The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) today announced the appointment as Associate Artists of two long-standing musical collaborators: conductor and keyboardist, Richard Egarr, and violinist / director, Alexander Janiczek.

Making the announcement, Roy McEwan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, said:

“This is a new concept for the SCO which we’re very excited about.  Both Richard and Alexander have developed rich and wide-ranging relationships with the Orchestra over a number of years, and these new appointments recognise the existing bonds and create opportunities for the partnerships to develop further. We’re delighted that these two fine artists are now more closely associated with us and we look forward to making more great music together in the future.”

Although possibly best-known for his expertise in the music of the Baroque period, Richard Egarr’s wide-ranging interests span the musical centuries and his career combines conducting, directing from the keyboard, playing concerti (on organ, harpsichord, fortepiano or modern piano), giving recitals and talking about music.  His energy and joy in creating music have made him a firm favourite with SCO musicians and audiences over the years.  He first worked with the Orchestra in September 2004, recording a disc of Handel arias with soprano Emma Bell for Linn Records.  Since then he has joined the Orchestra and the SCO Chorus in performances of music by Bach, Handel, Haydn and Beethoven, and has performed with the SCO at the East Neuk Festival in Fife.

He conducts and plays the harpsichord in two performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Cantatas 1, 3, 5 & 6) with the Orchestra and Chorus this week in Edinburgh Queen’s Hall (this evening, Thursday 1 December) and Glasgow City Halls (Friday 2 December), and returns in April for a programme of Baroque Greats visiting St Andrews Younger Hall (Wednesday 11 April), Edinburgh Queen’s Hall (Thursday 12 April) and Glasgow City Halls (Friday 13 April).

Richard Egarr is currently Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music and is a regular guest with many of the world’s finest ensembles.  He has an impressive discography as a solo artist, with violinist Andrew Manze and with the Academy of Ancient Music.  Egarr trained as a choirboy at York Minster, at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and as organ scholar at Clare College Cambridge.

Richard Egarr said of his appointment as Associate Artist: “I am absolutely thrilled to be forming a closer relationship with the SCO.  I have always felt very at home with this orchestra, and love the fact that the whole organisation is filled with fantastically flexible and exciting musicians which so easily allows the planning of all sorts of repertoire.  I look forward to creating some special and unique juxtapositions of music both familiar and unfamiliar, old and new.”

Austrian violinist Alexander Janiczek has also enjoyed a long and close relationship with the SCO.  He held the position of Leader with the Orchestra from 1999 to 2002, and since then has regularly been invited back as guest director and soloist for both live performances and recordings.  He has directed the Orchestra from the violin in a series of three highly acclaimed recordings of Mozart Serenades and Divertimenti for Linn Records. His concerts with the Orchestra extend beyond its Concert Seasons in Scotland’s main cities to tours in the Highlands and Islands as well as co-directing on international tours with the SCO to the USA and Europe.

Janiczek directs the SCO’s Mozart at Christmas concerts in Glasgow City Halls (Friday 16 December) and Edinburgh Queen’s Hall (Saturday 17 December), in which he is joint soloist with SCO Principal Viola Jane Atkins in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante.  He also directs one of the Orchestra’s early-evening CL@SIX concerts at St Cuthbert’s Parish Church, Edinburgh on 28 February, featuring Vaughan Williams’ ever-popular The Lark Ascending, and is violin soloist in concerts in March with Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati, performing H K Gruber’s Nebelsteinmusik (Edinburgh Queens’ Hall, 22 March; Glasgow City Halls, 23 March).

Alexander Janiczek established his name as a concert violinist at the age of nine when he won first prize in the National Competition of Austria.  From the age of twenty, he developed a close association with Sándor Végh and the Camerata Salzburg which he continues to direct.  He is also a guest director with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe amongst many others across Europe.  He is much in demand also as a concerto soloist, recently performing the Beethoven Concerto in Salzburg, has a busy chamber music diary and gave his Wigmore Hall debut recital earlier this year.

Speaking of his appointment as Associate Artist, Alexander Janiczek said: “It has been a truly special journey for me with the SCO over more than a decade. I am touched by the fact that these outstanding musicians provided me with a home after leaving Salzburg, and that we have found so much joy in performing together since.  It is a great honour to be invited to go further in our relationship and I am sure we will continue to find exciting ways to present our shared approach to bringing life to music. I am very grateful that musicians and management are putting this trust in me.”

Source: Scottish Chamber Orchestra