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 ‘tour’
READING POST ARTICLE: Proms bring a summer of music to Reading
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
OXFORD TIMES: Preview of Oxford Philomusica at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
On Friday, March 11, the Oxford Philomusica goes east. Not quite as far as Singapore or Tokyo, but to Aylesbury, where the orchestra will give its first concert in the town’s new Waterside Theatre.
“We’re extremely excited to be appointed Orchestra in Association at the Waterside, so we’re the resident orchestra,” the Philomusica’s founder and music director Marios Papadopoulos told me. “Our involvement extends beyond the concert platform; we’re planning some exciting educational activity — next week’s concert will be preceded by a workshop.”
Although this is the Philomusica’s first concert at the Waterside, it’s not their first visit, Papadopoulos explained. (more…)
Orchestra in Association at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
As part of the planned expansion of our concert series, Oxford Phil needs new, large venues to play in. With this in mind, we are very pleased to have been invited to become the first ‘Orchestra in Association’ at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre which seats over 1200. Our debut orchestral concert will be on 11 March 2011, and will be preceded by a schools workshop at the theatre in the afternoon. You may remember that in August 2010 we were invited to carry out two days of acoustic testing by the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre. The building had not yet been fully commissioned so hard hats and safety waistcoats were worn!
As part of our connection with the community in Aylesbury, we are forging strong links with Aylesbury Academy, a former ‘failing school’, where we plan a week-long music-based project in July for student groups which, unusually, will contain a mixture of ages and abilities. This is part of their annual ‘enrichment week’ of non-timetabled activities: the theme is ‘Life in Quarrendon medieval village’ which is sited next to the school’s proposed new building. We are also planning to put on a schools concert (Instruments of the Orchestra, for year 7s) and to play for a major choral concert involving the two major Aylesbury amateur choirs, both events at the theatre, and under the umbrella of the newly-formed Aylesbury Festival in July 2011.
Oxford Philomusica’s debut concert at the Aylesbury takes place on Friday 11 March 2011 at 7.30pm. We will present two late 19th century masterpieces: Brahms’ virtuosic Violin Concerto with its dancing ‘gypsy’ finale, performed by Jennifer Pike, 2002 BBC Young Musician of Year; and Edward Elgar’s ever-popular Enigma Variations. Click here to book.
