The Hallé, Britain's longest established professional symphony orchestra, was founded in Manchester by the pianist and conductor Charles Hallé, and gave its first concert in Manchester's Free Trade Hall in 1858. Following Hallé's death in 1895, the Orchestra developed its artistic life under the guidance of such distinguished figures as Hans Richter, Sir Hamilton Harty and Sir John Barbirolli.
The Hallé remains one of Britain's best-regarded ensembles and has, since 1996, performed in its new Manchester home here at The Bridgewater Hall, where it presents around eighty concerts a year, as well as over fifty more around the country and across the world. The Hallé's former Music Director, Kent Nagano, led the orchestra is a series of award-winning recordings, including Britten's Billy Budd, Mahler's Das klagende Lied and Messiaen's spectacular Saint François d'Assise, which triumphed at the Salzburg Festival.
The 2000/2001 season is the first under the new Musical Directorship of the acclaimed international conductor, Mark Elder CBE. Mark will conduct concerts across nearly all of the Hallé's concert series within the season, including a special Family Concert and two gala performances in 2001 to mark the Centenary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi. The new Millennium was heralded by the Orchestras, under Mark Elder, with a universally acclaimed performance of Sir Michael Tippett's The Mask of Time.
The Hallé is equally distinguished as a champion of living composers and their work. Recent world premières include Pluto, Colin Mathews' enthusiastically received addition to Holsts' The Planets, Edward Gregson's Violin Concerto and Jean-Pascal Beintus' Couleurs Cuivres, Concerto for Brass Quintet.
Last season over quarter of a million people heard the Hallé around the country. More than twenty thousand of these (mostly young people) came to them through the Hallé education programme. The programme generates over forty projects a year and exists to create a wider enjoyment and understanding of music throughout the whole community, especially those who do not traditionally come to the concert hall.
For more information or to join the Hallé Concerts Society, please call Membership on 0161 907 9090