Christian Lindberg returns to RNS with a concert of Sibelius

Marking 15 years since Royal Northern Sinfonia persuaded him to become a conductor, Christian Lindberg returns to RNS with a concert of Sibelius, and his own suite for trombone, orchestra…and iPad. The star trombonist and conductor joins Royal Northern Sinfonia on Thursday 22 October as part of the season’s journey through the music of Scandinavia, ‘Musical North’ The concert will include Sibelius’s multi-faceted Third Symphony, and Lindberg’s own Kundraan Long perhaps the world’s best-known trombone soloist, Christian Lindberg is one of the many ‘musician-conductors’ that Royal Northern Sinfonia has worked with from the early stages of their transition to the conducting profession. In fact, as he notes on his website, it was the players of Royal Northern Sinfonia who, taking their cue from his “body language”, first suggested that he try conducting and consequently RNS was the first orchestra he ever conducted. It was the launch of a successful conducting career. “I said I would give it three years of study and then accept the invitation from them,” recalls Lindberg of that first conducting invitation, “In October 2000 I was standing there in front of them shivering, with terrible conducting technique, but The Guardian gave me a stunning 4 star review after the concert, so I continued…Today I am more than grateful to this orchestra for having seen my potential, and it is with great pleasure that I come back to them to celebrate 15 years of conducting.” Taking part in the “Musical North” season journey, Lindberg will conduct Sibelius’s Third Symphony, his own suite for orchestra, solo trombone, speaker and iPad called Kundraan – a story involving Lucifer and poisoned whisky - as well as Weber’s Oberon Overture and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder (with mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill). Lindberg has the music of Scandinavia running through his veins. Sibelius is a particular favourite, and the third symphony is a work he holds particularly dear:- “When I was very young Sibelius’s third was my favourite among his symphonies. The opening cello theme was so haunting. I used to put that vinyl record on all the time. It’s no surprise it became the first symphony I conducted by Sibelius back in 2001, after my conducting debut with Royal Northern Sinfonia. Even though the other symphonies, particularly 1, 2 and 5 have grown on me over the years, I still love number three, also called his British Symphony.  Even though it is short and only has three movements it contains the whole spectrum of Sibelius compositional skills. It really is a masterpiece that I will conduct over and over again, whenever I get a chance!” This season, Sage Gateshead audiences will be able to enjoy all of Sibelius’s symphonies, in a cycle that includes artists such as Mark Elder and the Hallé, Vassily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as well as, of course, RNS Music Director Lars Vogt. Christian Lindberg’s is the first concert in that series. For all press enquiries, please contact Harriet Mayhew on 0191 443 4568 ([email protected]).