Concert orchestras to barbershop singers are all tuning up as Reading prepares to stage its biggest festival of classical music ever this summer.
The first Reading Summer Proms launches on Friday, June 3, and promises to rouse the town with a huge spectacle of concerts, recitals and performances across the town
The month-long musical extravaganza will begin with a performance by Oxford Philomusica with solo clarinettist Emma Johnson in a celebration of the genius of Mozart at Reading Concert Hall.
The concert hall will also play host to Reading Symphony Orchestra and Reading Festival Chorus who will be joined by Johanneskantrel from Reading’s twin town of Düsseldorf the following evening.
The opening weekend will also see an organ recital by Andrew Condliffe-Jones from St Paul’s Church in Withington, Manchester, who has been a musical director for a number of hit shows.
“The Proms are going to be a magnificent and momentous occasion for Reading and everyone is looking forward to it,” says Reading Arts festival co-ordinator Bobby Lonergan.
“It has been a real achievement and it’s great that more than 50 groups are coming together to perform 40 events and concerts from choral to orchestral and everything in between.
“We have a number of groups that regularly come to the Concert Hall and there was a real realisation of the amount of local people this involves. We thought this would be great for the community.
“They agreed very enthusiastically and we extended the invite to other groups in the town.
“We still haven’t managed to reach them all, but are extremely excited by the programme.” (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Mozart’
READING POST ARTICLE: Proms bring a summer of music to Reading
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Young Artists Platform: 28 November, 6.30pm
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
There is a Young Artists Platform before Classical Romanticism on Sunday 28 November 2010. Marios Papadopoulos will give a ’Directing from the Keyboard’ masterclass from 6.30-7.30pm.
It is unusual that a student (albeit with one foot already on the international performing stage) plays with and conducts a professional orchestra. As part of our Young Artists’ Platform, Alissa Firsova – you may have encountered her as a composer whose work was recently premiered at the Proms – will work with Marios Papadopoulos and Oxford Philomusica on Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A, K. 488 in a public ‘Directing from the Keyboard’ masterclass. It should be a fascinating insight on how professional musicians interact and respond to leadership and what tools a leader needs to have and use to coax the best out of the orchestra.
The class begins at 6.30pm in the Sheldonian Theatre and admission is free.
TRAIN TRACKS: A Glimpse of Eternity
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
I dug out my copy of Mozart’s Requiem to listen to this week, a piece I became obsessed with when I was sixteen (having watched Amadeus for the first time, don’t tell anyone!).
A lot of people are interested in all of the myths surrounding its composition: dying genius, conspiracy theories, and so on. But for me, one of the most interesting things to think about is the actual meaning of this “Mass for the Dead”.
This idea comes from the original religious sense of the Requiem. But since we now usually hear Mozart’s masterpiece in secular settings, it also has meaning beyond its liturgical place.
Next Season: Treats in Store
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
At this time of the year, we are also busy in planning the season ahead. I am delighted that we will be welcoming a number of celebrities to appear with us over the next two years: our Patron Vladimir Ashkenazy has accepted our invitation to come to Oxford again and so has Andras Schiff, who will be presenting Haydn Masses in December 2011.
Next season I intend to extend the YAP scheme to also present a series of masterclasses, particular one or two on Directing from the Keyboard: a young student will play and conduct the OP in a Mozart Piano Concerto.
