at the comparatively late age of twelve having been directly inspired by the late Jacqueline du Pré. He went on to study at London's Royal College of Music with Joan Dickson and Anna Shuttleworth and with André Navarra in Vienna.

  Appearances with British orchestras have included the Elgar Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton, the Schumann Concerto with the BBC Symphony under Marek Janowski at the Proms, the Walton Concerto under the late Sir Alexander Gibson with the Royal Philharmonic, the Dvorak Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle. He has also directed and performed the Haydn and Boccherini concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra.

2005 saw the composition of two unusual and major new works for the duo in which Baillie plays with pianist James Lisney. Jan Vriend's "The Anatomy of Passion" received its World premiere at London's Wigmore Hall in December. A substantial work comprising a half hour of technically and emotionally challenging bravura expressing the composer's passion and verification of his roots and sources of inspiration. By way of complete contrast Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski's "Atlantis" sonata, the third of his three cello sonatas so far is a work of disarming and blissful lyriscism. A stream of ecstatic melody propels this unashamedly romantic evocation of the legend of Atlantis and its message of purification. Atlantis receives its British Premiere on 12 July 2006 at London's Purcell Room.

Later in the year, recordings of the three sonatas will be released on the newly created Woodhouse record label.

Shortly to be on general release is the film "DVORAK...WHO? By Jan Harlan which features Baillie playing the concerto and working with young musicians of the European Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. The film has so far been most warmly received and singled out for its transparent portrayal of what can be achieved by way of communication through the performance of music.

In December together with his students from the Bremen Hochschule ("CelloSoundBremen") he will take part in the ninth Profil Intermedia Festival. The subject is the language of communication.

This autumn sees the launch in London and simultaneously in Bremen and Barcelona of "The Red Hedgehog" This is a chain of "Music Café" relaxed-ambience-venues. Red Hedgehog was the tavern in Vienna frequented by Brahms. Music is heard in a Hauskonzert atmosphere; concert performances but informal between "sets" Alexander Baillie is Professor of Cello at the Bremen Hochschule für Künste and Guest Visiting Professor at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.

Takuo Yuasa

During recent seasons Takuo Yuasa has conducted at London's Royal Festival Hall, Vienna's Konzerthaus, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, Stuttgart's Liederhalle and the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland. His complete concert cycles of the symphonies by Brahms and Schumann in Kobe, Japan, were recorded live for release there on CD and in October 2007 Takuo Yuasa received the prestigious Iue Cultural Award, created by Toshio Iue the founder of SANYO, for his exceptional contribution to music and for his international artistic achievement. This personable and highly regarded Japanese conductor regularly performs throughout Europe and the Far East. In Japan he has held the position of Principal Conductor with the Gumma Symphony Orchestra and in the United Kingdom he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland. He has a successful recording career as an exclusive Naxos artist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and others. He attracts fine reviews ("… Yuasa's accounts [of Webern's orchestral pieces] have the spare, skeletal feel and expressive economy that makes them very rewarding indeed. An outstanding achievement." Classics Today) in a wide range of repertoire which covers Britten, Macmillan and Rawsthorne, Webern and Schoenberg, Honegger, Vieuxtemps, Macdowell, Schubert, Rimsky-Korsakov, Pärt, Górecki, Glass and Nyman with a newly emerging strand of Japanese composers who include Mayuzumi, Ohki, Bekku, Yashiro, Moroi, Akutagawa and Yamada. This versatility is recognised by orchestras around the world who engage him to conduct standard core repertoire as well as less well-known pieces by major composers.

Takuo Yuasa conducts several major Japanese orchestras including the Japan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic and New Japan Philharmonic orchestras. His recent engagements there have included a concert with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in its own Subscription Series and the complete symphonies by Brahms and Schumann with the Osaka Century Orchestra. He is also Associate Professor, Performing Arts Centre, Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music where he is closely associated with the Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra and the university's wonderful new Sogaduko Concert Hall. Outside Japan he has conducted the Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, London Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Brabants Orkest, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony and Queensland Orchestras and in the UK he has been a frequent visitor to the Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra whilst his musicianship and infectious leadership attracts several European music conservatoires and the national youth orchestras of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire to engage him to conduct a new generation of performers.

Takuo Yuasa was born in Osaka where he studied piano, cello, flute and clarinet. At eighteen he left Japan to study in the USA at the University of Cincinnati where he completed a Bachelor Degree in Theory and Composition. He later moved to Europe to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Hochschule in Vienna, then with Igor Markevich in France and with Franco Ferrara in Siena before he became assistant to Lovro von Matacic, working with him in Monte Carlo, Milan and Vienna. Since winning a Special Award at the Fitelberg International Conducting Competition in Katowice, Poland, Takuo Yuasa has frequently conducted the major orchestras there, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic and Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestras.


 

 

Sara Harrison
Marketing Co-ordinator
The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland
13 Somerset Place
Glasgow
G3 7JT

E-mail:      saraharrison@nyos.co.uk
 

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland with Alexander Baillie - NYOS performs Lutoslawski's unusual Cello Concerto with internationally renowned cellist Alexander Baillie. Conducted by Takuo Yuasa, the concert will also include Dvorák's Hussite Overture and Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.  5 to 12 August 2009, at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, The Sage Gateshead and various venues in Poland and The Netherlands.

Camerata Scotland – The Lark Ascending – NYOS’s pre-professional chamber ensemble performs Vaughan Williams ever popular The Lark Ascending with violinist Kai Gleusteen, the programme will also include works by Haydn and Tippett.  21 to 28 August 2009, various venues in France and Spain and St-Andrews-in-the-Square, Glasgow.

For further information please visit www.nyos.co.uk

______________________________________________________

All material contained on this Internet site is the copyright material of Andrew Murphy of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh.   All copying from www.murphysedinburgh.co.uk and www.murphysedinburgh.co.uk in part or whole is strictly forbidden.

e-mail:  murphysedinburgh@btinternet.com

______________________________________________________

Index

Click the link below for the page index