Aurora Orchestra aims to inspire, challenge and astonish new audiences with great music, brilliantly performed. In the six years since its creation, it has established itself at the cutting edge of the UK’s classical landscape, combining world-class performance with eclectic and innovative programming, a commitment to collaboration across musical genre and artistic form, and a refusal to be bound by convention.
Aurora was founded in 2005 by conductors Nicholas Collon and Robin Ticciati, who gathered around them an ensemble of the UK’s leading emerging soloists, led by Thomas Gould. Early milestones included an appearance alongside the Michael Clark Dance Company as part of the Barbican’s Young Genius series (2005) and the award of a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship for a two-year residency at the Royal Academy of Music (2007–8). During this residency the orchestra developed collaborations across other art forms, staging Birtwistle’s Secret Theatre and commissioning a new animated film and score from the Bristol School of Animation and composer Chris Willis. It also developed a flourishing Participation and Learning department with the launch of the skills-building project Listen Up! in Waltham Forest in January 2008. A partnership with the Hammersmith and Fulham music service led to the orchestra working in 16 primary schools in the borough later that year, and delivering a year-long secondary-school project at the Lady Margaret School.
Through the Leverhulme Fellowship concerts, Aurora developed a reputation for virtuosic performance across a wide range of music, from the baroque sound-worlds of Lully and Gabrieli through to arrangements of Mahler by Schoenberg and his school. It has championed unjustly neglected repertoire, such as Schreker’s Chamber Symphony and the Kammermusik of Hindemith, and frequently programmes music by living composers, including the UK première of Penderecki’s Sextet in the presence of the composer (2009), new dance collaborations with James Macmillan’s Exorcism of Rio Sumpul (2008) and Julian Anderson’s Khorovod (2010), and the works of over 30 young composers as part of the BBC Proms Inspire Competition (2008, 2009 and 2010).
The orchestra has actively sought to commission as widely as possible, with highlights including Nico Muhly’s concerto for electric violin Seeing is Believing (2008, recently recorded for release on Decca Classics in June 2011), works by Chris Willis for the BBC Proms (2010), Tobias Broström’s Crimson Skies (2005), a commission from Iain Farrington for the 2011 Oundle Festival, and major works for children from Chris Willis (2008), John Thomas (2010) and Peter Furniss (2010). Future commissions include a chamber opera by Nico Muhly (2015), co-commissioned with The Opera Group.
In 2009, the orchestra gave the inaugural concert in the Britten Studio (Aldeburgh) with an arrangement of Schoenberg’s Erwartung, and presented a double-bill of Stravinsky and Walton with Mahogany Opera in the Village Underground, Shoreditch (‘One of the most exciting and electrifying evenings I’ve spent at the opera in recent seasons’ – Opera Magazine). In November 2009 it gave its first performance at Kings Place (‘as pacy and invigorated a reading of Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No 1, Op. 9, as I’ve heard’ – Sunday Times), the start of a long-term residency at the venue which continues in 2011 with a high-profile series of Mozart programmes featuring Rosemary Joshua, Samuel West, and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.
Highlights of the 2010 season included a sell-out debut appearance at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, a major new touring production of Alexander Goehr’s Promised End with English Touring Opera in venues throughout England and a nomination for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Ensemble Award. A performance alongside 180 from children from four schools in March 2010 marked the completion of Listen Up! projects in 16 primary schools since 2008. The same month also saw the launch of Aurora’s groundbreaking New Moves series, a unique three-year cross-arts residency at LSO St Luke’s which has included critically-acclaimed collaborations with capoeira dance, film and animation, and experimental theatre. Alongside this series, Listen Live! projects were launched in secondary schools in Waltham Forest, Southwark and Hammersmith and Fulham. Both the New Moves series and Listen Live! projects will continue in 2011, encompassing repertoire from Purcell to Lennon alongside tango dancers, klezmer musicians, visual artists and writers. New Moves programmes are increasingly in demand by regional promoters, with 2011 seeing the launch of five new residencies for the orchestra at Turner Sims Southampton, St George’s Bristol, Wathen Hall at St Paul’s School, and the Oundle International and Cambridge Summer Music Festivals.
Summer 2011 sees the release of a debut disc on the Decca Classics label.
