Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season FINAL_BSO_Overture_May_June | Page 10

LONDON
CALLING
THE BSO MAKES ITS DEBUT AT THE PROMS
DURING SUMMER 2018 TOUR
BY DEVON MALONEY
Royal Albert Hall
A
n invitation to perform at The Proms is one of
the most prestigious honors a classical musician
can receive. The annual eight-week festival
in London is a summer-long celebration of
classical music performance that culminates
in the remarkable final concert, known as the
“Last Night of the Proms,” which Marin Alsop famously became
the first female conductor to lead in 2013.
This August, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has its
moment in the spotlight, making its debut at The Proms during
a nine-day, four-concert international tour. Beginning with
two performances at the renowned Edinburgh International
Festival in Scotland, the BSO next travels to London for The
Proms and then closes the tour in a third city on August 29.
The final stop of the tour had not yet been announced at the
time that this issue of Overture went to press.
This marks the BSO’s first international tour in 13 years and
the first-ever international tour under the leadership of Alsop.
The Orchestra last performed abroad in October 2005 during a
European tour to Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Austria under Music
Director Emeritus Yuri Temirkanov. Alsop led the BSO on a
west-coast tour of California and Oregon in 2012. The Orchestra
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performed previously in the U.K. in 2001 with concerts in
Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London.
Appearing as the only professional American orchestra at
the 2018 Edinburgh Festival, the BSO performs twice in two
consecutive nights. “This is an extraordinary moment in the
history of our great orchestra,” says BSO President and CEO Peter
Kjome. “Performing at the Edinburgh International Festival is a
significant achievement, and we are eager to represent Baltimore,
the State of Maryland and, as the only professional American
orchestra, the United States on the global stage.”
“I’m thrilled that we’ve received this prestigious invitation
to perform at the Edinburgh Festival,” adds Alsop. “The time
I’ve spent leading orchestras in the United Kingdom is very
meaningful to me, and I look forward to bringing the musicians
of the Baltimore Symphony to Edinburgh for the first time.”
Marin Alsop