Issuu

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen

Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis supported by Richard Buxton

Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski KBE Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG

Artistic Director Jesús Herrera Chief Executive David Burke

Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich

Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Sunday 19 April 2026 | 3.00pm

Sibelius’s First

Price

Andante moderato for string orchestra (7’)

Barber

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (16’)

Gershwin

Selections from Porgy and Bess (10’)

Interval (20’)

Sibelius Symphony No. 1 (38’)

Nefeli Chadouli* conductor

Nadine Benjamin soprano

*LPO Fellow Conductor 2025/26. The LPO Conducting Fellowship 2025/26 is generously supported by Dunard Fund.

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. Concert presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in association with Trafalgar Theatres

Welcome to the Congress Theatre

Venue Director Neil Jones

Welcome to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, today’s conductor and soloists, and most importantly, to all of you in the auditorium.

Whether you’re a season regular or this is your very first concert, we’re pleased to welcome you to our fantastic venue, unique in its Grade II listed perfect cube design which creates an acoustic environment like no other. If there is anything we can do to improve your visit, please do chat with a member of our team.

As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones are switched off during the performance. Please also note that photography and recording are not allowed in the auditorium unless announced from the stage.

Thank you for supporting classical music – sit back, relax and enjoy your afternoon.

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LPO news

BrightSparks Schools’ Concert

Tuesday 9 June 2026 sees our next BrightSparks schools’ concert here at the Congress Theatre! Local Key Stage 2 students (aged 7–11) are invited to enjoy the sound of the full LPO as we perform ‘The Big Enigma’: a concert all about codes, puzzles and mysteries hidden in music! Featuring highlights from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, along with brilliant music by Beethoven, Bacewicz and Brahms, it’s sure to be an unforgettable experience.

Tickets are £3 per pupil (accompanying teachers free, support with travel costs available). Includes a free INSET session and written resources for teachers. Booking for schools is open now – for more details visit lpo.org.uk/brightsparks

BrightSparks 2025/26 is generously funded by Rothschild Foundation, Candide Trust, Dunard Fund, Rivers Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, TIOC Foundation, Gill and Julian Simmonds, and Mrs Philip Kan.

LPO 2026/27 season

Our 2026/27 season of concerts at the Congress Theatre will be announced this Tuesday, 21 April 2026. We have another wonderful season of concerts lined up and we hope you’ll find plenty to enjoy and discover.

To make sure you’re first to receive all the details, sign up to our LPO e-news at lpo.org.uk/signup or scan the QR code.

First Violins

Alice Ivy-Pemberton Leader

Lasma Taimina

Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik

V. G. Cave

Amanda Smith

Alison Strange

Daniel Pukach

Kay Chappell

Rebecca Dinning

Camille Buitenhuis

Alice Apreda Howell

Izzy Howard

Ryo Koyama

Second Violins

Tania Mazzetti Principal

Chair supported by The Candide Trust

Kate Birchall

Nancy Elan

Joseph Maher

Ashley Stevens

Sheila Law

Caroline Sharp

Gabriel Bilbao

Pak Ho Hong

Violas

Rebecca Chambers

Guest Principal

Benedetto Pollani

Jisu Song

Kate De Campos

Terry Nettle

Jenny Poyser

Charles Cross

Anita Kurowska

Cellos

Henry Shapard Principal

Auriol Evans

Leo Melvin

Tom Roff

Helen Thomas

Iain Ward

On stage today

Double Basses

Hugh Kluger Principal

George Peniston

Catherine Ricketts

Aiyana Rennie

Flutes

Ian Mullin Guest Principal

Stewart McIlwham*

Piccolo

Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Chair supported by The Thompson Family

Charitable Trust

Oboes

Tjadina Wake-Walker Guest Principal

Russell Coates

Cor Anglais

Russell Coates

Clarinets

Thomas Watmough Principal

Chair supported by Roger Greenwood

Emily Crook

Isha Crichlow

Bass Clarinet

Paul Richards* Principal

Bassoons

Simon Estell* Principal

Emma Harding

Horns

John Ryan* Principal

Martin Hobbs

Duncan Fuller

Paul Cott

Will Scotland

Trumpets

Paul Beniston* Principal

Chair supported by the Williams family in memory of Grenville Williams

Tom Nielsen* Principal

Trombones

Mark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Bass Trombone

Lyndon Meredith Principal

Tuba

Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

Timpani

Simon Carrington* Principal

Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE

Percussion

Andrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins

Ignacio Molins

Harp

Tamara Young Guest Principal

Piano

Iain Clarke

*Professor at a London conservatoire

The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:

An anonymous donor

Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton

David & Yi Buckley

Dr Alex & Maria Chan

Ian Ferguson & Susan Tranter

Friends of the Orchestra

Dr Barry Grimaldi

David & Bettina Harden

Sir Simon Robey

Bianca & Stuart Roden

Malcolm & Alison Thwaites

Eric Tomsett

Joe Topley & Tracey Countryman

Neil Westreich

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. Our mission is to create unrivalled orchestral experiences on stage and cultivate human connections beyond it, which we accomplish through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community programme, cementing our position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century.

Our home is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour worldwide. In 2024 we celebrated 60 years as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.

Soundtrack to key moments

Everyone will have heard the Grammy-nominated London Philharmonic Orchestra, whether it’s playing the world’s National Anthems for every medal ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, our iconic recording with Pavarotti that made Nessun Dorma a global football anthem, or closing the flotilla at The Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. And you’ll almost certainly have heard us on the soundtracks for major films including The Lord of the Rings

Sharing the wonder worldwide

We’re one of the world’s most-streamed orchestras, with over 15 million plays of our content each month. We’re the most followed UK orchestra on Instagram, the most followed orchestra globally on TikTok, and overall the third most followed globally across all social platforms. In 2024 we featured in a TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’, which was nominated for a 2025 BAFTA. During 2025/26 we’re once again working with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts to enjoy at home.

Our conductors

Our Principal Conductors have included great historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, and Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor, and Sir George Benjamin our Composer-in-Residence.

Next generations

We’re committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: we love seeing the joy of children and families experiencing their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about inspiring schools and teachers through dedicated concerts, workshops, resources and training. Reflecting our values of

© Jason Bell

collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with disabilities and special educational needs.

Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestra members of the future, and we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme leads the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds underrepresented in the profession.

2025/26 season

This season’s theme, Harmony with Nature, explores humanity’s bond with the natural world through works by Beethoven, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Elgar and Dvořák; masterpieces of an era that saw nature as a mirror of human emotion. Closer to our own time, we hear from composers as diverse as Duke Ellington, John Luther Adams and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, who have all found a source of creative energy in the processes of nature.

Highlights with Principal Conductor Edward Gardner include symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Brahms and Rachmaninov; a pair of concerts spotlighting 20th-century Central European composers; an evening dedicated to Elgar; and a performance of Berg’s Wozzeck to end the season. We also welcome back Karina Canellakis and Vladimir Jurowski, as well as guest conductors including Robin Ticciati, Kirill Karabits, Mark Elder and Kahchun Wong. Our lineup of soloists this season includes violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Alina Ibragimova, James Ehnes and Himari; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; and pianists Yefim Bronfman, Alexandre Kantorow and Tomoko Mukaiyama. The season features nine world and UK premieres, including Tan Dun’s choral ‘Ode to Peace’ Nine, and A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) by jazz icon Terence Blanchard.

This season also sees tours to South Korea and across Europe, as well as a wide range of performances and community events in our Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies.

lpo.org.uk

Alice Ivy-Pemberton Leader

Alice Ivy-Pemberton joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader in February 2023.

Praised by The New York Times for her ‘sweet-toned playing’, Alice has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician to international acclaim. While growing up in New York City and studying with Nurit Pacht, Alice made a nationally televised Carnegie Hall debut aged ten, and was a finalist at the Menuhin International Competition at the age of 12.

Alice earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho as a fully-funded recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. During her studies she won Juilliard’s Violin Concerto Competition, performed extensively with the New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and led orchestras under the baton of Barbara Hannigan, Xian Zhang and Matthias Pintscher. Upon graduating in 2022 she was awarded the Polisi Prize and a Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant in recognition of ‘tremendous talent, promise, creativity, and potential to make a significant impact in the performing arts’.

An avid chamber musician, Alice has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Anthony Marwood, Gil Shaham and members of the Belcea, Doric, Juilliard and Brentano string quartets, and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Festival appearances include Music@Menlo, Moritzburg and Yellow Barn. Also a passionate advocate for new music and its social relevance, Alice created Drowning Monuments, a noted multimedia project on climate change that brought together five world premieres for solo violin.

Nefeli Chadouli

conductor

Greek conductor Nefeli Chadouli is a Fellow Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for 2025/26 and an Associate Fellow of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship for 2024–26. In 2026, she was selected as a semifinalist of the La Maestra International Conducting Competition in Paris. Since 2023, she has served as Conductor of the Babylon Orchestra Berlin, an ensemble specialising in accompanying silent films, and in 2024 she was appointed Music Director of the Berlin-Brandenburgisches Sinfonieorchester.

In September 2024, Nefeli made her debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 as part of the ‘Bold Tendencies’ series. She has since led renowned ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphony, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie, and the City Symphony Orchestras of Thessaloniki and Athens. The 2026/27 season will feature her first appearances with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Bamberg Symphony and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Nefeli has gained valuable experience as an assistant conductor with major institutions, including assisting Edward Gardner on London Philharmonic Orchestra concerts this season, as well as with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. She has worked under the guidance of leading mentors including Marin Alsop, Steven Sloane and Matthias Foremny in both symphonic and operatic repertoire,

and has participated in masterclasses with Johannes Schlaefli, Michael Sanderling and Vittorio Parisi, among others.

Born in Athens, Nefeli began her musical training in piano and violin. She earned her piano diploma with the highest honours, receiving the Grand Prix and the ‘Krino Kalomoiri Prize’ from the National Conservatory of Greece. She holds a Master’s degree in Musicology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and a Bachelor’s degree in Conducting from the University of Music and Theatre ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ in Leipzig. In 2024, she completed her Master’s degree in Conducting at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Last month, Nefeli conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s BrightSparks schools’ concerts at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and on 17 May she returns to conduct them in a FUNharmonics family concert. Today is her full symphonic concert debut with the Orchestra.

The LPO Conducting Fellowship

The LPO Conducting Fellowship was launched in 2023 to promote diversity and inclusivity in the classical music industry by developing outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds currently under-represented in the profession.

Guided by the LPO’s Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner, two successful applicants each season become fully immersed in the life of the LPO, working intensively with the Orchestra over a period of 6–8 non-consecutive weeks. The Fellowship includes opportunities to conduct the Orchestra in various settings including at LPO residencies, educational programmes, and ensembles of its Rising Talent programmes; opportunities to assist Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, and mentorship sessions with him; and full immersion into the life of the Orchestra, aiming to form the basis of a longer-term professional relationship. Further opportunities are tailored to the needs and interests of the Fellow Conductors. lpo.org.uk/conductingfellowship

The LPO Conducting Fellowship 2025/26 is generously supported by Dunard Fund.

© Danai

Kavoura

Nadine Benjamin

soprano

British soprano Nadine Benjamin is a charismatic and versatile artist who is in increasing demand on both the operatic stage and the concert platform. She made her Royal Opera House debut in 2020 as soloist in New Dark Age featuring works by Missy Mazzoli, Anna Meredith and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in 2021 in the title role of Luisa Miller. Nadine spent two seasons as an English National Opera Harewood Artist, where her roles have included Clara (Porgy and Bess), Laura (Luisa Miller), Gerhilde (The Valkyrie), Mimì and Musetta (La bohème), and Mother (Jeanine Tesori’s Blue).

Operatic engagements include Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) with Chelsea Opera Group, Elle (La Voix humaine) with Pegasus Opera, Desdemona (Marina Abramović’s The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas) and Moira (Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale) for English National Opera, the title role in Tosca with Opera Australia, and Elvira (Ernani) at the Buxton Festival.

Other recent roles include the title role in Aida, Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) and Nadia (Tippett’s The Ice Break) for Birmingham Opera Company; Desdemona (Otello) and the title role in Tosca with Everybody Can! Opera; Mother/Witch (Hansel and Gretel) for Scottish Opera; the title role in Tosca and Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) for English Touring Opera, Ermyntrude (Mascagni’s Isabeau) and Amelia (Un ballo in maschera)with Opera Holland Park, and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) with Iford Arts.

Nadine made her LPO debut in November 2022 in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time under Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall and Saffron Hall, alongside Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music. A recording of the Tippett performance was later released on the LPO Label (LPO-0136).

In concert Nadine has also performed Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Verdi’s Requiem, Poulenc’s Gloria, Berg’s Seven Early Songs, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Schubert’s Mass No. 5, and the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Further performances include Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, Dvořák’s Te Deum and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Recent engagements include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the English Chamber Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, and Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Sinfonia Viva.

Nadine made her BBC Proms debut in 2019 in Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music and has performed frequently with Chineke! Orchestra, as well as with Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra, Norfolk Symphony Orchestra, West London Sinfonia and the Waynflete Singers. For the London Festival of American Music, she has performed song-cycles by William Bolcom, Peter Child and Samuel Barber, the European premiere of John Harbison’s Milosz Songs, and a programme of works by female American composers.

Nadine has recorded the role of Mrs Waters in Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate for Retrospect Opera, which was released in 2016 to critical acclaim and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In collaboration with Nicole Panizza, Nadine recorded Emergence, a selection of songs setting poems by Emily Dickinson, which was released in 2019 and nominated in the vocal category at that year’s International Classical Music Awards. Nadine’s debut solo CD, Love & Prayer, was released in 2018, and she features alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers on Maltworms and Milkmaids, an album of Peter Warlock’s orchestral works. An Ambassador for the charity Music Masters, Nadine was ‘highly commended’ at the Aviva Women of the Future Awards, and has been invited to both Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street in recognition of her work as a mentor and singer. Nadine is the Winner of Best Opera Performer Award at the Black British Theatre Awards 2023 and Winner of Future Classical Music Awards 2023. She is also a Trainee Metaphysical Minister and was made an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021.

© Teresa Elwes

Programme notes

Florence Price

1887–1953

Andante moderato for string orchestra

1929/2020

Florence Price grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas at the turn of the century; the daughter of a music teacher and the only African American dentist in a community that was still riven with racial prejudice. She gave her first piano recital at the age of four, and as a teenager won a place at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where more liberal attitudes prevailed. Even here, though, she initially described herself as a Mexican: it simply made life easier, she said, at a time when racism in the Southern states of the USA frequently escalated into murderous violence. In 1927 she left Arkansas for Chicago, where she played the organ in churches and cinemas across the city. Her First Symphony (1932) won first prize in a nationwide competition, and its premiere the following year by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra marked the first time a symphony by a woman of African American heritage had been performed by a major US orchestra.

In common with many composers who worked in a tonal Romantic tradition, Price’s music was neglected after her death in 1953, and the full scope of her achievement is only now being celebrated. ‘Music, like religion, goes deep’, she said, and she made many friends and allies during her career in Chicago. She composed her First String Quartet in the city, completing the score on 9 December 1929, though no record survives of any performance in her lifetime, and it lay unpublished until 2017. This version for string orchestra of its second movement was created by Peter Stanley Martin, a scholar of Price and Charles Ives, and was premiered in 2020. Broad, lyrical paragraphs frame a lively, dancing Allegretto central section before the movement (and the whole quartet) sinks to a peaceful close.

Programme notes

Samuel Barber

1910–81

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 1948

Nadine Benjamin soprano

The text is on the next page.

Samuel Barber spent his boyhood in West Chester, Pennsylvania, not Knoxville Tennessee, and being born in the spring of 1910, he wasn’t in a position to remember much about the summer of 1915. But when, in 1947, he read James Agee’s 1938 prose poem Knoxville: Summer of 1915, he felt an immediate connection. Agee (1909–55) had spent his earliest years in Knoxville; now, in an essay that he compared to ‘improvisation in jazz’, he tried to recreate that mood – and that world – in words. The unnamed narrator seems at first to be a nostalgic adult, but in recollecting the past they become, once again, a child in a sleepy Midwestern town, experiencing anew the sights and sounds of a long-forgotten summer day. Barber was entranced. ‘It reminded me so much of summer evenings in West Chester, now very far away’, he wrote to his uncle, Sidney Homer.

‘My musical response that summer of 1947 was immediate and intense. I think I must have composed Knoxville within a few days’, Barber later explained in a radio interview. ‘You see, it expresses a child’s feeling of loneliness, wonder, and lack of identity in that marginal world between twilight and sleep.’ He never met Agee before setting his words to music (he described the piece as a ‘Lyric Rhapsody’) but they made contact shortly afterwards and discovered that they had a startling amount in common:

‘We both had back yards where our families used to lie in the long summer evenings, we each had an aunt who was a musician. I remember well my parents sitting on the porch, talking quietly as they rocked. And there was a trolley car with straw seats and a clanging bell called “The Dinky” that travelled up and down the main street.’

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was premiered in April 1948 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Serge Koussevitsky, with the soprano Eleanor Steber as soloist. It became an instant American classic. And beyond that, there’s not much to say – Barber’s music responds so immediately and poetically to Agee’s words and images, that you only really have to listen, and let your mind travel with the music to a half-remembered childhood more than a century ago on the other side of the world. The only introduction needed is the one that Agee wrote and which Barber didn’t set to music – but printed, nonetheless, at the top of the score:

We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child …

There’s one further line, printed just above the title: ‘In memory of my father’.

Text

Knoxville: Summer of 1915

It has become the time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street and the standing up into their sphere of possession of the trees, of birds’ hung havens, hangers. People go by; things go by.

A horse, drawing a buggy, breaking his hollow iron music on the asphalt; a loud auto; a quiet auto; people in pairs, not in a hurry, scuffling, switching their weight of aestival body, talking casually, the taste hovering over them of vanilla, strawberry, pasteboard and starched milk, the image upon them of lovers and horsemen, squared with clowns in hueless amber.

A streetcar raising its iron moan: stopping, belling and starting; stertorous; rousing and raising again its iron increasing moan and swimming its gold windows and straw seats on past and past and past, the bleak spark crackling and cursing above it like a small malignant spirit set to dog its tracks; the iron whine rises on rising speed; still risen, faints; halts; the faint stinging bell; rises again, still fainter, fainter, lifting, lifts, faints forgone: forgotten.

Now is the night one blue dew. Now is the night one blue dew, my father has drained, now he has coiled the hose. Low on the length of lawns, a frailing of fire who breathes … Parents on porches: rock and rock. From damp strings morning glories hang their ancient faces.

The dry and exalted noise of the locusts from all the air at once enchants my eardrums.

On the rough wet grass of the backyard my father and mother have spread quilts.

We all lie there, my mother, my father, my uncle, my aunt, and I too am lying there … They are not talking much, and the talk is quiet, of nothing in particular, of nothing at all in particular, of nothing at all.

The stars are wide and alive, they seem each like a smile of great sweetness, and they seem very near.

All my people are larger bodies than mine, … with voices gentle and meaningless like the voice of sleeping birds.

One is an artist, he is living at home. One is a musician, she is living at home. One is my mother who is good to me. One is my father who is good to me. By some chance, here they are, all on this earth; and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying, on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of the night.

May God bless my people, my uncle, my aunt, my mother, my good father, oh, remember them kindly in their time of trouble; and in the hour of their taking away.

After a little I am taken in and put to bed. Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her: and those receive me, who quietly treat me, as one familiar and well-beloved in that home: but will not, no ,will not, not now, not ever; but will not ever tell me who I am.

James Agee (1909–55)

Programme notes

George Gershwin 1898–1937

From Porgy and Bess : Summertime

My Man’s Gone Now 1935

Nadine Benjamin soprano

It took a long time for George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to overcome the prejudices that greeted its premiere in Boston on 30 September 1935. ‘With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has nonetheless written a work that is of some power and importance’, pronounced the critic Virgil Thomson – struggling with the notion that Gershwin’s tragedy of African American life on the Charleston waterfront was actually exactly what its composer said it was: an opera.

That was just the first of many misunderstandings, above and beyond Gershwin’s insistence (enlightened to the point of being controversial in the USA of the 1930s) that his masterpiece must be performed by a black cast, or not at all. Gershwin had been fascinated by DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy since 1928, and he immersed himself in its world. The setting is Catfish Row, a decaying waterside tenement in Charleston, South Carolina: in reality, home to a community of African American fisherfolk known as the Gullahs.

The plot, meanwhile, has the power and pathos of Greek drama, as the crippled Porgy’s desperate devotion to another outsider, Bess, brings him first hope, and then tragedy. ‘Summertime’ is the opening number; a lullaby of still waters and sticky heat, sung by the young mother Clara as the curtain rises on Catfish Row. Catastrophe soon strikes; a craps game turns violent and the fisherman Robbins lies stabbed on the waterfront, leaving his wife Serena to sing a passionate lament: ‘My Man’s Gone Now’.

Programme notes

Jean Sibelius

1865–1957

Symphony No. 1 in E minor 1899

1. Andante, ma non troppo

– Allegro energico

2. Andante (ma non troppo lento)

3. Scherzo: Allegro

4. Finale (Quasi una fantasia): Andante – Allegro molto – Andante assai –Allegro molto come prima – Andante (ma

non troppo)

Before Sibelius’s famous Finlandia – a potent symbol of Finnish nationalism – there had been the composer’s First Symphony. Plenty of disgruntled Finns heard the first performance of the Symphony in April 1899 as a rallying cry against Russian occupation. But is that really how the composer conceived the piece? Yes and no. Initially, it was planned as a ‘storytelling’ symphony, focusing on Finland’s history and geology. But seven years after the success of Sibelius’s Kullervo, based on Finnish folklore, friends were urging the composer to think more symphonically. What Finland needed, they said, was a symphony that stood its ground without recourse to storytelling.

In his student days in Vienna and Berlin, Sibelius had learned how to continuously shape and sand his musical themes, like a sculptor might, until they were fit for purpose. In the First Symphony, we begin to hear Sibelius handling his material in that distinctive way.

The First Symphony’s misty opening on a lonesome clarinet, for example, doesn’t just prepare us for the energetic shock of the movement’s fast Allegro that follows; it infiltrates the work’s musical ideas fully. The shape of that clarinet theme can be traced in numerous fragments and melodies right up to the Symphony’s final notes. The last movement launches with a transfigured version of it on thrusting strings.

In that gesture is another key to what made Sibelius’s symphonic conception so different – his response to the capabilities of the orchestra. The Germanic approach to developing a symphony’s conversation was largely about the notes; it could be mapped out on a piano before being literally distributed to orchestral instruments on paper. Sibelius, meanwhile, allowed the character of his instruments to dictate the form and progress of his music. He let orchestral conversations and colours move the music forward, not just harmonic and melodic building blocks. That might have led the critic Ernest Newman to write that ‘every page of [the First Symphony] breathes of another manner of thought, another way of living, another landscape and seascape.’

Newman wasn’t alone. The Finnish musicologist James Hepokoski has described the First Symphony as a work in a ‘stubbornly separatist, regionally resonant musical idiom’. We hear that best in Sibelius’s finale. The organic treatment of themes continues, but in the end, the tension created by Sibelius’s strange combination of energy against stasis throws up a rousing, hymn-like tune. It has the distinct character and shape of the rune songs through which Finnish folklore was recounted.

Programme note © Andrew Mellor

We’d love to hear from you

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2026/27 season – coming soon!

Our 2026/27 season of concerts at the Congress Theatre will be announced this Tuesday, 21 April

To make sure you’re first to receive all the details, sign up to our LPO e-news list at lpo.org.uk/signup or scan the QR code.

We’re fundraising to create musical connections in your community. Play your part – donate today and double your impact!

The LPO is proudly building on 2025, as we once again create bespoke, co-developed projects with local partners along the South Coast to develop skills and creativity, and support wellbeing.

In 2026 we are ...

• returning to the Congress Theatre to inspire local schoolchildren with the power of a live orchestral concert

• supporting the talent development of 80 aspiring orchestral instrumentalists aged 11–14 through Junior Artist Overture Days

• expanding access to classical music by performing chamber concerts in community venues rather than traditional concert halls

• collaborating with One World Orchestra and Samphire Project to create a musical performance at a Multicultural Festival during Refugee Week.

Donate and double your impact

For every £1 that you give between 19–26 April 2026, the LPO will receive £2, thanks to a pot of matched funding. Your donation will help enable us to bring to life co-created, transformative music projects that connect communities, develop skills, nurture creativity and support wellbeing.

Donate online via the QR code or call the LPO Development Team on 020 7840 4212 or 020 7840 4225.

Thank you

As a registered charity, we are extremely grateful to all our supporters who have given generously to the LPO over the past year to help maintain the breadth and depth of the LPO’s activities, as well as supporting the Orchestra both on and off the concert platform.

Artistic Director’s Circle

The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

William & Alex de Winton

Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle

Aud Jebsen

In memory of Paul Morgan

In memory of Donald Pelmear

In memory of Rita Reay

Sir Simon & Lady Robey CBE

In memory of Peter J Watson

Orchestra Circle

Richard Buxton

In memory of Nicola Goodman

Mr & Mrs Philip Kan

Neil Westreich

Principal Associates

An anonymous donor

Steven M. Berzin

Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G Cave

George Ramishvilli

In memory of Kenneth Shaw

The Tsukanov Family

Associates

Anonymous donors

Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton

Garf & Gill Collins

Michelle Crowe Hernandez & Christian Hernandez

Ian Ferguson & Susan Tranter

Stuart & Bianca Roden

Malcolm & Alison Thwaites

Joe Topley & Tracey Countryman

The Williams Family in memory of Grenville Williams

Gold Patrons

An anonymous donor

David & Yi Buckley

Dr Alex & Maria Chan

In memory of Allner Mavis

Channing

In memory of Peter Coe

John & Sam Dawson

Fiona Espenhahn

Mr Roger Greenwood

Sally Groves MBE

David & Bettina Harden

Eugene & Allison Hayes

Malcolm Herring

Mrs Asli Hodson

John & Angela Kessler

Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva

Julian & Gill Simmonds

Eric Tomsett

The Viney Family

Guy & Utti Whittaker

Silver Patrons

An anonymous donor

David Burke & Valerie Graham

Mr Luke Gardiner

The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris

Charitable Trust

Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill

Clandia Wu & Hiu Fung Ng

Simon & Lucy Owen-Johnstone

Andrew & Cindy Peck

Mr Roger Phillimore

Tom & Phillis Sharpe

Laurence Watt

Joanna Williams

Bronze Patrons

Anonymous donors

Miram Al Rasheed

Michael Allen

Gabriela Andino-Benson

Irina Bednaya

Nicholas Berwin

Mrs Amna Boheim

Dame Colette Bowe

Lorna & Christopher Bown

Mr Bernard Bradbury

Dr Anthony Buckland

Desmond & Ruth Cecil

Mr John H Cook

Cameron & Kathryn Doley

Elena & Sergey Dubinets

Harron Ellenson & Charles Miller

Smith

Cristina & Malcolm Fallen

Christopher Fraser OBE

Charles Fulton

Gini & Richard Gabbertas

Jenny & Duncan Goldie-Scot

Mr Daniel Goldstein

David & Jane Gosman

Mr Gavin Graham

Mrs Dorothy Hambleton

Iain & Alicia Hasnip

J Douglas Home

Mr & Mrs Ralph Kanza

Mrs Irina Kiryukhina

Rose & Dudley Leigh

Wg. Cdr. M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF

Drs Frank & Gek Lim

Svetlana London

Graham Long

Richard & Judy Luddington

Mr & Mrs Makharinsky

James Maxey-Branch

Andrew T Mills

John Nickson & Simon Rew

Peter & Lucy Noble

Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley

Mr Stephen Olton

Nigel Phipps & Amanda McDowall

Mr Michael Posen

Marie Power

Neil & Karen Reynolds

Sir Bernard Rix

Baroness Shackleton

Tim Slorick

John & Madeleine Tucker

In memory of Doris Tylee

Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood

Sophie Walker

Jenny Watson CBE

Elena Y. Zeng

Principal Supporters

Anonymous donors

Dr M. Arevuo

Mrs Carol Ann Bailey

Mr John D Barnard

Roger & Clare Barron

Mr Geoffrey Bateman

Mrs A Beare

Adam J. Brunk & Madeleine Haddon

Simon Burke & Rupert King

David & Liz Conway

Mr Alistair Corbett

David Devons

Deborah Dolce

Sir Timothy Fancourt

Jonathan Franklin

Professor Erol & Mrs Deniz Gelenbe

Steve & Cristina Goldring

Prof Emeritus John Gruzelier

Sebastian Arun Hansjee

Nick Hely-Hutchinson

Michael & Christine Henry

Mrs Farrah Jamal

Bruce & Joanna Jenkyn-Jones

Per Jonsson

Julian & Annette Armstrong

Mr Ian Kapur

Gee Lee

Dr Peter Mace

Mr Nikita Mishin

Allison Mollerberg

Simon Moore

Dr Simon Moore

Mrs Terry Neale

Mr Matthew Pearson

Mr James Pickford

Filippo Poli

Sukand Ramachandran

Mr Martin Randall

Mr Robert Ross

Mr Andrea Santacroce & Olivia Veillet-Lavallée

Aniruddha Sharma

Priscylla Shaw

Michael Smith

Erika Song

Mr & Mrs G Stein

Andrew & Rosemary Tusa

Wolf-Christian Ulrich

Ben Valentin KC

Christine Warsaw

Mr Rodney Whittaker

Christopher Williams Supporters

Anonymous donors

Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle

Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington

Mr Philip Bathard-Smith

Mrs Martha Brooke

Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk

Miss Tessa Cowie

St Peter’s Composers, Bexhill-on-Sea

Dorothy Hobden

The Jackman Family

Jan Leigh & Jan Rynkiewicz

Mr Mack Lindsey

Mr David MacFarlane

Simon & Fiona Mortimore

Dana Mosevics

Dame Jane Newell DBE

Michael Noyce

Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh

Emilie Sydney-Smith

Ms Caroline Tate

Craig Terry

Tony & Hilary Vines

Dr Ann Turrall

Dr June Wakefield

Mr John Weekes

Mr C D Yates

Hon. Benefactor

Elliott Bernerd

Hon. Life Members

Alfonso Aijón

Dame Carol Colburn Grigor DBE

Robert Hill

Keith Millar

Victoria Robey CBE

Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

Cornelia Schmid

Timothy Walker CBE AM

Laurence Watt

Thomas Beecham

Group Members

An anonymous donor

Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton

David & Yi Buckley

Dr Alex & Maria Chan

Garf & Gill Collins

William & Alex de Winton

Ian Ferguson & Susan Tranter

The Friends of the LPO

Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave

Mr Roger Greenwood

Barry Grimaldi

David & Bettina Harden

Mr & Mrs Philip Kan

John & Angela Kessler

Sir Simon Robey

Victoria Robey OBE

Stuart & Bianca Roden

Julian & Gill Simmonds

Malcolm & Alison Thwaites

Eric Tomsett

Neil Westreich

Guy & Utti Whittaker

LPO Corporate Members

Bloomberg Carter-Ruck Solicitors

French Chamber of Commerce

German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce

Lazard

Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking

Ryze Power

Virgin Money

Walpole

Preferred Partners

Amazon Web Services

Google

Lay & Wheeler

Lindt & Sprüngli

Mayer Brown

Steinway & Sons

Welbeck

Trusts and Foundations

ABO Trust

Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne

Candide Trust

Cockayne – Grants for the Arts

David Solomons Charitable Trust

Dunard Fund

Foyle Foundation

Garfield Weston Foundation

The Baily Thomas Charitable Fund

The Boshier-Hinton Foundation

The Golsoncott Foundation

Jerwood Foundation

John Thaw Foundation

John Horniman’s Children’s Trust

The Ian Askew Charitable Trust

Idlewild Trust

Thank you

Institute Adam Mickiewicz

Kirby Laing Foundation

The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust

Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust

Lucille Graham Trust

The Marchus Trust

Margaret Killbery Foundation

Maria Bjӧrnson Memorial Fund

The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust

PRS Foundation

The Radcliffe Trust

Rivers Foundation

Rothschild Foundation

Scops Arts Trust

Sir William Boreman’s Foundation

The John S Cohen Foundation

TIOC Foundation

UK Friends of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation

Vaughan Williams Foundation

The Viney Family

The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust and others who wish to remain anonymous.

Board of the American Friends of the LPO

We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:

Hannah Young Chair

Lora Aroyo

Jon Carter

Alexandra Jupin

Natalie Pray MBE

Dr Irene Rosner David

Marc Wassermann

Catherine Høgel

Hon. Director

LPO International Board of Governors

Natasha Tsukanova Chair

Steven M. Berzin

Shashank Bhagat

Irina Gofman

Olivia Ma

George Ramishvili

Florian Wunderlich

Trusts and Foundations

Principal Partners

Principal Supporters

Major Supporters

Corporate Sponsors

Principal Partner

OrchLab Project Partner

Principal Supporter

Major Supporters

London Philharmonic Orchestra Administration

Board of Directors

Dr Catherine C. Høgel Chair

Sir Nigel Boardman Vice-Chair

Mark Vines* President

Kate Birchall* Vice-President

Emily Benn

David Buckley

David Burke

Simon Burke

Simon Carrington*

Michelle Crowe Hernandez

Deborah Dolce

Simon Estell*

Jesús Herrera

Tanya Joseph

Minn Majoe*

Tania Mazzetti*

Jamie Njoku-Goodwin OBE

Neil Westreich

David Whitehouse*

*Player-Director

Advisory Council

Roger Barron Chairman

Christopher Aldren

Kate Birchall

Amna Boheim

Richard Brass

Helen Brocklebank

YolanDa Brown OBE

David Burke

Simon Callow CBE

Desmond Cecil CMG

Jane Coulson

Andrew Davenport

Guillaume Descottes

Cameron Doley

Lena Fankhauser

Christopher Fraser OBE

Jenny Goldie-Scot

Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS

Nick Hely-Hutchinson DL

Jesús Herrera

Dr Catherine C. Høgel

Martin Höhmann

Jamie Korner OBE

Andrew Neill

Nadya Powell

Sir Bernard Rix

Victoria Robey CBE

Baroness Shackleton

Thomas Sharpe KC

Julian Simmonds

Daisuke Tsuchiya

Mark Vines

Chris Viney

Laurence Watt

Elizabeth Winter

New Generation Board

Ellie Ajao

Peter De Souza

Vivek Haria

Rianna Henriques

Zerlina Vulliamy

General Administration

Jesús Herrera

Artistic Director

David Burke

Chief Executive

Monica Rutherford PA to the Executive & Office Manager (Interim)

Concert Management

Roanna Gibson

Concerts & Planning Director

Graham Wood

Concerts & Recordings Manager

Aimee Walton

Tours Manager

Madeleine Ridout Glyndebourne & Projects Manager

Alison Jones

Concerts & Artists Co-ordinator

Alice Drury Tours & Projects Assistant

Nicola Stevenson

Concerts & Recordings Assistant

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Andrew Chenery

Orchestra Personnel Manager

Helen Phipps Orchestra & Auditions Manager

Sarah Thomas

Martin Sargeson Librarians

Stephen O’Flaherty Deputy Operations Manager

Gabrielle Slack-Smith Assistant Stage Manager

Finance

Frances Slack

Finance Director

Dayse Guilherme Finance Manager

Jean-Paul Ramotar IT Manager & Finance Officer

Education & Community

Talia Lash

Education & Community Director

Eleanor Jones

Lowri Thomas

Education & Community Project Managers

Ellie Leon

Education & Community Co-ordinator

Claudia Clarkson

Regional Partnerships Manager

Development

Laura Willis

Development Director

Rosie Morden

Senior Development Manager

Eleanor Conroy

Development Events Manager

Owen Mortimer

Corporate Relations Manager

Anna Quillin

Trusts & Foundations Manager

Holly Eagles Development Co-ordinator

Faye Jones Development Assistant

Nick Jackman

Campaigns & Projects Director

Kirstin Peltonen

Development Associate

Marketing & Communications

Kath Trout

Marketing & Communications Director

Sophie Lonergan

Senior Marketing Manager (maternity leave)

Katie Vickers

Senior Marketing Manager (maternity cover)

Georgie Blyth

Press & PR Manager (maternity leave)

Said Abubakar, WildKat PR 07983 489 888

Press & PR (maternity cover)

Josh Clark

Data, Insights & CRM Manager

Greg Felton

Digital Creative

Isobel Jones

Marketing Manager

Maria Ribalaygua

Sales & Ticketing Manager

Rachel Williams

Publications Manager

Cara Liddiard

Marketing Assistant

Share in the joy of music. Be a part of the LPO.

As a registered charity, it is thanks to the vital support we receive from our individual supporters, corporate partners, and trusts and foundations that the LPO can present such vibrant and varied concert programmes of world-class quality.

Such support also enables the LPO to drive lasting social impact through our industry-leading education and community programme, supporting rising talent, those affected by homelessness, and adults and young people with disabilities – designed to build and diversify the talent pipeline and share the unique joy and power of music more widely.

Donate

Whether you make a checkout donation, give to an appeal, or choose to remember the LPO with a gift in your Will, donations of all sizes make an impact. Your support will help us continue to promote diversity and inclusivity in classical music and nurture the next generation of talent.

Join

Joining one of our membership schemes will not only support the Orchestra and our mission, but will also give you access to a host of exclusive benefits designed to enhance your experience and build a closer relationship with the Orchestra and our family of supporters –from private rehearsals, to members’ bars, private events and priority booking. Membership starts at just £6 per month.

Partner

We’re virtuosos of creative collaboration, expertly crafting bespoke partnerships that hit the right notes. We tailor each bespoke partnership to your strategic business objectives, combining exceptional experiences that deepen client relationships, forge new connections, elevate your brand, and create buzzworthy content that leaves audiences captivated by a compelling brand story.

We’re also passionate about using music and our work to increase social value. By partnering together across a shared purpose and values, we can leave a positive, lasting impact on the communities we engage, deepening your CSR and SDG commitments.

Find out how you can support at lpo.org.uk/support us