Orchestra United is a four-part British television series that follows a youth orchestra from its creation to a final, full-scale concert. The series was broadcast on Channel 4 during summer 2010.
The Hallé Harmony Youth Orchestra was formed from 75 young people (11 to 18 years of age) from Manchester who showed musical talent. The intention of its conductor, James Lowe, was to demonstrate that young people of all social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds could both enjoy and participate in major classical music. Two were selected to perform as soloists in a concert in the Hallé Orchestra's 2,000 seat Bridgewater Hall, an important concert venue in Manchester.
Sir John Barbirolli was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 and conducted for the rest of his life. Earlier in his career he was Arturo Toscanini's successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic, serving from 1936 to 1943. He was also chief conductor of the Houston Symphony from 1961 to 1967, and was a guest conductor of many other orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, with all of which he made recordings.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, is the UK's oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. In addition to the orchestra, the organisation administers the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company and other choirs and ensembles. It is involved in educational and community projects in Liverpool and its surrounding region. It is based in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, an Art Deco concert hall built in the late 1930s.
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services. The LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset the LSO was organised on co-operative lines, with all players sharing the profits at the end of each season. This practice continued for the orchestra's first four decades.
Sir Charles Hallé was a Prussian and British pianist and conductor. In 1858, he founded the Hallé Orchestra.
The Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, Manchester, England, was constructed in 1853–56 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It is now a Radisson hotel.
Mehli Mehta was an Indian conductor and violinist.
The Bridgewater Hall is a concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build in the 1990s, and hosts over 250 performances a year. It is home to the 165-year-old Hallé Orchestra as well as to the Hallé Choir and Hallé Youth Orchestra and it serves as the main concert venue for the BBC Philharmonic.
Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty was an Irish composer, conductor, pianist and organist.
Sir Mark Philip Elder is a British conductor. He is currently music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
Peter Donohoe CBE is an English classical pianist.
Chen Jiafeng is a Chinese violinist. He was the first prize winner in the 2003 International Competition for Young Violinists K. Lipinski and H. Wieniawski, the second prize winner of the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the second prize of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki.
The Overture to a Picaresque Comedy is a concert overture composed by Arnold Bax in 1930. It was premiered by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by the dedicatee, Sir Hamilton Harty, in November 1931. The work is untypical of its composer, who was not usually associated with comedy in music.
The Leeds Festival Chorus is based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has 160 singing members in soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections. Presenting classical choral music of a professional standard in Yorkshire and elsewhere, including at the BBC Proms and abroad - for example in Venice. The Chorus is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3.
Philip Robinson is an English conductor, arranger and music educator.
Ewa Strusińska is a Polish British conductor, General Music Director of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau (de) and principal conductor of the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie in Germany. Former music director and principal conductor of Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra, first became known to the artistic world as a laureate and prize winner at the prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg.
The National Youth Orchestra of Wales is the national youth orchestra of Wales, based in Cardiff. Founded in 1945, it is the longest-standing national youth orchestra in the world.
The Hallé is an English symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. Since 1996, the orchestra has been resident at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
The Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) is a United States symphony orchestra based in Davenport, Iowa, and representing the Quad Cities area. The current music director and conductor is Mark Russell Smith. Established in 1916, the orchestra has a full season, performing six Masterworks series concerts, three pops concerts, and five signature series chamber concerts. The 96-member orchestra principally performs at two venues: the Adler Theater, located in Davenport, Iowa and Centennial Hall on the campus of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. The Riverfront Pops Concert in early September is held at the W.D. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion in LeClaire Park on the Davenport riverfront. Its Holiday Pops Concert is performed at the Adler Theater. The signature series concerts are held in a more intimate setting, often at the Figge Art Museum. It also maintains four ensembles for local youth and conducts extensive outreach in area schools.
James Burton is a British conductor and composer. He is currently the Boston Symphony Orchestra Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. He also holds the position of Director of Orchestral Activities and Master Lecturer in Music at Boston University.
Andrew Gourlay is a British conductor.