The I, CULTURE Orchestra’s London audience was littered with cultural, political and media representatives, among them renowned journalist Anne Applebaum, Sir Michael Nyman and several of London’s top music critics. After the English concert, ICO headed to Madrid on the 8th of November
The London evening featured soloist Peter Jablonski and conductors Paweł Kotla and Sir Neville Marriner (I, Culture Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor). I, CULTURE Orchestra was a project led by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and formed one of the six flagship projects of the Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council 2011. The endeavor aimed to follow the example of such renowned ensembles as the European Union Youth Orchestra and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. It provided musical opportunity to young musicians in the Eastern European nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldavia and the Ukraine.
London-based music critic Peter Guest wrote for Ceasefire Magazine:
For Kotla, this is a chance to influence a movement for political change as well as taking a slightly naïve and inexperienced group of talented musicians under his experienced wing and introducing them to the border-transcending power of artistic excellence.
Peter Jablonski, the evening's soloist, has previously worked with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (with whom he has also made a number of recordings); the Philharmonia and Cleveland orchestras, the NHK Symphony and Czech Philharmonic orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Hamburger Symphoniker, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and all the major orchestras in Scandinavia. Motivated by his Polish heritage, Peter is also a strong advocate of Polish composers such as Lutosławski, Szymanowski and Wojciech Kilar. He is one of three soloists to perform with I, Culture Orchestra.
The concert programme was as follows:
Prokofiew - Scythian Suite, Op. 20
Szymanowski - IV "Concert" Symphony, Op. 60
Tchaikowski - IV Symphony f-moll, Op. 36
ICO has already toured through Gdansk, Brussels, Stockholm, Kraków and Berlin. On the 8th is will be in Madrid and the 11th of November in Warsaw.
Date: 6th of November, 2011
Venue: Royal Festival Hall, London
Organised by: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
For more information about the I, CULTURE Orchestra, see: orchestra.iam.pl.