Manchester Collective - Places We Know

Manchester Collective join the RNCM's 50th anniversary celebrations as one of the new Artists-in-Residence. From side-by-side initiatives and fantastic performances, they’ll work closely with the students, giving them unprecedented insight into one of the UK’s most innovative chamber orchestras.

Due to illness, Pekka Kuusisto is withdrawing from his engagements until the end of 2022 however, the Collective’s Music Director, Rakhi Singh, steps in to lead the programme.

It takes real courage to break out of the box.

Rakhi Singh leads the full Manchester Collective string ensemble into an adventurous programme of the familiar and unfamiliar. At the heart of it is a new commission by Oliver Leith – the voice of a new generation of British composers. “Deadpan, subversive and quietly anarchic” (BBC Radio 3), Oliver’s music seamlessly crosses the boundary between contemporary classical and electronic worlds.

Elsewhere, we’re transported to the flower gardens, little stone paths and imposing beech trees at the beautiful Dumbarton Oaks estate in the USA with Caroline Shaw’s ‘Plan & Elevation’. Dmitri Shostakovich’s tour-de-force ‘Chamber Symphony’ stands in stark contrast – a gut-wrenching musical rollercoaster that packs a devastating emotional punch for seasoned concert-goers and first time audiences alike. The show opens with a tender piece about loss by Missy Mazzoli, a firebrand Brooklyn composer described by NPR as “the 21st century’s gatecrasher of new classical music”.

To hear a string orchestra going full pelt is a full-body experience.

Oliver Leith’s new work has been commissioned by Manchester Collective and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and is funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants.

Missy Mazzoli You know me from here
Oliver Leith will o wisp – World Première
Caroline Shaw Plan & Elevation
Dmitri Shostakovich Chamber Symphony (Barshai arr. of the 8th quartet)

Rakhi Singh music director