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October 2006
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra today announced the appointment of Olari Elts to the post of Principal Guest Conductor with the Orchestra. The distinct empathy between the young Estonian conductor and the SCO has been evident since their first performances together in April 2004, performing a programme of Baltic music including works by Elts’ countryman, Arvo Pärt.
Immediately invited to return, Olari Elts conducted the Orchestra in a programme of Haydn, Tchaikovsky and Strauss last October and in a Mozart anniversary programme in the Highlands in June. He will appear with the SCO twice during its current Concert Season – conducting a programme of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow in February, and bringing the Season to its close in May with an all-Beethoven concert in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Elts will take up his post as Principal Guest Conductor from the beginning of the SCO’s 2007/08 Season, in which he will conduct both the Opening and Closing Concerts, as well as two further concert weeks in November 2007 and March 2008. The appointment is for an initial period of three years with a commitment to four weeks each Season as well as touring and recording opportunities as they arise.
Olari Elts commented today, “SCO is an unusually flexible and passionate orchestra whose performances always contain a magical high voltage. I feel very privileged to be able to continue our relationship on a more regular basis. Music-making with the Orchestra's marvellous chamber musicians has always been highly inspiring. I already look forward impatiently to our next meeting."
Roy McEwan, Managing Director of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra said, “We are delighted to announce this new relationship with Olari. From his first appearances with the Orchestra a genuine musical understanding and spark has been evident and it results in very exciting music-making. We are very confident of this new relationship developing into a stimulating partnership.”
Olari Elts was winner of the prestigious International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki in 2000, which led to engagements with many of Europe’s finest orchestras. In 2001, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, where he is now Principal Guest Conductor and earlier this year he took up the position of Artistic Advisor of the Orchestre de Bretagne. He formed his own contemporary music ensemble NYYD Ensemble in 1993.
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