Conductor

Ilan Volkov and friends celebrate milestones from the past 100 years of American jazz, starting with a sequence honouring the ‘Duke’. Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite from 1945 romps between boogie-woogie and dissonance in its response to astrological signs.

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Prom 35: Ellington, Braxton and Mary Lou Williams

Royal Albert Hall

Ilan Volkov and friends celebrate milestones from the past 100 years of American jazz, starting with a sequence honouring the ‘Duke’. Mary Lou Williams’s Zodiac Suite from 1945 romps between boogie-woogie and dissonance in its response to astrological signs. The evening culminates in the work of a boundary-crossing visionary very much still with us. From the south side of Chicago, multi-instrumentalist and self-styled ‘trans-idiomatic composer’ Anthony Braxton has established himself as a musician whose imagination recognises no bounds.

Take Ilan Volkov, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s charismatic Principal Guest Conductor, and a byword for music-making without compromise. Add Joanna MacGregor: the energising, genre-busting British pianist who plays by no rules but her own. Now put them together with the melody, the wit and the irrepressible imagination of a 21-year-old genius called Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that’s just the centrepiece of a concert that pairs the most dazzling musical mind of the late 18th century with the composer who revolutionised the 20th. Driving rhythms, fabulous colours, and fairground puppets that spring to startling, heart-breaking life: this is the musical world of Igor Stravinsky, and we can’t wait to show you around.

Perth Concert Series: Volkov Conducts Petrushka

Perth Concert Hall

On a spring day in an imaginary Russia, an excited crowd gathers for a puppet show. Petrushka loves the Ballerina. She prefers another. Tragedy looms, but don’t worry: puppets don’t have souls…do they? Stravinsky’s 'Petrushka' paints Russian tradition in colours as bright as a piece of folk art – and as sinister as the 20th century. It’s a wonderfully bold finale for a concert that opens with Stravinsky at his most startling, and which unites two dauntless musical explorers – pianist Joanna MacGregor and our Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov – in the haunting, utterly original Piano Concerto by Howard Skempton. A striking new work by one of British music’s true radicals completes an evening of music that fascinates and thrills.

Volkov Conducts ‘Petrushka’

Glasgow City Hall

“Frustrated in love, a young musician of deep sensitivity and ardent imagination takes opium…” Berlioz’s big-hearted blockbuster, Symphonie fantastique began as a nineteenth century tale of drugs and lust. It became… well, the name says it all, really. This is a sonic extravaganza of gothic horror, hopeless devotion and glorious excess, played by one of the biggest orchestras the world had then seen.

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in Aberdeen

Music Hall

Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov pairs Berlioz's big-hearted blockbuster 'Symphonie fantastique' with one of the best classical music works of the 21st century (The Guardian).

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique

Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony and a world premiere by American composer Catherine Lamb.

Prom 13: Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony

Join us for an evening of profound musical exploration with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's special event, "CBSO Explores: FRIENDS IN LOVE AND WAR," on Saturday, 11 January 2025, at 7:00pm in the prestigious Symphony Hall, Birmingham. This unique concert, in collaboration with Ikon Gallery, delves into the enduring theme of friendship between France and Britain, presenting a rich tapestry of contemporary French and British art and music.

The evening promises an exceptional programme, featuring a world premiere by the French-born, London-based composer and soprano Héloïse Werner. Her piece, "siren suite" for soprano and orchestra, commissioned by CBSO, is set to be a highlight of the concert, alongside works by Satie, Debussy, and more, exploring the intricate relationships and shared history between these two nations through music.

Conducted by Ilan Volkov with Héloïse Werner as the soprano, the concert is part of a broader exhibition at Ikon Gallery titled "FRIENDS IN LOVE AND WAR," running from 2 October 2024 to 23 February 2025, supported by the John Feeney Charitable Trust. This event not only offers a night of exceptional music but also an opportunity to engage with the themes of friendship and collaboration across the arts.

Tickets are priced at £20, with a £3.50 ticket commission for each ticket over £15 sold by B:Music. Attendees can also benefit from various discounts, including reduced prices for students, 18-30s, under-18s, and benefit recipients. The concert will last approximately 2 hours, including a 20-minute interval, promising an unforgettable evening of cultural and musical exchange.

Cbso Explores: Friends In Love And War

The International Convention Centre

All music tells a story, but the best music tells more than one. Shostakovich’s Festival Overture opens with jubilant trumpets – but this was the Soviet Union, so it would do, wouldn’t it? Prokofiev wrote his Sixth Symphony in the aftermath of World War Two, and though it’s certainly an epic, it’s far from clear that it ends in anything as simple as triumph. As you’d expect from Ilan Volkov, it’s the climax of a whole evening of music that asks as many questions as it answers, including Olga Neuwirth’s utterly original vision of a robot creator going terrifyingly off the rails. Armed with DJ turntables, a megaphone and clicking metal frogs, soloist Colin Currie - possibly the world’s greatest living percussionist – is the only man who can stop it…

Colin Currie & Ilan Volkov

All music tells a story, but the best music tells more than one. Shostakovich’s Festival Overture opens with jubilant trumpets – but this was the Soviet Union, so it would do, wouldn’t it? Prokofiev wrote his Sixth Symphony in the aftermath of World War Two, and though it’s certainly an epic, it’s far from clear that it ends in anything as simple as triumph. At the heart of this concert, Colin Currie performs a show-stopping Percussion Concerto by New York-based percussionist Andy Akiho. In Colin’s own words, he’s “completely blown away by the verve, joy, depth of emotion and vibrancy of colours” in this music, composed in 2019. Prepare for big-hearted marimba solos, chopsticks with amplified rice bowls (!) and a groovy ‘Grand Finale’.

Colin Currie & Ilan Volkov in Aberdeen

World-renowned violinist Leonidas Kavakos interprets Shostakovich’s Concerto, whose sonorities range from quiet contemplation to the most spectacular cadenza you’re ever likely to witness to a frenzied finale, guaranteed to leave you amazed. Then, from two out-of-the-blue chords to exhilarating finale, the “Eroica’s” majesty and grandeur, extraordinary scope, and bold harmonies rise to a triumphant climax and proclaim that a new era in music has begun. Dallas-based composer Kyle Gann “tinkered” with one of his favorite Charles Ives pieces (which he lamented as being too brief) and “stretched it out,” as he says, resulting in his Serenity Meditation (after Ives).

Ilan Volkov

Conductor

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 11, 2025

Cbso Explores: Friends In Love And War · City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Feb 6, 2025

Colin Currie & Ilan Volkov · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Feb 7, 2025

Colin Currie & Ilan Volkov in Aberdeen · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

22 - 24 May, 2025

Beethoven’s “Eroica” · Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Aug 15, 2024

Prom 35: Ellington, Braxton and Mary Lou Williams · Royal Albert Hall

Aug 15, 2024

Prom 35: Ellington, Braxton and Mary Lou Williams · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) by Beethoven

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Violin Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Petrushka by Stravinsky

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Festive Overture by Shostakovich

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Solitude by Ellington

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Zodiac Suite by Williams

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Piano Concerto No. 9 (Jeunehomme) by Mozart

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Sophisticated Lady by Ellington

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Mood Indigo by Ellington

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Caravan by Ellington

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Scènes de ballet by Stravinsky

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Serenity Meditation by Gann

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in siren suite by Werner

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Composition No. 27 by Braxton

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Trurliade – Zone Zero for solo percussion and orchestra by Neuwirth

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Symphony No 6 in E flat minor by Prokofiev

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Percussion Concerto by Akiho

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in 4 Études by Stravinsky

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in LEVELS for orchestra by Parsons

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Piano Concerto by Skempton

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

About

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