The COE in Dubai
28 October - 4 November 2017

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe travels to the Middle East for the first time in its 36 year history, making its debut at the glittering Dubai Opera on 2 and 3 November. As part of a desire to connect with the local community, the Orchestra will spend some days in Dubai rehearsing for their concerts as well as creating some powerful and memorable experiences for local music students who will attend two open rehearsals.

The Orchestra will perform two concerts with Robin Ticciati and Christian Tetzlaff, giving local and international audiences a COE-style introduction to two of the most significant composers of the classical era; Mozart and Beethoven. An all-Mozart programme on Thursday 2nd, features universally loved works including the Overture to The Magic Flute, Violin Concerto No.3 and Symphony No.40 followed by an all-Beethoven programme on Friday 3rd featuring Coriolan Overture, Violin Concerto and Symphony No.5.

This is the second time that the Orchestra has worked with Robin Ticciati; the first was at the Cologne Philharmonie in December 2015 with acclaimed violinist Alina Ibragimova. Christian Tetzlaff has been one of the COE’s collaborators since 1999 and the Orchestra last performed with him in 2014, as part of a Carte-Blanche concert organised by Renaud Capuçon at his Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival.

The players are looking forward to visiting the UAE and to performing at the Dubai Opera for the first time since this magnificent dhow-shaped building, within which the concert hall seats up to 2,000 people, opened in 2016 and there are already plans afoot to return next year. Dubai Opera is a state-of-the-art venue designed for the 21st century and is able to host everything from concerts, ballets, operas and plays to banquets, fashion shows and exhibitions.

Robin Ticciati has been Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since the 2009/10 season and the Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera since Summer 2014. From the 2017-18 season he will assume the Music Directorship of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for an initial five-year term.

Guest conducting projects over the next two seasons include return engagements with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Staatskapelle Dresden, DSO-Berlin, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Wiener Symphoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He will embark on an extensive European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Anne-Sophie Mutter to cities including Vienna (Musikverein), Berlin (Philharmonie), Munich (Gasteig) and Paris (Theatre des Champs Elysees).

For his first two seasons as Glyndebourne Music Director, Robin Ticciati conducted new productions of Rosenkavalier and Finta Giardiniera, Entführung and a revival of a Ravel double-bill with L’Heure Espagnole and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. His third season will see him conduct a new production of La Clemenza di Tito. Aside from Glyndebourne, recent opera projects include new productions of Peter Grimes at la Scala Milan, Nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival, Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, and a Metropolitan Opera debut with Hänsel und Gretel. He will return to the Met in Spring 2017 with a production of Onegin.

Robin Ticciati is in his 8th season as Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His season 2016/17 with the SCO will seek to grow their focus on living composers both from Britain and further afield, as well as the music of Mozart, Strauss and Bruckner. This season will see them touring to Europe and Asia and appearing at the Edinburgh International Festival. Their latest recording for Linn Records, which features Haydn symphonies, was released in September 2015 to rave reviews, with particular praise for its energy and the originality of its programming. The other three albums they have recorded for Linn – two Berlioz discs (Symphonie Fantastique; Les Nuits d’Été and La Mort de Cléopâtre) and a double album featuring Schumann’s four symphonies – have attracted unanimous critical acclaim.

Robin Ticciati’s discography also includes Berlioz Roméo et Juliette and L’Enfance du Christ with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Linn), Dvorak’s Symphony No.9, Bruckner’s Mass No.3 and a Brahms disc with the Bamberger Symphoniker and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Tudor), as well as a number of opera releases on Opus Arte and on Glyndebourne’s own label.

Born in London, Robin Ticciati is a violinist, pianist and percussionist by training. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain when he turned to conducting, aged 15, under the guidance of Sir Colin Davis and Sir Simon Rattle. He was recently appointed ‘Sir Colin Davis Fellow of Conducting’ by the Royal Academy of Music.

Equally at home in classical, romantic and contemporary repertoire, Christian Tetzlaff sets the standard with his interpretations of Violin Concertos from Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Berg and Ligeti, and is renowned for his innovative chamber music projects and performances of Bach’s solo repertoire.

Highlights of the 2017/18 season include performing alongside Sir Simon Rattle in the London Symphony Orchestra’s season opening concert, touring with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski to the George Enescu Festival, Bucharest and Musikfest Bremen, and a return to Wigmore Hall as Artist-in-Residence. The season-long residency includes a duo recital with Lars Vogt, performances with the Tetzlaff Quartett and clarinettist Jörg Widmann.

He also appears with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and Montreal, NHK, Finnish Radio symphony and Israel Philharmonic orchestras. His regular collaboration with conductor Robin Ticciati takes them to Dubai with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Frankfurt, Hamburg and Essen with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, as well as a return to Edinburgh with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

His recordings have received numerous prizes and awards, including the Diapason d’Or, Edison, Midem Classical and ECHO Klassik awards (including 2017’s Instrumentalist of the Year, Violin for Brahms: The Violin Sonatas on the Ondine label), as well as several Grammy nominations.

Born in Hamburg in 1966, Christian Tetzlaff has been Artist-in-Residence with Berliner Philharmoniker, with Sir Simon Rattle, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and hr-Sinfonieorchester. He plays a violin by German maker Peter Greiner.

Developed by Emaar Properties to host a variety of performances and events including theatre, opera, ballet, concerts, conferences and exhibitions, Dubai Opera is located in the Opera District in Downtown Dubai. Its plans were announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in March 2012 and it was completed in 2016. It opened on 31 August 2016 with a performance by Plácido Domingo.

The performing arts centre can be converted into a traditional theatre, concert hall, banquet hall or exhibition space. Using hydraulic lifts and seating wagons to relocate 900 of the 2,000 seats, the space can be used for other events while the extra seating is stored in garages beneath the theatre. Dubai Opera is designed to resemble a dhow, a traditional sailing vessel, in which the ‘bow’ of the structure houses the opera’s main stage, orchestra and seating, while the elongated ‘hull’ has waiting areas, taxi drop-off areas, and parking.

The Opera District was launched by Emaar Properties in Downtown Dubai in 2013. Aside from Dubai Opera, the district, which faces Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Fountain, includes art galleries, museums, design studios, and other cultural venues. The area includes several hotels, a retail plaza, recreational spaces and residential towers.