“The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2021 season with a program of 75 concerts led by Chief Conductor Designate Simone Young, who takes up her Chief Conductor role in 2022, and Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles,” writes Jo Litson in Thursday’s (10/15) Limelight Magazine (Australia). “With COVID-19 restricting international travel, there is a new focus on Australian artists…. The program also includes 15 world premieres of short works by Australian composers as part of the SSO’s 50 Fanfares project. There are four female conductors—Young, American Karina Canellakis, New Zealand-born Gemma New, and Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevka.… The 2021 SSO season is smaller than usual, with concerts taking place at Sydney Town Hall while the refurbishment of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall … continues throughout 2021…. ‘We would normally do 120 concerts,’ says CEO Emma Dunch. ‘Next year there are only 75 and the COVID restrictions allow us to [sell] about 50 percent of the [seats] in the Town Hall at the moment.’ … Repertoire in 2021 ranges from Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann and Brahms to … Lisa Illean and Jonny Greenwood. The program includes two Australian premieres—Jaakko Kuusisto’s Violin Concerto … and Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight.”
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