International Concert Series 2023/24

Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony may be the greatest graduation project of all time. Composed at the age of 18, Shostakovich’s First Symphony was written to fulfill the graduation requirements of the Leningrad Conservatory, and would take the international music world by storm the following year. California-born conductor Rebecca Miller takes the helm for a musical journey from Shostakovich's exuberant First Symphony to the intensity of Verdi's Overture from La forza del destino. 

Event programme (to include):

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Overture from La forza del destino
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No 1 in F minor, Op 10

Led by internationally-acclaimed conductor Rebecca Miller, the Royal Holloway Symphony Orchestra meets weekly, giving three concerts per year in the Windsor Auditorium. The orchestra endeavours to create a lively, challenging, and social basis for orchestral life at Royal Holloway and comprises students from across the university. They also participate in side-by-side programmes with professional musicians, and through our unique partnership with the Chiltern Music Academy. For 2020-21, orchestras at Royal Holloway launched a new social action project called Re-Orchestrating Society, where members of orchestras at Royal Holloway work together in small teams to develop a project based around orchestras that aims to benefit society.

California-born conductor Rebecca Miller has earned an international reputation for her compelling, insightful, and energetic presence on the podium and for her ability to communicate with audiences of all ages. Most recently she has guest-conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Mozart Players, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra (at the BBC Proms), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Västerås Sinfonietta and Dalarnsinfoniettan in Sweden, and Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Finland. Read more.

Ticket prices are £12.50, £10 (concession; over 60s), £5 for Royal Holloway alumni and non-Royal Holloway students; FREE for Royal Holloway students, Royal Holloway staff and children under the age of 16. Season tickets apply to this event.