Migros-Culture-Percentage-Classics 180°

2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the Aurora Orchestra. Founded by Nicholas Collon, Robin Ticciati and members of the National Youth Orchestra, it is committed to nothing less than a new approach to classical music: by playing standing up and without sheet music, through unconventional projects and innovative concert formats. Awards such as the Echo Klassik and several music awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society prove that this concept works. The London orchestra has also initiated a number of educational programs: It organizes workshops as well as storytelling concerts and works with school classes. It has also been a regular guest at the Proms, in 2014 with the spectacular premiere of Benedict Mason’s "Meld" and in recent years with works by Beethoven and Stravinsky.

Even in his early 40s, Nicholas Collon can still be counted among the young guns of the classical music business. Twenty years ago, as a violist with the National Youth Orchestra, he founded his own ensemble, the Aurora Orchestra, together with Robin Ticciati and a few other musicians − and quickly took it to the top of the European scene. The charismatic Brit soon attracted attention in other countries too: in 2018, the Dutch Residentie Orchestra appointed him as its chief conductor, and in 2021 he took on the same role with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Collon has also conducted in Berlin, Cologne, Munich and Bamberg. His studio recordings have won numerous awards, including the Diapason d’Or for works by Thomas Adès and the Echo Klassik with the Aurora Orchestra.

Victory at Japan’s most important piano competition, semi-final at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, plus performances with leading symphony orchestras worldwide: up to this point, Hayato Sumino’s artist biography reads like that of many other pianists from the Far East. But the 30-year-old from Tokyo has much more to offer: He studied engineering, composes and improvises, plays jazz and pop, tries out different keyboard instruments and is an internet phenomenon − his YouTube channel has over a million followers. It seems only logical that he was recently awarded the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival for this openness. Sumino, for whom "making music is as natural as breathing", has been a member of the exquisite ranks of Steinway Artists since 2022.

The American composer John Adams wrote "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" in 1986 on behalf of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the opening of the Great Woods Summer Festival in Mansfield. It is a fanfare which, in keeping with its title, focuses entirely on the discharge of energy. Three beats on the wooden block mark the "beat" to which everything is subordinated; there are no conventional motifs or even themes, just rhythmic impulses, signals, phrases and a few mischievous "stumbles". Only towards the end do the trumpets and trombones begin to play in the style of a fanfare.

What exactly makes the "Rhapsody in Blue" one of the milestones in music history? Its famous opening with the clarinet solo, its urban nonchalance or the successful fusion of classical music and jazz? Well, probably all of the above. In any case, George Gershwin made it onto the cover of "Time Magazine" thanks to "Rhapsody" – despite the fact that he was literally forced to compose the piece. It was only when the conductor Paul Whiteman publicly announced Gershwin’s participation in a concert with works from classical and popular music that he sat down at his desk – and the rest is history.

Nicholas Collon and Tom Service explain Stravinsky’s «Rite of Spring» (approx. 25’)

This work made musical history: with his "Sacre du Printemps", Igor Stravinsky opened the door to modernity wide open. After the magical "Firebird" and the playful "Petrushka", his third Paris ballet in collaboration with the legendary Sergei Diaghilev was a challenge for the audience – both visually and acoustically. At the premiere, the depiction of pagan rituals in combination with Stravinsky’s novel orchestral treatment, which was strongly influenced by rhythm, caused a scandal. Today, the work is regarded as a modern classic that influenced music-making well into the 20th century.