Orchestra hits the high note for milestone
The concert featured the orchestra’s new artist in focus, harpsichord pioneer Mahan Esfahani, as well as soprano Sarah Tynan and the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia.
After the concert the first of the season’s new “Encore” commissions was unveiled.
Sage Gateshead has commissioned three composers (Errollyn Wallen, Tansy Davies and William Marsey) to write encores to be performed by the orchestra at the end of selected concerts during the season.
But the party didn’t stop there. After the concert the audience joined RNS musicians and the Sage Gateshead team for a party on the concourse with music from the Mini Big Band.
A special project called 60 @ 60 Audience Portrait also opened outside Sage One.
Over the year, 60 photographic portraits of audience members, together with their memories of RNS over the years, will be on display. An RNS 60 Exhibition also went on display, featuring key events and faces from the first decade of Northern Sinfonia.
It will develop over the season until the whole history of the orchestra has been covered.
Abigail Pogson, managing director at Sage Gateshead, said: “As we mark this 60th birthday, Royal Northern Sinfonia’s work is as diverse as ever. “In the past two years we have been working on two things: re-establishing them as the orchestra of the region and building an orchestra for the 21st century.”
Last season half of the orchestra’s performances were outside the building, across the North of England.
The total live audience for RNS in the past season was 100,000 people and via stream or broadcast, it was two million.