Alice Ivy Pemberton on the 'rocking, barnstorming music' of Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Florence Lockheart
Monday, January 20, 2025

The London Philharmonic Orchestra leader talks to Florence Lockheart about the links between Vivaldi and American Bluegrass, as well as reflecting on her first two years with the orchestra

Alice Ivy Pemberton: 'Once I started playing with the orchestra on trial, that was the dangerous moment when I realized how much I wanted the job' © Jason Bell
Alice Ivy Pemberton: 'Once I started playing with the orchestra on trial, that was the dangerous moment when I realized how much I wanted the job' © Jason Bell

You joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) as co-leader in February 2023. As you approach your second anniversary with the orchestra, what have been some of the highlights of your first two years with the LPO?

It's been such a whirlwind that it's honestly hard to believe that it's been two years, but I've played so much music that it definitely makes sense. Highlights that stick out to me immediately are our Mahler Three programme with Mark Elder in Autumn 2023, which I led. It was my first time playing Mahler Three, my first time leading, and it was kind of a last-minute thing as Elder had to step in the day before. It was the concert of a lifetime. Also, in my first year with the orchestra, I led The Rake's Progress at Glyndebourne, so I got to lead one of my favourite operas with these iconic David Hockney sets. That introduced me to the LPO’s life at Glyndebourne, which is such a rich part of being in this orchestra; for a third of the year we're playing opera, day in and day out. I didn’t know what a rare balance that was before I auditioned, and now I feel so lucky to know that every summer I'm going to be doing opera. Another massive highlight was last April, when we did Götterdämmerung for one night only at the Royal Festival Hall with conductor emeritus Vladimir Jurowski. It took months of preparation – our part was over 90 pages, and definitely the hardest piece I've ever played. It was the longest journey and so rewarding.

 

"The orchestra is so friendly and the job so exciting that I just dove in headfirst and didn't look back"

 

My affection for the orchestra has just grown and grown. I moved to London to do my trial with the LPO and then joined the orchestra so it's very much my family, my home base in London. When I first joined the orchestra, I almost thought I was being pranked by how nice everyone is. We all work so hard together, playing sometimes three programs a week, touring like crazy, so the bonding experience runs really deep. I've just loved getting to lead, as well as sitting next to Pieter Schoeman, who has been led the orchestra for 20 years and is showing me the ropes. Because of the pace of repertoire in London – which is two or three programs a week, versus in America where it's one program a week – I've just been flowing through music at an amazing speed.

American advocate: Pemberton brings a programme of Bluegrass and American chamber repertoire to the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer after her performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons© Jason Bell

You completed your masters at the Juilliard School in May 2022 and joined LPO in February 2023 – how did you manage the transition from study to full-time work?

First of all, ignorance is bliss – I didn't know what I was getting into! I came for the trial in the fall of 2022, fresh out of school and really wanting to put my musical energy somewhere. I was doing chamber music gigs and recitals in New York but I began to be drawn to the element of community in an orchestra and the idea of having so many performance opportunities. I think that focus on what the job offered me really spurred me on. Once I started playing with the orchestra on trial, that was the dangerous moment when I realized how much I wanted the job.

Once you identify a job or a path that might make you happy the main thing is to allow a period of time where you say, ‘Okay, this is a really intense part of my life, but it won't be like this forever,’ the same way people go through law school or medical school. I've really been practicing more than ever, but because I'm excited about this work, it's been easier. The orchestra is so friendly and the job so exciting that I just dove in headfirst and didn't look back.

Your sold-out concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 22 January brings together Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with Julia Perry’s Requiem for Orchestra and Evan Williams Dead White Man Music (Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Ensemble). What new elements do you hope to bring to the familiar Four Seasons?

Whenever you're playing an audience favourite, you know that people will have such strong memories and associations with it. I like to embrace that element of familiarity and how joyful that is, but I'm also hoping to bring an element of surprise. I tried to approach the piece as if I hadn't heard it much before, and it is incredible. It is such old music but it is so, so vivid. Each season comes with a little description written by Vivaldi, painting these vivid pictures. Bringing to life those old stories that sound just as contemporary in 2025 is so rewarding.

In classical music, there are always some audience members who know every note and treat it like there's a rigid structure to it. But I think in this piece it's all about colour and joy and fun. It is so much more about musical wonder and colour than playing so I think that takes some pressure off.

The evening event will be followed by a late-night performance After Dark: Bluegrass With Alice Ivy-Pemberton which aims to ‘showcase the versatility of the violin and the art of the fiddle’. What can audiences expect from this event?

It was a wild idea. When I first started playing violin at five or six, I was playing bluegrass – just little fiddle tunes. It was really simple stuff (I am by no means a bluegrass expert) but throughout my life I've played these little fiddle tunes off and on, and they have been part of my musical roots. We decided to build a program around the idea of a fiddling and American music itself because not everyone in the UK knows what bluegrass is. This programme aims to go back and forth between contemporary American Chamber repertoire – with works by Caroline Shaw, Jesse Montgomery, John Adams and Mark O'Connor, a wonderful bluegrass violinist – and traditional bluegrass tunes, showing people all the ways the violin can swoop in and out of classical context.

"I'm hoping to bring an element of surprise to The Four Seasons"

The After Dark performance is exactly what you would want after the full meal of the Vivaldi; it's like a little dessert. I'm hoping people will enjoy the relaxed environment, and it's a great opportunity for me to play old favourites.

How do you feel the bluegrass tradition has influenced your growth as an artist?

I only played it at the very beginning, and then sort of rebelled and went to classical music within a few years, but for me, violin was fundamentally a joyful band instrument before I discovered things like intonation. I am looking forward to bringing that element of playfulness and rusticity to the Vivaldi. People joke that it’s the original rock and roll, and there's a reason it's used in commercials and TV and film, it's just such rocking, barnstorming music. Playing bluegrass at an early age made me love those groovy rustic styles.

What’s next for you in 2025?

It's almost all orchestra based, at the moment, I've delighted in just having my schedule be taken over. When I take time off, it's literally to learn the next bit of repertoire. Highlights coming up that I'll be leading are a Frank Zappa concert with the LPO at Queen Elizabeth Hall that will be really cool, and a performance of Daphnis and Chloé which we’re playing with circus performers from Circa. I'm really excited for that.

I'm doing the Romsey Chamber Music Festival at the end of May, that's a week of great chamber music, with a chance to play with other wonderful musicians that I know from America. I’m performing a Scheherazade in Brighton on 1 February, then a big highlight for me in the summer will be leading the Glyndebourne production of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová.