This season ushers in a new era for the Sheffield International Concert Series as we celebrate Sheffield City Hall’s 75th anniversary.  We are delighted to announce a unique partnership with Yorkshire South Tourism, who will be sponsoring and supporting the entire series.
Yorkshire South Tourism is a private public partnership established to provide strategic direction, co-ordination and drive to tourism issues in South Yorkshire. The partnership has the full backing of the 4 local authorities and is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber. This partnership shows how far the International Concert Season has progressed in a short space of time and is another step towards our goal of becoming the leading concert season in the country.
The Hallé are welcomed back to the heart of the series as Resident Orchestra in their 150th season with seven evening concerts, a family concert and an education programme in Sheffield, including a collaboration with South Asian Arts UK that brings the great Bhupinder Singh Chaggar to the City Hall stage to perform with Sheffield school children and members of the Hallé during one of their concerts.  The series as a whole focuses on British orchestras and celebrates the great wealth of orchestras in our region with visits from the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata and Yorkshire’s own Orchestra of Opera North. Two visiting symphony orchestras, one from Poland and one from Russia, maintain the international flavour to the series.
We have always proudly presented young artists at the beginning of their career. Nicola Benedetti already has an international reputation. This young British violinist is committing herself to our new scheme encouraging teenagers to come to concerts. We will have pre-concert workshops open to 11-18 year-olds before all our subscription concerts giving them an opportunity to explore the music in the evening’s concert. Nicola Benedetti will visit two schools in Sheffield during her two-concert residency in November to meet the students involved in the scheme.
To encourage young audiences, and young families, we are continuing our successful  Children’s Subscription having introduced greater flexibility into the scheme this year. We also proudly present two Family Concerts, performed by the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic. These Sunday afternoon concerts are programmed and presented to appeal to children of all ages – the perfect introduction to orchestral music for children and the young at heart!
We are delighted to be welcoming Ensemble 360 and the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra to the series, giving Sheffield’s finest musicians the opportunity to perform in the Sheffield International Concert Series and putting the series at the heart of the musical life of the city.
With Lesley Garrett to raise the curtain; the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus frequent performers; a new resident orchestra celebrating its 150th anniversary season; community projects; family concerts; ticket prices frozen or reduced; and all wrapped up in a programme of great artistic diversity, what better way to celebrate Sheffield City Hall’s 75th anniversary season?
Dom
Dominic Stokes
General Manager |
