From landmark concerts and global tours to bold collaborations and life-changing community work, 2025 was a year that showcased the full range of what the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra does best: thrilling concerts, creative innovation and emotional performances.
January
We opened the year in style at the Royal Festival Hall with the first concert in Music Director Vasily Petrenko’s Lights in the Dark series. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 set the tone with music that challenged conventions and captured moments of cultural change.
© Frances Marshall
January also saw the launch of The Colours of Music, a bespoke Snapchat filter developed in collaboration with Snapchat. Inspired by chromesthesia, the filter transforms live sound into vivid, moving visuals – bringing orchestral music to life in a completely new way.
Our commitment to access and inclusion was further strengthened with the announcement of Vi-Brent, a new partnership of nine organisations (including the RPO) supported by Arts Council England’s National Lottery Place Partnership funding to expand arts opportunities across Brent.
We rounded off the month at Brent Civic Centre with a Relaxed Performance, welcoming audiences of all ages and backgrounds, and collaborated with Sujata Banerjee Dance Company on The Goddess of Swan Lake, a retelling of the beloved ballet.
© Tim Lutton/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
February
February took us on a winter tour through Austria and Germany with Vasily Petrenko and violinist Julia Fischer. From Vienna to Munich and Frankfurt, the Orchestra performed in some of Europe’s most beautiful halls, sharing music with enthusiastic audiences across ten cities.
© Jonathan Ayling
March
In March, Lights in the Dark continued with a standout appearance from star pianist Bruce Liu, winner of the XVIII International Chopin Competition. Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra brought together works by Korngold, Bartók and Rachmaninoff – three composers whose lives and music were shaped by displacement and renewal.
© Frances Marshall
The month also marked the powerful conclusion of our Lullaby Project in Earley. Parents navigating challenging circumstances worked alongside RPO musicians to create personal lullabies for children in their lives. The project culminated in a moving performance with RPO musicians, shared with an audience of more than 900 people.
April
April saw the RPO take part in Southbank Centre’s Multitudes Festival with a striking performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.7, paired with a bold three-channel video installation by filmmaker Ilya Shagalov and art director Kirill Serebrennikov.
© Mark Allan
We also brought the house down at the Royal Albert Hall with Symphonic Soul, as vocalists Trevor Dion Nicholas and Gloria Onitiri delivered Motown classics to a dancing, joyful crowd.
© Danny Kaan
May
May brought two unforgettable Lights in the Dark concerts. Global sensation Yunchan Lim dazzled audiences with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 before the Orchestra tackled the epic sweep of Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony. Later in the month, Maxim Vengerov delivered a masterful Sibelius Violin Concerto alongside Stravinsky’s The Firebird.
© Andy Paradise
© Andy Paradise
June
In June, video game worlds filled the Royal Albert Hall as Eímear Noone conducted Worlds of Fantasy: Video Games in Concert. From The Last of Us to League of Legends, this genre-spanning celebration showed the Orchestra at its most playful and versatile.
July
Summer saw the RPO back on the road. A European tour took us to Germany, Austria and France, with open-air performances at Ludwigsburg Residenzschloss and Linz Domplatz, alongside concerts in Bad Kissingen, Evian and Ingolstadt.
© Ruby Collins
We then headed to Asia for the Studio Ghibli Film Concert tour with RPO Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi. Performances in Japan and Korea – including three concerts at the Tokyo Dome – brought together the RPO, The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus for unforgettable evenings of film music.
© Sarah Bardwell
August
August marked another milestone as Joe Hisaishi made his BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall. Conducting works by Steve Reich alongside music from The Boy and the Heron and The End of the World, he was joined by counter-tenor John Holiday, the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Chorus and National Youth Voices.
© Chris Christodoulou
Our community work continued with three days of RPO Resound STROKESTRA® workshops at UCLH’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, using creative music-making to support people affected by stroke.
© Jasmine Waterfield
September
Ahead of our 2025–26 season launch, we announced three major artistic appointments: Sir John Rutter as Artist Laureate, Emilia Hoving as Associate Conductor, and Kevin John Edusei as Conductor-in-Residence at Cadogan Hall.
At the BBC Proms, Vasily Petrenko conducted Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Milhaud’s La beouf sur le toit with violinist Arabella Steinbacher, and Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No.2 (A London Symphony).
© Chris Christodoulou
Later in the month, Symphonic Queen electrified the Royal Albert Hall – and the Orchestra celebrated a historic moment when Matt B presented the RPO with its first GRAMMY Award for our work on his album ALKEBULAN II.
© Frances Marshall
October
October marked a significant new chapter as the RPO moved its headquarters to Wembley Park, embedding the Orchestra at the heart of a vibrant and diverse community in Brent.
On stage, we launched the Vasily Petrenko x Royal Philharmonic Orchestra series for 2025–26 with Puccini, Bernstein and Mahler’s First Symphony.
© Andy Paradise
Our RPO Resound team also brought music to life at Thorpe Park for ACS International Schools’ STEAM Day, with interactive performances, jam sessions and hands-on instrument experiences.
© Jasmine Waterfield
November
November opened with a sold-out birthday celebration for Sir John Rutter at St Paul’s Cathedral, featuring The Bach Choir, soloists Melanie Marshall and Jonathan Brown, and the world premiere of Rutter’s I’ll Make Me A World.
© Duncan Wood
We also reached new audiences with a concert at the beautiful, art deco Kilburn Gaumont State Cinema as part of the Kilburn Music Mile Festival and a festive performance at BOXPARK Wembley.
© Jasmine Waterfield
© Grant Walker
The month closed with the release of our first harmonia mundi album: Rachmaninoff’s The Bells and Elgar’s Falstaff, conducted by Vasily Petrenko. The recording reached No.5 in the Classical Charts, was BBC Radio 3’s Record of the Week and named Gramophone Editor’s Choice for December.
December
December was filled with festive music, from two sold-out performances of John Rutter’s Christmas Celebration with The Bach Choir and The King Singer’s, to joyful Christmas Cracker concerts at Cadogan Hall with Juliette Crosbie and Matt Ford.
© Gurnoor Singh
© Danny Kaan
We also took part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, raising more than £42,000 for RPO Resound. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we’re ready to share the life-enhancing power of music with even more people in 2026.
Thank you for joining us on our journey in 2025. We hope you have a happy New Year and we’ll see you again in 2026.