Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (Sheffield International Concert Season 2024-25)

In their first visit to the UK and Sheffield, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance will open with a short work by Filipino composer Jeffrey Ching, the orchestra’s composer-in-residence, who studied philosophy and music in Cambridge and London. Jeffrey Ching is writing a specially commissioned piece for the UK tour, which he describes as ‘a dialogue across cultures which is also a playful commentary on the rituals of the concert hall’. Particularly well known for his interpretation of Tchaikovsky, conductor Grzegorz Nowak leads the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in this dramatic programme which includes suites from Bizet’s passionate opera Carmen and Tchaikovsky’s masterful ballet Swan Lake.

After the interval, Wen-Sinn Yang brings his expression, mastery and technical skill to Tchaikovsky’s elegant Rococo Variations. Bringing the programme to a close is one of the most popular and frequently-sampled pieces of music, Beethoven’s thundering Fifth Symphony.