philharmonie 2018/19 season in images
I cannot emphasize enough how lucky and grateful I am to be able to work for the Philharmonie of Luxembourg as a photographer. Every year I get to see some of the best artists in the world while exercising my job, which I also truly love.
Luxembourg might not be that big but I do believe the cultural offer of this city is on par with any other major European capital. The Philharmonie has established itself as one of the major concert halls in Europe and its season program is proof that any renown artist has to include it on their concerts tours.
The other thing that I am extremely grateful for is the highly prepared, motivated, friendly and down to earth staff of the Philharmonie. From the director to the maintenance staff, all the teams involved in the running of this concert hall make an incredible ensemble, quite like an orchestra performing beautiful music.
I have had some great moments during this past season that ended last weekend with the open air concert at the Kinnekswiss park and the End of Season Party (EOSP) at the Philharmonie. Starting from the most recent ones this weekend, I just thought Welsh baryton-basse Sir Bryn Terfel was genius when he improvised during a piece by bringing some beers on stage and giving them to soprano Lauren Fagan and conductor Gustavo Gimeno .
After the superb open air concert I headed for the Philharmonie building where the EOSP 2018/19 was taking place until 5am. The Philharmonie apparently sold over 2000 tickets and by the looks of the grand foyer I thought there could be even more people. Some of the best DJs were providing great beats for everybody to get into some sort of trance. I had to wear earplugs because the volume was just out of the ordinary. I really enjoyed that too and it was a stark contrast to the open air concert and my last job for the season.
From this season I also have some other great memories. I have photographed concerts ranging from classical to jazz, to contemporary music, to folk & world music, and have followed the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL) several times on their performances around Europe. One particular concert on tour that I remember well was the one at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Not only I truly enjoyed following the OPL but I also got to be the first photographer to be allowed to work in the hall during the concert thanks to my mirrorless Sony cameras. You can read about this experience in another blog post of mine called “Breaking the sound barrier”
You will also see in my selection some images of the Philharmonie building itself, which I think it is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. You can read an article published on the Luxembourg Times about the building and my work as a photographer published by journalist Sarita Rao.
Everybody working for the Philharmonie deserves a good Summer break to come back full of energy for the opening of the next season in September. I will disconnect until then and will hopefully be able to enjoy a family Summer vacation in beautiful Ireland where I could not stop taking pictures. My other big passion, apart from my work at the Philharmonie, is landscape photography and Ireland is just one of the most photogenic countries in the world.
I leave you now with a “small” selection of the images I have made during this season and I wish you all a great Summer and hope you can also disconnect and charge your batteries during the holidays. I also thank you all for your time and support.
Take good care and enjoy!!
