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Conducted by Aurora’s co-founder and Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon, the Printworks
event will see the orchestra perform in configurations not usually seen in traditional
concerts – whether ‘exploded’ across the vast floor of the former Press Halls, moving in
procession, performing in darkness, or mixing up the usual grouping of players into
instrumental sections. Audience members will be able to get close-up to individual players
as they perform Beethoven’s seventh symphony from memory, without the usual physical
barriers of music stands between performers and listeners. Aurora also performs the same
symphony at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 4
November alongside Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with soloist Nicola Benedetti.

As Resident Orchestra of London’s Kings Place, Aurora presents three concerts at the venue
this autumn. On 25 September the orchestra welcomes countertenor Iestyn Davies and
Ondes Martenot player Cynthia Miller for a programme which sparks a dialogue across
four centuries of music and ideas as part of Kings Place’s London Unwrapped series. On 27
November, Mercury Award-nominated and Ivors Academy Award-winning composer,
arranger and saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi joins the orchestra with members of her SEED
Ensemble to perform the premiere of her new work celebrating the Caribbean and West
African folklore of her heritage. Bringing 2021 to a glittering close, Aurora hosts a New Year’s
Eve concert marking the culmination of an ambitious six-year journey through all of
Mozart’s piano concertos – the first such complete cycle ever presented within the span of
a single series in the UK. For this final concert in the series Aurora is joined by Spanish
virtuoso Javier Perianes to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major
alongside Handel’s Water Music, conducted by Nicholas Collon in the beautifully intimate
surroundings of Hall One at Kings Place.

Aurora has appeared at the BBC Proms every year since 2010, including presenting
pioneering memorised performances of symphonies by Mozart, Shostakovich, Berlioz and
Beethoven. Tomorrow (Wednesday 11 August) the orchestra returns to the Royal Albert
Hall with Nicholas Collon to give a performance by heart of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite(1945
version) prefaced by a musically-illustrated introduction co-hosted by Collon and BBC Radio
3’s Tom Service. The concert will also feature Rachmaninov’s virtuosic Rhapsody on a Theme
of Paganini, with former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Pavel Kolesnikov as
soloist. The live performances at the Royal Albert Hall will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC
TV and iPlayer.

Aurora’s autumn performances mark a return to symphonic-scale live performance for the
ensemble and build on the work the orchestra has done throughout the pandemic to
continuing connecting with audiences, including through its digital activity which has seen
the orchestra reach over a million viewers through its online series Aurora Play.

John Harte, Chief Executive of Aurora Orchestra, said: “One of the most exciting aspects of
performing from memory is the way it heightens our sense of communication, not just between
players and conductor but also between performers and audience. The awe-inspiring Press Halls
at Printworks will give us a very special opportunity to take that sense of communion with an
audience even further, bringing listeners right inside the orchestra and offering a chance to
experience a symphony from within.”