Conductor remains at helm of SSO

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will announce tomorrow that its chief conductor, Donald Runnicles, is to extend his contract until 2015, The Scotsman has learned.

The announcement comes during a week in which Edinburgh-born Dr Runnicles conducts two major programmes to mark the opening of the orchestra’s 2011-12 season – the long-awaited Scottish premiere of James MacMillan’s St John Passion in Glasgow on Thursday, and a programme of Beethoven, Strauss and Elgar in Aberdeen on Friday and Edinburgh on Sunday.

Dr Runnicles, 57, a former musical director of the San Francisco Opera, has worked regularly with the BBC SSO since 2001. But his appointment as chief conductor in 2009 was greeted as a major coup for the BBC in Scotland

Ken McQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, said: “The BBC SSO is one of our most valuable cultural assets, and I can think of no finer international ambassador than Donald Runnicles to stand at the helm.”