Scala Radio Presents: Classics at Christmas 2023 with Holiday Inn Express - Relive our festive afternoon

It's official, the Christmas celebrations have begun! What better way for us to to kick off the festivities than with a live show at the London Palladium for an afternoon of Christmas classics and Classical favourites accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

Listen back to highlights from the show here:

Scroll down to check out photos from the show and to find out how to listen to the performance on Scala Radio.

In Pictures: Scala Radio Presents: Classics at Christmas 2023

When was Scala Radio Presents: Classics at Christmas with Holiday Inn Express?

Scala Radio Presents: Classics at Christmas took place at the London Palladium on Sunday 26th November 2023.

How can I hear Scala Radio Presents: Classics at Christmas with Holiday Inn Express?

You can hear highlights from Scala Radio Presents: Classics at Christmas at the London Palladium on Sunday 3rd of December at 6pm as well as on Christmas Eve.

Who performed at the Scala Radio Christmas Live 2023?

Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra

The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra (RPCO) is a dynamic and versatile ensemble that performs a wide range of styles and genres of music in shows across the UK and around the world. The Orchestra’s repertoire includes film music, video game scores, music from the musicals, and symphonic arrangements of classic rock and pop songs, as well as new commissions and the traditional core classical repertoire, reaching an audience of over 170,000 live listeners per year. The Orchestra’s creative partnerships with artists, promoters and producers have resulted in ambitious performances in venues from vast arenas and main concert venues around the UK to smaller and more intimate settings. The RPCO aims to reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible and is unafraid to explore new orchestral experiences.

Alfie Boe

Alfie's career took off back in 2002 when he was cast in the acclaimed Broadway revival of ‘La Bohème’. His powerhouse performance brought him a Tony award and marked his arrival on the international scene. Having conquered the world’s most prestigious opera stages, Alfie led the cast of Les Misérables in the role of Jean Valjean in the West End and played the lead role in Finding Neverland on Broadway. In 2012, Alfie stole the show at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace with a medley of hits from his illustrious career.

Having performed at Scala Radio's Christmas event last year, Alfie is looking forward to taking to the stage again at this year's Scala Radio Presents Classics as Christmas, where he'll be performing solo as well as hosting at the London Palladium on November 26th:

“After the fun that Michael and I had performing at last year’s event, I jumped at the chance to join the lovely Penny for this year’s Classics at Christmas. And to be able to perform on the Palladium stage with the Royal Philharmonic is the best cherry on my Christmas cake!”

Russell Watson

Russell Watson is the UK's most prolific classical recording artist ever! His first two recordings, The Voice and Encore are the top two album sellers of the century, with ‘The Voice’ making him the first and only classical vocalist from these shores to reach one million sales in the UK. He has reached number-one status all over the globe and holds platinum album status, from here to Australia. He was the first uk artiste to score a transatlantic number one in the USA and the UK and spent a record-breaking 52 weeks at number one in the process.

His performances at some of the world's biggest sporting events has gained him great acclaim. Everything from a performance with legendary soprano Montserrat Caballé at the Champions League final, the 1999 rugby union World Cup, the Euro’s in 2002, the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and the opening ceremony of the World Games. That same year he sang in front of the capitol building in Washington DC for a live audience of four hundred and fifty thousand people. In 2012 he performed three concerts at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Coronation Gala Festival. Since 2001 he has sold more than seven million albums worldwide achieved eight top-ten album placements and received four classical Brit Awards. He has occupied the UK top twenty on seventeen separate occasions. He has duetted with some of the world's biggest stars, Paul McCartney, Luciano Pavarotti, Lionel Richie, Meatloaf and Natalie Cole for his PBS debut special in the States.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a multi-talented singer, songwriter, pianist and cellist. She has a phenomenal mastery for seamlessly crossing the boundaries of classical, jazz, reggae, soul and R&B, to imprint her unique musical signature with her virtuosic tap, strum and bow with her cello into her sound and vibe.

An acclaimed and celebrated performer, Ayanna has collaborated with many stellar artists, including Anoushka Shankar, Nitin Sawhney, Andrea Bocelli and Jools Holland. She has also toured extensively across the UK, Europe and the US.

Lisa Friend

Lisa Friend (British Flautist) has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, City of Prague Philharmonic, Virtuosi Pragenses Chamber Orchestra and the CRR Genç Oda Orkestrası.

She has toured as a soloist throughout Europe, the USA and Asia. Lisa has also been broadcast on radio stations around the world including Scala Radio, Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 2, BBC London, RTE Lyric FM, WQXR-New York, with the Brodsky Quartet live in the Classic FM Studios and on BBC One TV 'The Andrew Marr Show'.

Solo recital highlights include solo performances for Steven Spielberg, the Royal Family, LG Arts Centre-Seoul, Cadogan Hall and Wigmore Hall.

Her many recordings as a solo/chamber artist include Voyage (Chandos), Essence-Lisa Friend and Rohan De Silva (Chandos), Mozart Quartets-Lisa Friend & the Brodsky Quartet (Chandos), Cinema Affair (Silva Screen), Luminance (Champs Hill Records) and Deep in My Soul (Signum Records). All have been widely praised in the press including the BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone and the Mail on Sunday and many of her albums have been chosen as Scala Radio's Album of the Week.

David Arnold

David Arnold is a British composer, music producer and orchestral conductor with wide-ranging experience in many areas of the music industry. He started his music career as a leading player in one of the world's top orchestras and has since built an international reputation for his versatility and all-round musical ability. He now concentrates on conducting, composing, arranging and producing, as well as acting as a music consultant for concerts and recording.

As a conductor, David has worked with a diverse range of artists in both classical and pop music – from Rod Stewart, Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Randy Newman and Donny Osmond to Andrea Bocelli, Julian Lloyd Webber, and Nicola Benedetti. He has conducted leading orchestras around the world, including the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE National Symphony, BBC Concert and London Concert orchestras, as well as the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera North.

He has conducted concerts in many countries, including Japan, Sweden, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic. His orchestral recordings include Symphonic Rock, Pop Goes The Beatles, Christmas Classics, Showcase: The Musicals, Addicted To Movies and three volumes of the RPO's Here Come The Classics series. He is associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and was music director for the Cathcart Proms at the Royal Albert Hall for many years. He has been Musical Director for the BBC's Children In Need telethon since 1994.

Having written and arranged for radio and television for many years, David has built up a huge music library of arrangements, from classic greats and opera to musical and film scores. His hundreds of television credits include BBC One branding, Blue Peter, Guinness World Records, Sky News, Sky Sports, Live and Kicking and Tomorrow's World, On radio, he has produced station themes for BBC World Service, LBC, as well as Scala Radio, Classic FM and countless other stations.

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