Iain Sutherland

Who is Iain Sutherland?

Iain Sutherland is a Scottish violinist and orchestra conductor. Around 1965 he succeeded Jack Leon in leading what then became the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra in Glasgow. At the time Sutherland was a young violinist with a passion for light music, who played in orchestra directed by such conductors as Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent, Charles Groves and Georg Solti. He changed the repertoire, introducing light classical music and film music, and brought changes to the name of the orchestra, which became the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra in January 1967. The orchestra was playing in the Tuesday mornings BBC radio programs and occasionally accompanied singers on television. Sutherland was its conductor until a major restructuring was initiated by BBC in 1972 to reduce its coverage of light music. The orchestra was officially closed in 1981.

Between 1973 and 1987 Sutherland was regularly invited by BBC Radio 2 in central London as guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra for the "Friday Night Is Music Night" programme. In the 1980s he was also the principal conductor of other BBC radio orchestra and worked with other orchestra across Europe. These include the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, National Symphony, Slovak Philharmonic, Graz Symphony, BRTN Philharmonic, NDR Philharmonic, Dessau Philharmonic, Brazilian National Symphony, Flemish Radio Philharmonic, Maribor Philharmonic and the Orchestras of BR, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, SWF, NRK and NOS.