Press release 23.4.2008

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on classicLive

ClassicLive, an international network of symphony orchestras, will introduce the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with its chief conductor Alan Gilbert in May. A concert presenting music by Strauss, Wagner and Scriabin will be available on demand on this unique portal streaming live and on-demand concerts worldwide.

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1902. Over the past decades its conductors have included Antal Dorati, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, and since 2000 Alan Gilbert who also serves as the Artistic Advisor of the orchestra. During his tenure the orchestra has received international acclaim by touring and performing on the world’s greatest classical music arenas in New York, Tokyo and London.

One of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s main goals is to promote contemporary music. It houses two annual festivals focusing on living composers in its home at Stockholm Concert Hall. The orchestra performs regularly in annual Nobel- and Polar-Price festivities. Alan Gilbert’s appointment ends at the end of this season and Finnish Sakari Oramo starts as the Chief Conductor of the orchestra.

Internet concerts are a natural continuum in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra’s innovative programming. It was the first European orchestra to perform much appreciated Play! A Video Game Symphony in 2006. Executive and Artistic Director Stefan Forsberg is excited about the cooperation with classicLive. “Providing concerts on the web corresponds completely with our ambition of being an orchestra in touch with the future. We are thrilled at the possibility to make the music of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic accessible to as many people as possible worldwide.”

A classicLive-concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be available on demand from May 3, 2008. It is conducted by Alan Gilbert and the program includes works by Strauss, Wagner and Scriabin.

ClassicLive – a shared stage of the symphony orchestras

ClassicLive aims to create a network of approximately 15 orchestras in the near future and offer around 200 concerts annually. The rapid repertoire turnover thus maintains interest in the portal among classicLive subscribers. Access to the portal concerts at www.classiclive.com can be purchased online by credit card. All new users are offered one free week of watching time.

Other members of this orchestra-driven network are the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (Finland), Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir , Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Netherlands), Brussels Philharmonic and Flemish Radio Choir (Belgium). The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has signed a Letter of Intent with classicLive, and the portal has ongoing negotiations with several orchestras.