Nevis Ensemble Competitors

Opera North is England’s national opera company in the North and one of Europe’s leading arts organisations. The Company is committed to producing work of the highest quality that excites, challenges and entertains, and regularly collaborates with artists and companies working in a variety of media, including film and visual art. Its versatile Chorus and Orchestra also perform independently, constantly revitalising their approaches to music-making. The work of Opera North is made possible by direct support from Arts Council England, local authorities led by a close and sustained relationship with Leeds City Council, sponsorship from the private sector, the Friends of Opera North, the Opera North Fund and the box office income from its audiences. The Company is grateful to the many business sponsors, charitable trusts and individuals who together assist Opera North to continue to mount its award-winning programmes and to make its work accessible to all.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is an internationally celebrated symphony orchestra, at home in Birmingham. A family of incredible musicians, led by Music Director Kazuki Yamada, proud to make exciting musical experiences that matter to the people of Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond. Resident at Symphony Hall, the orchestra’s musicians perform over 150 concerts each year in Birmingham, the UK and around the world, with music that ranges from classics to contemporary, soundtracks to symphonies, and everything in between. With a far-reaching community and education programme, a ground-breaking partnership with Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, and a family of choruses and youth ensembles, it is involved in every aspect of music-making in the Midlands – and has been for more than 100 years. This longstanding tradition started with the orchestra’s very first symphonic concert in 1920 – conducted by Sir Edward Elgar. Ever since then, through war, recessions, social change and civic renewal, the CBSO has been proudly ‘Birmingham’s orchestra’. Under principal conductors including Adrian Boult, George Weldon, Andrzej Panufnik and Louis Frémaux, the CBSO won an artistic reputation that spread far beyond the Midlands. But it was when it discovered the young British conductor Simon Rattle in 1980 that the CBSO became internationally famous – and showed how the arts can help give a new sense of direction to a whole city. Rattle’s successors, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, helped cement that global reputation and continued to build on the CBSO’s tradition of flying the flag for Birmingham. Under the dynamic leadership of Music Director Kazuki Yamada and Chief Executive Emma Stenning, the orchestra continues to celebrate the joy of music and of Birmingham through creating unmissable and unforgettable musical experiences for all. The CBSO is supported by its principal funders Arts Council England and SCC.

Scottish Opera is Scotland’s national opera company and the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. The Company was founded by Alexander Gibson and was inaugurated with a production of Madama Butterfly at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. In 1974 Scottish Opera purchased the Theatre Royal Glasgow, which reopened in 1975 as Scotland’s first national opera house. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera was founded in 1980. Notable achievements include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Ines de Castro at the 1996 Edinburgh International Festival and complete Ring cycles at the 2003 Festival, which won the 2004 South Bank Show Award for Best Opera Production. Recent commissions include Five:15 Operas Made in Scotland, part of a five-year research and development project to find the next generation of opera-makers. We are committed to bringing the widest possible range of opera, performed to the highest possible standards, to the maximum audience throughout Scotland and the UK; each year we performs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness and over 50 other theatres, village halls and community centres. We also operate an extensive programme of outreach and education work which involves over 12,000 primary school children a year, as well as many other activities including adult learning and Unwrapped taster sessions. Scottish Opera’s income is derived from public subsidy, box office and private and commercial support. The Company is funded by the Scottish Government.