St. Peter´s Chamber Orchestra

Since its foundation in 2014, the St. Peter’s Chamber Orchestra has developed a reputation for upholding the highest standards of Oxford orchestral music. Its members include performers from across the University, from first-years to graduate students to tutors, all in a wide variety of subjects. The orchestra’s conductor and founder, John Warner, graduated from St. Peter’s College in 2016 with First Class honours in Music, and is currently studying for an MSt. In 2015 he was the winner of the University’s prestigious conducting competition. SPCO performs ambitious and exciting programmes twice a term in venues such as St. Peter’s College Chapel, The Holywell Music Room, and the Sheldonian Theatre, and regularly attracts sell-out audiences. They have been described in the press as ‘wonderfully expressive’, with a ‘gripping level of intensity’ and ‘luscious tone quality’ (Oxford Culture Review, 2016).

In July 2017, SPCO is taking Mahler back to the alps. They will be performing the Ninth Symphony at the three composing huts where Mahler spent his summers: in Toblach (Italy), where the symphony was composed, and at the other two huts on the Wörthersee and the Attersee (Austria). The project is totally unique: no orchestra has ever performed any Mahler symphony at the Steinbach or Maria Wörth huts, let alone all three in one tour. Our concerts have been organised in cooperation with the International Gustav Mahler Society in Vienna, as well as a number of other notable festivals and societies. SPCO also benefits from the incredibly generous guidance and advice of Professor Peter Franklin, one of the world’s leading Mahler scholars.

As an orchestra, SPCO has a particularly strong affinity with Mahler and his music. They have already performed the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, and will be performing the Sixth in February 2017 in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. To play the Ninth in the gorgeous landscape of huge mountains and glittering lakes that were so special to Mahler will make this a truly extraordinary tour.