Application Deadline
October 1, 2024
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Selected Soloists will be offered a pay-to-play opportunity to benefit their musicianship and career through a COMPREHENSIVE RECORDING and Performance PACKAGE with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world’s most prestigious ensembles, under the baton of the RPO’s Permanent Associate Conductor Maestro Grzegorz Nowak.
Inclusion of selected soloists in a public performance with RPO within one of the RPO’s concert series outside London is at the discretion of the RPO Music Director, with the decision to be made after the conclusion of recording sessions and based on the artistic merits of the recording.
Dates – 2024-25 and 2025-26 concert seasons.
Two Rehearsals with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, the home of the RPO
Two full days of recording sessions at Cadogan Hall. State-of-the-art audio equipment and engineering selected and approved by the RPO.
Complete editing and mastering of the recordings by RPO’s own award-winning audio engineers.
Publication on RPO own label, including complete publisher’s package: graphics, liner notes.
Printing of physical CD’s and placement on distribution sites such as Amazon. Soloists receive complimentary physical copies.
Distribution of the Album on Digital Download Platforms such as Spotify, Apple, Deezer, and many more.
Publication on Naxos with Naxos’ distribution.
At the discretion of the RPO Music Director soloist(s) may be invited back for additional performance(s) in London within the RPO subscription series.
Parts of recording sessions and concerts may, at the discretion of RPO and its Music Director, be Broadcast Live by Virtual Concert Halls on various public channels on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Twitch, among other platforms.
Videos will be available for playback on the channels.
Soloists will participate in interviews for media and other activities associated with the event.
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Important dates: Application deadline - see dates on the website.
October 2024, January 2025 - Live Auditions Finals. Broadcast on video and social platforms. Meet the Judges and the Conductors. Streaming technology seminar in preparation for Live Audition - prior to performing LIVE.
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No age restrictions.
Any instrumental Concerto, a single movement, or Aria accepted.
Composers may submit scores for consideration
Meet the Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s (RPO) mission to enrich lives through orchestral experiences that are uncompromising in their excellence and inclusive in their appeal, places it at the forefront of music-making in the UK and internationally. Typically performing approximately 200 concerts a year and with a worldwide live and online audience of more than 60 million people, the Orchestra is proud to embrace a broad repertoire and reach a diverse audience. Whilst artistic integrity remains paramount, the RPO is unafraid to push boundaries and is equally at home recording video game, film and television soundtracks and working with pop stars, as it is touring the world performing the great symphonic repertoire.
Throughout its history, the RPO has attracted and collaborated with the most inspiring artists and in August 2021, the Orchestra was thrilled to welcome Vasily Petrenko as its new Music Director. A landmark appointment in the RPO’s history, Vasily’s opening two seasons with the RPO have been lauded by audiences and critics alike. Highlights included a star-studded gala concert to mark the RPO’s 75th Anniversary (with soloists Sheku Kanneh-Mason MBE and Sir Bryn Terfel), all three of Mahler’s epic Choral Symphonies at the Royal Albert Hall, performances at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, and major tours to the USA, Japan, Germany, Spain and a host of prestigious European festivals.
The RPO is recognised as the UK’s most in-demand orchestra, an accolade that would have pleased Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the Orchestra in 1946. As well as a busy schedule of national and international performances, the Orchestra enjoys an annual season of concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall (where the RPO is Associate Orchestra), the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall, where it is celebrating its 20th Season as Resident Orchestra. In the 2023–24 Season, Vasily Petrenko and the Orchestra take a fresh look at the works of five major composers in Icons Rediscovered. The series explores the burning inspiration, the living emotion and the human personality behind some of the most iconic masterpieces, including Rachmaninov’s The Bells, Elgar’s Falstaff, Verdi’s Requiem, music from Wagner’s greatest operas and a semi-staged production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. The Season will also feature an autumn residency in Florida, followed by tours to the UAE and Germany, a twelve-concert tour of the USA, a series of relaxed performances across the UK, and collaborations with guest artists including Principal Associate Conductor Alexander Shelley, Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi, Sheku-Kanneh-Mason MBE, Miah Persson, Nikolai Lugansky, John Rutter, Jennifer Johnston, and Artist-in-Residence Zlatomir Fung, amongst others.
Meet the Conductor
"Outstanding… in every way this matches and even outshines the superb account which Sir Georg Solti recorded with the Chicago Orchestra on Decca… the vitality of the piece is superbly caught."-Gramophone Magazine, London
"Outstanding… in every way this matches and even outshines the superb account which Sir Georg Solti recorded with the Chicago Orchestra on Decca… the vitality of the piece is superbly caught."-Gramophone Magazine, London
Application and Audition Process
Application form is DUE by the posted DEADLINES throughout the season. June 10, 2024
Upload video of any piece (with or without accompaniment). YouTube or Google Drive links are accepted
Application fee $75
Selected musicians will be invited to audition live on a public Internet TV Broadcast* and will receive a preparation tech session with VCHS Broadcast Engineers.
You will meet the Judges during Live Audition.
Live Auditions are held virtually.
Live Auditions are judged in real time.
Judges provide participants with immediate on-air feedback.
During the live audition participants will be able to speak with Judges.
• The judges’ decisions are final and may not be contested.
• To participate in the live online auditions, each musician must prepare required technical setup
Live Audition Fee - $250
*Fee includes the Technology Preparation session with A/V and Broadcast engineers
You will be notified about your acceptance into the colORCHESTRA program
Fees
Application and video pre-screening - $75
Live Audition - $250
PAY-TO-PLAY opportunity. Recording and Performance Package costs depend on the selected repertory and the length
Selected soloists are expected to cover their own travel expenses.
Upon request colORCHESTRA provides supporting documentation for selected soloists' visa applications.
Selected soloists may request press releases, letters of recommendation, confirmations of their participation in the concert, in support of the soloist's grants applications.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s (RPO) mission to enrich lives through orchestral experiences that are uncompromising in their excellence and inclusive in their appeal, places it at the forefront of music-making in the UK and internationally. Typically performing approximately 200 concerts a year and with a worldwide live and online audience of more than 60 million people, the Orchestra is proud to embrace a broad repertoire and reach a diverse audience. Whilst artistic integrity remains paramount, the RPO is unafraid to push boundaries and is equally at home recording video game, film and television soundtracks and working with pop stars, as it is touring the world performing the great symphonic repertoire.
Throughout its history, the RPO has attracted and collaborated with the most inspiring artists and in August 2021, the Orchestra was thrilled to welcome Vasily Petrenko as its new Music Director. A landmark appointment in the RPO’s history, Vasily’s opening two seasons with the RPO have been lauded by audiences and critics alike. Highlights included a star-studded gala concert to mark the RPO’s 75th Anniversary (with soloists Sheku Kanneh-Mason MBE and Sir Bryn Terfel), all three of Mahler’s epic Choral Symphonies at the Royal Albert Hall, performances at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, and major tours to the USA, Japan, Germany, Spain and a host of prestigious European festivals.
The RPO is recognized as the UK’s most in-demand orchestra, an accolade that would have pleased Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the Orchestra in 1946. As well as a busy schedule of national and international performances, the Orchestra enjoys an annual season of concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall (where the RPO is Associate Orchestra), the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall, where it is celebrating its 20th Season as Resident Orchestra.
The series explores the burning inspiration, the living emotion and the human personality behind some of the most iconic masterpieces, including Rachmaninov’s The Bells, Elgar’s Falstaff, Verdi’s Requiem, music from Wagner’s greatest operas and a semi-staged production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. The Season will also feature an autumn residency in Florida, followed by tours to the UAE and Germany, a twelve-concert tour of the USA, a series of relaxed performances across the UK, and collaborations with guest artists including Principal Associate Conductor Alexander Shelley, Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi, Sheku-Kanneh-Mason MBE, Miah Persson, Nikolai Lugansky, John Rutter, Jennifer Johnston, and Artist-in-Residence Zlatomir Fung, amongst others.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s mission is to place orchestral music at the heart of contemporary society and, through collaboration with creative partners, foster deeper engagement with communities to ensure that live orchestral music is accessible to as inclusive and diverse an audience as possible. To help achieve this goal, in 1993 the Orchestra launched RPO Resound, which has grown to become the most innovative and respected orchestral community and education programme in the UK and internationally. Early in 2025, the Orchestra will move its headquarters to Wembley Park in the London Borough of Brent; this will be the realization of its long-held ambition to embed the Orchestra in a community, in line with its mission to be a truly inclusive and contemporary international orchestra for the modern age.
The Orchestra has always been entrepreneurial; in 1986 it was the first UK orchestra to launch its own record label and it has gone on to embrace advances in digital technology, achieving well over 50 million streams of its recorded music each year. The RPO’s global online audience engages with it through the website and social media channels, where the Orchestra shares streamed performances, artist interviews, ‘behind-the-scenes’ insights and more.
Passion, versatility and uncompromising artistic standards are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s hallmarks. As it looks forward to an exciting future with the patronage of His Majesty King Charles III and Vasily Petrenko as Music Director, the RPO will continue to be recognized as one of the world’s most open-minded, forward-thinking and accessible symphony orchestras.
Registered Charity No. 244533
Previously Produced Albums
Reviews:
If Sant'Ambrogio hits the bull's-eye with the passionate side of Elgar in the first movement, she does so again with the interior musings of the third movement Adagio. If one interprets her stated intention to change the way we think about this music, she has succeeded in the sense that this performance is fresh as a daisy, passionate, intelligent, and mature... The performance is miraculous: Sant'Ambrogio finds true freedom in Wolosoff's generous lines (the cello dominates the musical argument here), while also demonstrating the ability to bend with the music at an instant's notice when the sound suddenly turns interior.
--Colin Clarke - Fanfare Magazine
This new release is a fabulous selection of famous soprano arias, linked by the universal themes of love and humanity. Highlights include arias from popular operas by Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Giordano, Cilea, and Barber. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with acclaimed conductor Grzegorz Nowak are joined for this new recording by versatile British spinto soprano Katerina Mina to celebrate the strong, determined, and spiritual heroines of these well-known operas. This album also includes the world premiere recording of two lyrical pieces by contemporary Swiss composer Stephan Hodel. Katerina Minas crystal clear voice exploited the acoustics of St. Jamess Piccadilly perfectly, soaring through the building, down the aisles and up to the high ceiling. The singing was heavenly.
-The Daily Express-
Cadogan Concert Hall
London
Cadogan Hall /kəˈdʌɡən/ is a 950-seat capacity concert hall in Sloane Terrace in Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England.
The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), the first London orchestra to have a permanent home. Cadogan Estates offered the RPO the use of the hall as its principal venue in late 2001. The RPO gave its first concert as the resident ensemble of Cadogan Hall in November 2004. Since 2005, Cadogan Hall has also served as the venue for The Proms' chamber music concerts during Monday lunchtimes and Proms Saturday matinees; it is also one of the two main London venues of the Orpheus Sinfonia.
Cadogan Hall has also been used as a recording venue. In February 2006, a recording of Mozart symphonies with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists was produced and made available immediately after the performances. In 2009, art rock band Marillion recorded a concert there which was released on the album Live from Cadogan in 2011.
Building
The hall is known for its stained glass windows by Arild Rosenkrantz
The building is a former Church of Christ, Scientist church, completed in 1907 to designs in the Byzantine Revival style by architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm, who also designed the Napier Museum in Kerala, India. The stained glass is by the Danish sculptor and stained-glass artist Arild Rosenkrantz. The building was listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England in April 1969.
The organ case by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd
Organ
The church had a three-manual pipe organ built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1907 and installed in 1911. It was on a raised position on the platform. The organ was removed in 2004, and the pipes in 2006. The original intention had been to install the organ in a church in the Midlands, but instead, in 2009-10, it was installed in Christ the King Catholic Church in Gothenburg, Sweden. Walker's organ case remains in place in the concert hall.
Conversion to a concert hall
By 1996, the congregation had diminished dramatically and the building had fallen into disuse. Mohamed Fayed, then owner of Harrods, had acquired the property, but was unable to secure permission to convert the building to a palatial luxury house on account of its status as a listed building. Cadogan Estates Ltd (the property company owned by Earl Cadogan, whose ancestors have been the main landowners in Chelsea since the 18th century; the nearby Cadogan Square and Cadogan Place are also named after them) purchased the building in 2000. It was refurbished in 2004 by Paul Davis and Partners Architects at a cost of £7.5 million. The changes included new lighting and sound systems and bespoke acoustic ceiling modules in the performance space.