Friday 3 December 2021 11.00 GMT
Sir Simon Rattle has tested positive for COVID-19 and unfortunately is unable to fulfil his engagements with the LSO this month.
He is currently isolating at home, with mild symptoms. We send him our very best wishes for a speedy recovery.
We are pleased to announce that Kirill Karabits [pictured] has agreed to step in as conductor for Barbican concerts on 8, 9,15,16 December and a concert at La Philharmonie de Paris on 13 December. The programmes for all concerts remain as announced.
BARBICAN HALL Concerts
Wed 8 Dec 2021 6.30pm – 7.30pm Marquee TV from 6 Jan 2022
Mahler Symphony No 4
Kirill Karabits conductor
Thu 9 Dec 2021 7.00pm – 9.15pm Marquee TV from 20 Jan 2022
Rózsa Violin Concerto
-Interval-
Bartók Concerto for Orchestra
Kirill Karabits conductor
Roman Simovic violin
Wed 15 Dec 6.30pm
Bartók Concerto for Orchestra
Kirill Karabits conductor
Thu 16 Dec 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Debussy Fanfare from Music to King Lear
Debussy Le sommeil de Lear
Berlioz Overture: King Lear
–Interval-
Mahler Symphony No 4
Kirill Karabits conductor
Lucy Crowe soprano
Biography Kirill Karabits
Kirill Karabits has been Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for 13 years and their relationship has been celebrated worldwide. Together they have made many critically acclaimed recordings, performed regularly at the BBC Proms and appeared together at London’s Barbican Centre as part of the Beethoven celebrations in the 19-20 season.
Karabits has worked with many of the leading ensembles of Europe, Asia and North America, including the Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago Symphony orchestras, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Philharmonia Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro La Fenice and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – including a concertante version of Bluebeard’s Castle at the Barbican Centre. Kirill enjoys a special relationship with the Russian National Orchestra with whom he returned to the Edinburgh Festival in the 2018-19 season, and more recently embarked on extensive European and North American tours with Mikhail Pletnev which included his New York debut at the Lincoln Center.
Recent highlights include Kirill’s debut with the Dallas Symphony, and the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, as well as return visits to the Minnesota Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre National Captiole de Toulouse, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, as well as the BBC Proms with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2021-22 season include Kirill’s debut with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as a number of US debuts which include the Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and St Louis Symphony Orchestras. This season sees Kirill return to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and the Opéra Montpellier for a production of Pélléas. Kirill will also return to the Russian National Orchestra for their tour of the US.
A prolific opera conductor, Karabits has worked with the Deutsche Oper, Opernhaus Zürich (Boris Godunov) and Oper Stuttgart (Death in Venice), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (La bohème and Eugene Onegin), Staatsoper Hamburg (Madama Butterfly), English National Opera (Don Giovanni), Bolshoi Theatre and he conducted a performance of Der fliegende Holländer at the Wagner Geneva Festival in celebration of the composer’s anniversary. Music Director of the Deutsches Nationaltheatre Weimar from 2016-19, Karabits conducted acclaimed productions of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Tannhäuser as well as Mozart’s DaPonte Cycle (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte).
Working with the next generation of bright musicians is of great importance to Karabits and as Artistic Director of I, CULTURE Orchestra he conducted them on their European tour in August 2015 with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist and a summer festivals tour in 2018, including concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Montpellier Festival. In 2012 and 2014 he conducted the televised finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award (working with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), and has recently debuted with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain on a UK tour including a sold out and critically acclaimed performance at the Barbican.
Kirill was named Conductor of the Year at the 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.