Concert with the RSPO Orchestra Academy

Since 2016, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO) offers one year of training on site at Konserthuset Stockholm. The RSPO Orchestra Academy aims to give participating musicians heightened knowledge and understanding of the profession. The young musicians receive individual tuition on their instrument by tutors that are predominantly leaders and principals of the orchestra. In addition, extensive chamber music playing is a vital part of the course. In this grand final concert, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the ensemble in two of the pieces, making it an extra special occasion!

Caroline Shaw is an American violinist, singer, and composer. Her Entr'acte for string quartet was inspired by Haydn's String Quartet Opus 77 No. 2. (A version for string orchestra of the same work can be heard with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on the 17th and 18th of April.)

John Adams is undoubtedly the leading American composer of today. He was the subject of Konserthuset’s International Composer Festival in 2005. Adams also looked back into music history in this piece, which is inspired by Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony – and also by the kind of hyperactive and acrobatic music one can hear in cartoons of the 1950s.

Among the 20th-century American composers, Aaron Copland is the grand old man. His Appalachian Spring is ballet music, composed in the 1940s during his most productive years. The ballet depicts a pioneer environment in the mountains, and the music draws from Native American folk tunes, dance melodies, and hymns.