Blog

On 7 February 2023 under the direction of Paolo Bortolameolli, the LA Phil New Music Group will perform the world premiere of Katherine Balch’s new composition for sixteen instruments, all around the sea blazed gold, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles.

In keeping with the Lunar calendar, Lunar New Year, commonly referred to as Chinese New Year, is an annual 15-day celebration which typically begins on the first new moon of the year and lasts until the following full moon. This year celebrations began on January 22nd 2023.

Each year in the Lunar calendar is represented by one of 12 Chinese zodiac. The Lunar New Year marks the transition from one animal to the next with 2023 being the Year of the Rabbit.

Whilst Lunar New Year is now celebrated around the world, it remains one of the most important festivals in China as well as other East Asian countries including Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Mongolia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Traditionally the festival began as a time to honour deities and ancestors, but more recently it has become a time to feast and visit family members. To observe this year’s festival, we’re celebrating our Chinese composers and the works that they’ve published with Schott Music.

Audiences can expect a true revelation at the upcoming world premiere of Sebastian Hilli's orchestral work, Miracle. Hilli’s new work bursts with surprising and unconventional ideas and will be boldly taken under the direction of Ryan Bancroft and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra as they embark on the composition’s first live performance on February 1st, 2023 at the Konserthuset Stockholm.

After the saxophone was invented a good 180 years ago, it enjoyed great success in certain musical styles. It has never found a regular place in the symphony orchestra, however. It is still seen as fairly new, and it has not been showered with solo works either - at least until recently. Marcus Weiss has now selected four very characteristic concert pieces from the last two decades that demonstrate a wide range of possibilities for the instrument.

Schott Music wishes composer Gavin Bryars a very happy 80^th birthday! We are immensely proud of our many years working with Gavin and look forward to celebrating this milestone anniversary with a number of events including a new harpsichord concerto for Mahan Esfahani in March with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and a portrait concert at King's Place in November which will coincide with the release of a new book by David Wordsworth, published by Kahn & Averill.

This month marks the 120th anniversary of the death of composer Augusta Holmès. In celebration of her memory, the Chelsea Symphony, conducted by Miguel Campos Neto, will perform her symphony Roland Furieux at the Menna Center for Classical Music in New York City on January 20th, 2023.

To start off the new year, the music world will celebrate the 100th birthday of the composer György Ligeti. Even though the actual anniversary will not take place until May, this January will mark the start of celebrations involving numerous performances of Ligeti’s works. The Zurich Ballet takes a special look at the orchestral composition Lontano with choreography by Christian Spuck. The collaboration of this piece will celebrate its premiere at the Zurich Opera House on 14 January 2023.

23 December 2022 marks the Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Berlin’s performance of Christmas Eve by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This opera, also known as "Winter Solstice', consists of four acts highlighting traditional Kolyada songs, historically sung in Russia on the night before Christmas. With projections by video artist Benjamin Spencer Weiß, Vladimir Jurowski is conducting at the Philharmonie Berlin, featuring ensemble members from numerous major German opera houses and the George Enescu Philharmonic Choir.

Mstislav Rostropovitch once described Rodion Shchedrin as ‘the king of the modern orchestra’, an individual who upheld the legacy and high art of instrumentation of his early advocate Dmitri Shostakovitch to a greater degree than any other subsequent composer from his Russian homeland. On 16 December, he turns 90. 

Schott Music is delighted to announce the signing of Daniel Kidane to the Schott Music Group international roster of composers.

Daniel Kidane’s music has been commissioned, performed and broadcast around the globe, firmly establishing him as one of the most exciting new voices in classical music.  Kidane began his musical education at the age of eight when he started playing the violin. He first received composition lessons at the Royal College of Music Junior Department before studying privately in St. Petersburg with Sergey Slonimsky. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Gary Carpenter and David Horne.