FOREWORD

welcome again to SCO news

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the latest edition of SCO News, the first opportunity I have had to say hello to you directly since I took up my new appointment as Chief Executive at the end of August.

It has been a delightfully busy time getting to know the Orchestra and staff, while I have also had the enjoyment of meeting some of you at our recent summer touring concerts. More about that later in the newsletter.

In this issue, we bring you terrific news about our new string players, Philip, Marcus and Felix who will be joining us for the start of our new season. I am sure you will enjoy hearing them play in the Orchestra in the coming months.

gavin Reid

Amongst a whole host of composers, our new Season includes a range of works by Mozart and we are extremely grateful to Baillie Gifford for their continuing support through their sponsorship of our opening concerts, Mozart’s Last Symphonies. We were of course all delighted to see our Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati back on the podium for Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliette at the Edinburgh International Festival. Robin is continuing on his journey of recovery since his back injury earlier this year and we look forward to seeing him again at the start of the new Season. He has however, just been advised to withdraw from the second week of the Season in order to help ensure he makes a full and speedy recovery. It goes without saying that we fully support Robin and while we are disappointed that he won’t be with us to conduct Strauss’ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, by far the most important thing is his health and continued recuperation. I am delighted to be able to tell you that Thierry Fischer, a long-standing friend of the SCO, with whom many of you will be very familiar, will conduct in Robin’s place.

I would like to say a particular hello to all our new and returning subscribers for the 2016/17 Season. You, our audience, are absolutely vital to the Orchestra’s performances and I am thrilled to know that not only do we have such incredibly loyal support from so many people but we are also increasing that support every year. I know that many of you chose to subscribe online for the first time this year. We are very grateful for all the feedback we have received so far, and we are using it to make the process as easy as possible for you for next year.

Finally, I should like to take this opportunity to thank my predecessor Roy McEwan, not only for everything he gave to the SCO over an astonishing 23 years, but also for being so helpful and supportive to me in recent weeks as I started on my journey with this exceptional orchestra.

I very much look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our upcoming concerts.

With very best wishes to you all.

Gavin Reid

Chief Executive