Our Arts Partnerships & Tours team has had an inspiring year in 2024, working on a wide variety of projects. The team has been focused on creating opportunities and sharing extraordinary artistic experiences, from meaningful collaborations to performances.

Festivals/​Residencies

BBC Proms South Korea

In partnership with Lotte Foundation for Arts and the BBC, HarrisonParrott Arts Partnerships & Tours co-produced, co-programmed and managed the inaugural BBC Proms in South Korea from 2 – 8 December. The seven-day festival included nine performances at Lotte Concert Hall and Busan Cultural Centre. There were five performances by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of chief conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, with Ben Palmer conducting the West End Musical Gala Prom, and cellist Jaemin Han, violinist Daniel Lozakovich, tenor Taehan Kim, and musical singers Hiba Elchikhe and Ben Forster as soloists, alongside performances by Choi Jaehyuck  and his Ensemble Blank, The Jazz Ambassadors Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and the Little Singers of Paris boys’ choir. The festival was filled with repertoire from beloved classical works, alongside West End Musicals, jazz and chamber music performed by both local and international stars, and pre-concert talks.
 

Bamberger Symphoniker — Edinburgh International Festival Residency

Spurred on by the guiding theme of the​‘Rituals That Unite Us’, the Bamberger Symphoniker and conductor Jakub Hrůša united with the Edinburgh International Festival to explore our collective rituals and their power to shape our identity and connect us – as a festival and as a community. The residency included three concerts at Usher Hall with cellist Sol Gabetta, violinist Isabelle Faust, mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison, soprano Kateřina Kněžíková and baritone Adam Plachetka, alongside the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. The orchestra further participated in outreach projects for the ​‘Festival Fridays’ initiative. 

Wiener Philharmoniker

In June we took Wiener Philharmoniker to Spain for a three-concert tour across the country with conductor Lorenzo Viotti performing Rimski-Korsakov’s Spanish Capriccio, Rachmaninov’s Die Toteninsel, and Dvořák’s Symphony No.7. The first stop of the tour began in Northern Spain between the Cantabrian Mountains and the Bay of Biscay at Auditorium and Congress Centre Principe Felipe in Oviedo. Then we travelled south to the magical Andalusia region for their second concert at Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada. The third concert performance was in Seville at Teatro de la Maestranza on the banks of the Guadalquivir River.

In September, Wiener Philharmoniker and conductor Christian Thielemann, opened the Ghent Festival in Belgium. In this concert, celebrating the 200^th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth, the orchestra performed Bruckner’s Symphony No.1 at Saint Bavo’s Cathedral.

KODO

KODO embarked on an extensive European tour in February and March, travelling to the UK, France, Poland and Croatia performing in multiple cities across the countries. Since the group’s debut at the Berlin Festival in 1981, KODO has given over 6,500 performances on all five continents. They blend simple forms of taiko expression that celebrate the unique sound, resonance, and physicality synonymous with Kodo — forever children of the drum at heart.

Concertgebouw Amsterdam was the destination for Lahti Symphony Orchestra in January, led by principal conductor Dalia Stasevska. Violinist Leila Josefowicz joined the tour as soloist. 

We took Oslo Philharmonic, with their Chief Conductor and Artistic Partner, Klaus Mäkelä, to Hamburg to perform two concerts in January and February. Frequent collaborator soprano Johanna Wallroth and cellist Truls Mørk performed with the orchestra. 

In September Camerata RCO performed a sunrise concert at Festival I Suoni delle Dolomiti at 6:40 am.

Oslo Philharmonic embarked on a 10-day tour in June, travelling to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Vienna, and Schlossfestspiele Ludwigsburg. Conducted by their Chief Conductor Klaus Mäkelä, the orchestra was joined by violin soloist Daniel Lozakovich.

Furthermore, Oslo Philharmonic appeared at two prestigious European festivals with Klaus Mäkelä in August and September. The orchestra performed at Salzburger Festspiele, which was joined by violinist Lisa Batiashvili and at Berlin Festpiele. 

Orchestra de Paris performed two concerts at Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada in June with their Music Director Klaus Mäkelä. In the first concert, they were joined by soprano Christiane Karg, and for the second concert piano soloist Jean Baptiste Doulcet took the stage with the orchestra.

Riccardo Minasi and Ensemble Resonanz made their BBC Proms debut in an all-Mozart programme in August.

In October, Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducted the Philharmonia in his native Finland with Featured Artist Nemanja Radulović who joined the orchestra for the concert. The orchestra then crossed the Baltic Sea to perform at Tallinn’s Estonia Concert Hall, with cellist Marcel Johannes Kits. 

During October and November, Oslo Philharmonic, under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä, embarked on a six-concert European tour with concerts at Bozar in Brussels, Liderhalle in Stuttgart, Musikverein in Vienna, two concerts at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and a final concert at Konzerthaus Dortmund. The tour saw the orchestra present an exceptional selection of masterpieces alongside distinguished soloists Leif Ove Andsnes and Vilde Frang.

The final tour of the year was with Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Artistic Director Paavo Järvi, performing 13 concerts across Japan and Korea in a truly mammoth tour this December. The Orchestra was joined throughout the tour by renowned soloists, pianist Rafał Blechacz, violinists Daishin Kashimoto and Maria Duenas, and pianist Yunchan Lim.

London Philharmonic Orchestra 

We were delighted to take London Philharmonic Orchestra on a six-concert tour of Japan, after having previously taken the orchestra on a tour of Japan in 2017. The orchestra was joined by pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and conductor Robin Ticciati, with a Beethoven and Mahler-focused programme. The tour began on 6 September at Hamamatsu Act City Concert Hall with a Beethoven double-bill featuring Piano Concerto No.5 and Symphony No.3 Eroica, and they performed the symphony again at Nagoya’s Aichi Prefectural Art Theater Concert Hall. The orchestra played Mahler Symphony No.5 at Osaka’s Festival Hall, and the tour finished in Tokyo’s wonderful Suntory Hall, where they performed three concerts. 

Bach Collegium Japan 

Journeying across the world from Japan, Bach Collegium Japan and its Music Director, Masaaki Suzuki, headed to prestigious summer festivals across Spain, Germany, the UK and Austria. Celebrating the 300^th Anniversary of Bach’s St. John’s Passion, one of the highlights of this tour was a performance of this iconic work at the BBC Proms festival on 19 August. The tour started with a first performance on 10 August at Festival Internacional Santander, followed by two more performances with Bach Cantatas in Quincena Musical de San Sebastian and Torroella de Montgri. On 15 August, they performed J.S. Bach’s St. John’s Passion at Rheingau Musik Festival in the Basilika of Kloster Eberbach. They then headed to Musikfest Bremen for two concerts with Bach’s Cantatas. Heading to Austria, they gave the final concert on the tour at Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik with Bach’s Was frag ich nach der Welt, amongst other Bach works.