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Helping earthquake survivors:

Sapporo Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall

 

23 May 2011, 7.30pm
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London

 

 

It is certainly not every day that a Japanese symphony orchestra makes a visit to London. Anniversaries are always a good reason to celebrate and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra was all set to do just that this May with a European tour to mark its 50th birthday. However, when tragedy struck Japan on March 11, the tone changed somewhat and the Orchestra and everybody associated with the tour unhesitatingly assigned a concert - at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 23 May - to be a fundraising event. The entire proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund, both of which are distributing vital aid to help people in the affected areas.

Image: © Masahide Sato

The Orchestra's longtime Principal Conductor Tadaaki Otaka will conduct a wonderful programme - Takemitsu's How Slow the Wind, Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor and Shostakovich's Symphony No 5 in D minor. The violin soloist is Japanese superstar Akiko Suwanai, the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Prize. She will be playing her world famous Stradivarius violin (the Dolphin) that belonged previously to the legendary Jascha Heifetz.

 

Akiko Suwanai. Image © Leslie Kee

It's set to be a great, albeit poignant, occasion. Maestro Tadaaki Otaka is well known to UK audiences for his acclaimed work with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, where he is now Conductor Laureate, as well as with many others, including the Liverpool Philharmonic, London Symphony, City of Birmingham and London Philharmonic orchestras. He has also been honoured with an Elgar Medal and a CBE from the Queen in recognition of his services to British music. Of the earthquake and tsunami, he says: "It was an unforeseen and terrible disaster, from which all Japanese people are working extremely hard to recover. We, the musicians, wish to turn our London appearance into a charity concert in aid of the vital relief efforts in our country. Please join us and help Japan."

 
The orchestra is supported in this fundraising initiative by the Embassy of Japan in London, Askonas Holt Ltd and Southbank. Tickets cost from £10 to £35 (box office T.0844 875 0073 or online at http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/classical/tickets/sapporo-symphony-orchestra-51948

Debra Boraston

PR Consultant

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 
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