Mica Levi, Beethoven & The Planets

For 60 years the Purcell School for Young Musicians has educated many of classical music’s finest future artists. Alumni include Robert Cohen, Nicholas Daniel, Jacob Collier, Alexandra Ridout and Mica Levi, whose work on the original soundtrack for the film Under the Skin opens this concert. Today the Purcell School is home to around 200 teenage musicians from London, the UK and all over the world. It enjoys an outstanding reputation artistically, creatively and educationally. This is the school’s first appearance at the Southbank Centre since March 2020. Just before lockdown, students presented no fewer than four concerts in a day to celebrate the life of Oliver Knussen, another former student. Tonight, its rising young stars also collaborate in Beethoven's beautiful, profound and evergreen 4th Piano Concerto. Otis Enokido-Lineham is an Assistant Conductor at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He recently graduated from Sian Edwards’ class as a prize-winning student at the Royal Academy of Music. Pianist Magdalene Ho is a very recent Purcell graduate who, while still at school, won 1st prize in the Balys Dvarionas Competition, performing Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra.