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Sir Simon Rattle

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  • Conductor
(c) Oliver Helbig
(c) Oliver Helbig

About Sir Simon

Chief Conductor: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate: London Symphony Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor, Rafael Kubelík Chair: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He is Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. He is a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a Founding Patron of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. He was Principal Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 2002 to 2018. In 2024 Sir Simon was announced as the Principal Guest Conductor, Rafael Kubelik Chair, of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sir Simon regularly tours within Europe, the United States and Asia, and has longstanding relationships with the world’s leading orchestras. He regularly conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin, Berliner Philharmoniker, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Czech Philharmonic. Recent operatic highlights include Der Rosenkavalier at The Metropolitan Opera Company, Janáček’s Kat'a Kabanovà at the Staatsoper Berlin, as well as Tristan und Isolde and Wozzeck with the London Symphony Orchestra at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Music Education is of supreme importance to Sir Simon. During his tenure as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, he announced the creation of the LSO East London Academy. The free programme aims to identify and develop the musical potential of young East Londoners. While Principal Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he made ground breaking changes to the orchestra’s outreach and educational programmes, earning him numerous international awards.

Sir Simon was awarded a knighthood by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and received the Order of Merit in 2014. He received the Order of Merit in Berlin in 2018; and in 2019 was given the Freedom of the City of London.

Sir Simon is based in Berlin

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For availability and general enquiries:

Henry Lindsay

Henry Lindsay

Associate Director

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Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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Press

  • BBC Proms

    Royal Albert Hall
    Aug 2023
    • Our greatest advocate for classical music may be off to a new life, but we certainly haven't seen the last of ihm.

  • London Symphony Orchestra

    Barbican Centre
    Aug 2023
    • Indeed, it would be hard to devise a more joyous programme – as well as one closer to Rattle’s musical heart and ethos – than the Betsy Jolas world premiere that began it and the monumental Turangalîla symphony of Olivier Messiaen with which it concluded.

  • London Symphony Orchestra

    Barbican Centre
    Jan 2023
    • Under Rattle, the LSO are on ravishing form, perfectly blending the lyricism and intensity of the score.

Askonas Holt artists and touring partners to appear at the 2024 BBC Proms

/25 April 2024

The BBC Proms today announced the programme for this summer’s festival, with 29 Askonas Holt artists and touring partners making appearances.

The Askonas Holt Tours and Projects team this year continues a tradition of bringing world-renowned orchestras to the Royal Albert Hall. Daniel Barenboim returns to the UK for the first time since 2019, conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra which he founded 25 years ago with Palestinian-American academic Edward Said.

Continuing a partnership that spans decades, the team is proud to once again be bringing the Berliner Philharmoniker and Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko to London for two performances at the Royal Albert Hall, including Bruckner’s Symphony No.5 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto with soloist Víkingur Ólafsson. Also celebrating Bruckner’s anniversary year is Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, in their first Prom together since Sir Simon took up his position as Chief Conductor. Alongside the composer’s Symphony No.4, they present the UK premiere of Thomas Adès’s Aquifer followed by a second concert featuring Mahler’s Symphony No.6, both of which are on the programme for their current tour of the US.

Following extensive tours in the US and Europe in collaboration with Askonas Holt, recent signing Jakub Józef Orliński and il Pomo d’Oro present a performance of their critically acclaimed 2023 release Beyond. The Late-Night Prom on 23 July marks the countertenor’s Proms debut, and the Baroque ensemble's first appearance at Royal Albert Hall.

Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic join forces with Benjamin Grosvenor for Busoni’s Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, while Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5 and Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with Evelyn Glennie.

Emmanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma return with frequent collaborator Leonidas Kavakos for a chamber prom of works by Beethoven. Denis Kozhukhin makes his third visit, teaming up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Ravel’s Piano Concerto, and Tobias Feldmann makes his Proms debut with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic.

Also making his Proms debut is guitarist Plínio Fernandes, who, together with Braimah and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, present a family-friendly concert of folk songs, dances, prayers and incantations with the Fantasia Orchestra. They return the next day for a Relaxed Prom.

Cynthia Millar returns with the BBC Philharmonic for Messiaen’s Turangalila, followed the next evening by Lawrence Power who performs the BBC co-commissioned viola concerto I cannot love without trembling by Cassandra Miller. Daniel Pioro heads to the Glasshouse for an afternoon exploration into Elizabethan music and folklore.

Vocal enthusiasts will be treated to Grammy-award winning soprano Angel Blue’s Proms debut when she joins the massed forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Singers for the Last Night of the Proms. Other choral favourites include Verdi’s Requiem with Karen Cargill and Soloman Howard, Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Messiah with Benjamin Hulett and Ashley Riches alongside six choirs and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under John Butt.

For Holst’s 150th-anniversary year, Jess Dandy joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing his masterpiece The Cloud Messenger. New signing Alice Coote sings Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, which featured on her critically-acclaimed recording of Mahler song cycles with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Baritone James Atkinson performs Fauré’s song-cycle La bonne chanson in a chamber prom that pays homage to fin de siècle Paris at Ulster Hall in Belfast. In another evening celebrating works by French composers, Laurence Kilsby performs Lili Boulanger’s Vieille prière bouddhique with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Finally, opera fans can catch Garsington Opera’s Proms debut with a semi-staged production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, starring Iestyn Davies as Oberon, Lucy Crowe as Tytania and Christine Rice as Hippolyta alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra.

The Proms run from 19 July to 14 September, with booking opening 18 May. All performances will be live on BBC Radio 3 and streamed on BBC Sounds, with a selection of Proms on TV and iPlayer.

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