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The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Glasgow and Edinburgh seasons launch at the end of this month in heroic fashion with concert performances of the first act from Wagner's Die Walküre (The Valkyrie). Featuring some of the most electrifying and passionate music from the monumental Ring Cycle, the performances will be conducted by Donald Runnicles, the orchestra's chief conductor and a world-renowned Wagnerian.

Joining him for these performances is a world-class cast. Heidi Melton (soprano) and Stuart Skelton (tenor) take on the roles of the lovers Sieglinde and Siegmund and Reinhard Hagen (bass) will sing Hunding.

Almost a complete drama in itself, this stunning showpiece moves from its stormy opening passages through moments of confrontation, fear and loneliness to culminate in an outpouring of extreme erotic passion.

Having conducted several complete Ring Cycles in Berlin and San Francisco, these concerts will be a further demonstration of Runnicles's mastery in Wagner and the unique chemistry between him and the virtuosic ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

Both concerts also feature Vilde Frang as soloist in Sibelius's tempestuous and much-loved Violin Concerto. Vilde Frang is EMI Classics' Young Artist of the Year 2010 and her award-winning debut recording, featuring violin concertos by Sibelius and Prokofiev, was greeted with acclaim by critics throughout the world. Ms Frang replaces the previously advertised soloist Janine Jansen.

The Glasgow performances will be preceded at 6.45pm with a pre-show talk when James Naughtie will interview Donald Runnicles. Naughtie is a presenter of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4's Today programme and a passionate opera lover, so this free event should provide great insight into Runnicles's approach to a stunning evening of music making.

This concert is the first in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO's Romantics Unbound series which also features Runnicles conducting Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (7 October in Glasgow and 8 October in Aberdeen) and the orchestra's new Associate Guest Conductor, Andrew Manze, in Brahms's Fourth Symphony.

Notes to Editors

Thursday 30 September, 7.30pm
Sibelius – Violin Concerto
Wagner – Act 1: Die Walküre
(concert performance, sung in German)
City Halls, Glasgow

Tickets: 0141 353 8000

Sunday 3 October, 7.30pm
Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Tickets: 0131 228 1155

Biographies

Vilde Frang

Born in Norway in 1986, Vilde Frang gave her orchestral debut at the age of ten with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and two years later Mariss Jansons engaged her to debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. She has since performed as soloist with orchestras in Scandinavia, the UK, Germany, Switzerland and the Baltic countries and has appeared in international festivals such as Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg Vorpommern. She has also taken part in many chamber music festivals including Dubrovnik with Julian Rachlin, and with Gidon Kremer and Yuri Bashmet at the ‘Chamber Music Connects the World' festival.

During the 2010/11 season she makes her debuts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and the Seoul Philharmonic, in addition to many return appearances and recitals.

Vilde Frang has already been awarded several prizes, including the Danish Léonie Sonning Music Fund, the Grand Prize of the Vera and Oscar Ritter Foundation Hamburg and in 2007 she was named a Fellowship Member of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. In 2009 she was awarded the Norwegian Soloist Prize and was a scholarship holder in the prestigious Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

In January this year her debut recording was released on EMI Classics, featuring the Sibelius and Prokofiev concertos with conductor Thomas Søndergård and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. The recording was greeted with acclaim by critics throughout the world and, in March, it was named Best Classical Release in the Norwegian Grammys. Her next recording for EMI is due for release in spring 2011.

Heidi Melton

Heidi Melton's 2010/2011 season includes her role debut as Elsa in Lohengrin with Kent Nagano at Tokyo Opera, and Nomori and Sieglinde in a concert version of Act 1 of Die Walküre with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She will return to both Opéra National de Bordeaux in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos and the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Gertrude in Hänsel und Gretel.

She will sing her first complete Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Third Norn in Götterdämmerung in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen with San Francisco Opera, directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by Donald Runnicles. For the same company she will cover the title role in Aida. Future engagements include returns to the Metropolitan Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as an ensemble member at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

During the 2009/10 season Heidi Melton returned to San Francisco Opera for her final year in the company's Adler Program. She also made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Second Maid in Elektra under Fabio Luisi and in October made her ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO debut with performances of Berg's Seven Early Songs, conducted by Donald Runnicles (in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh). In the spring, she made her debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Marianne Leitmetzerin in Der Rosenkavalier, Helmwige in Die Walküre, and Third Norn in Götterdämmerung.

Other notable past engagements include her debut with the Milwaukee Symphony in a New Year's Eve Gala performance of Beethoven's Symphony No.9 and performances of Mahler's Symphony No.4 with California's North State Symphony Orchestra. In recital, she has made her Schwabacher Debut Recital through San Francisco Opera and a recital for the Jussi Björling Society in Voxna, Sweden. Additionally, she performed Verdi's Requiem at the farewell concert given for Donald Runnicles as Music Director of San Francisco Opera.

Stuart Skelton

Stuart Skelton has emerged as one of the finest heroic tenors of his generation with performances on leading concert and operatic stages spanning from his native Australia to Asia, Europe, and North America. His repertoire encompasses many of opera's most challenging roles from Wagner's Parsifal, Lohengrin, Erik and Siegmund, to Strauss's Kaiser, Beethoven's Florestan, Saint-Saëns' Samson, Dvořák's Dimitrij, and Britten's Peter Grimes. He is acclaimed for his beautiful voice, musicianship, and his intensely dramatic portrayals.

The title role of Parsifal figures prominently in Stuart Skelton's 2010-11 diary with a new production at the Opernhaus Zürich directed by Claus Guth and conducted by Daniele Gatti, and performances at English National Opera conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. He makes his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Drum Major in Berg's Wozzeck conducted by James Levine, also covering the role of Siegmund in the company's new production of Die Walküre directed by Robert Lepage, and he will appear at Santa Fe Opera for the first time also in Wozzeck, in a revival of the Daniel Slater production conducted by David Robertson. He will take the role of Sam in Susannah by Carlisle Floyd for Opera de Bilbao and will cover the title role of Lohengrin at Los Angeles Opera conducted by James Conlon.

Stuart Skelton made his ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO debut at the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival in a concert performance of Weber's Euryanthe, conducted by David Robertson. The following year he appeared with the orchestra for a performance of Rachmaninov's choral symphony The Bells.

Reinhard Hagen

Reinhard Hagen is a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He studied singing at the college of Music in Karlsruhe with Professor Erika Margraf and Professor Aldo Baldin and also took private lessons from Harald Stamm. He works regularly at international festivals, concert halls and with opera companies throughout Europe, America and Japan. Recent engagements include the Glyndebourne Festival production of Beethoven's Fidelio under Sir Simon Rattle, with subsequent performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, König Heinrich in a production of Lohengrin at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, and Sarastro in a new production of Die Zauberflöte, a role which he also sang for Bastille Opéra.

He took the role of Sarastro again in his successful Los Angeles Opera debut, being immediately re-engaged. He made his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden during the 2003/2004 season in the role of Commendatore in a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, conducted by Sir Colin Davis.

Also in demand on the concert stage, Reinhard Hagen has worked with numerous orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacional de Espana, Boston Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, both in Leipzig and Monte Carlo, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He has appeared in Jerusalem with Lorin Maazel, and in televised concerts including Beethoven's Symphony No.9 with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester/Herbert Blomstedt.

In November 2005 he took part in a performance of Verdi's Requiem with the Dresdner Philharmonie/Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos which marked the re-opening of Dresden's rebuilt Frauenkirche. Since his successful debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under James Levine in 1998 he has appeared as a regular guest soloist, including several concert performances of Act I of Die Walküre.

Rheinhard Hagen makes his ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO debut with these performances.

Donald Runnicles

Edinburgh-born Donald Runnicles is Chief Conductor of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra, having taken up the post in September last year. The appointment is his first chief artistic post of a symphony orchestra. He also holds concurrent positions as General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, Wyoming, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

He first worked with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO in 2001 for a performance of Berlioz's The Trojans at the Edinburgh International Festival, and has since appeared with the orchestra virtually every summer at either the Edinburgh International Festival or the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms.

He began his conducting career in Mannheim, and was an assistant in Bayreuth during the 1980s before making his American debut in 1988, conducting Berg's Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. From 1989 to 1993 he was General Music Director of the City of Freiburg. In 1990, following two Ring cycles for San Francisco Opera, he was invited to become its Music Director, a post he held for 17 seasons, during which time he led more than 65 other operas, amongst them the 2005 world premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic, and the American premiere of Messiaen's St. Francis of Assisi.

He has frequently conducted at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals, and on many of the world's leading opera stages including the Metropolitan, Vienna, La Scala Milan, Paris, Glyndebourne, and Munich. In concert he appears regularly with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia, and London Symphony orchestras.

Donald Runnicles was awarded the OBE in 2004 and holds an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh.

SD3