"Russian Romantics" 28th March 2009

Including the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 and Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2. For this concert we are delighted to welcome for his first concert with the GSO, Stuart Stratford. Stuart started conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire with Ilya Musin and was also a Junior Fellow of Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is a regular guest conductor with the City of London Sinfonia. Also making her debut with the orchestra is Evelina Puzaite who won the first prize at the Rubinstein Competition in Paris and the Tel Hai Piano Competition in Israel. She was the unanimous winner of the Landor Competition in 2006 which led to a long term recording contract with Landor Records.

"A Danube Odyssey" 4th July 2009

This concert includes the Suk "Scherzo Fantastique", Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody" and Strauss's "Emperor Waltz", "Blue Danube Waltz" and the "Radetsky March" together with Dvorak's "Rusalka's Song to the Moon" and solos from "Die Fledermaus". To conduct this concert we are delighted to welcome back the ever popular Richard Dickins and, making her debut with the orchestra, soprano Sally Harrison. Sally has performed with the English National Opera and Scottish Opera and has appeared on "Friday Night is Music Night" for BBC Radio 2

"Best of British" 14th November 2009

The programme for this concert includes Elgar Symphony No. 1, Finzi Clarinet Concerto and McCunn's "Land of the Mountain and the Flood". We are delighted to welcome Philip Mackenzie to conduct this concert. Philip is currently principal conductor of the Amadeus Orchestra. He is also the recipient of an honarary doctorate for artistic services given by the President of Ukraine following his premiere performance of Elgar's First Symphony in that country. Making her debut with GSO is the clarinettist Sarah Williamson. Sarah was the woodwind finalist in the 2002 "BBC Young Musician of the Year" competition and subsequently winner of the 2nd prize in the "Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians" held in Berlin.