Blog #11
Spring has brought with it warmer weather and in the UK we have enjoyed the easing of lockdown restrictions. I hope you are keeping well and enjoying the warmer weather. I have finally been able to head over the border to see my family in North Wales. :)
Music
For those of you that follow NEW Sinfonia on social media or read the local press, you will have seen we have been back making music. Read more here!
Our partnership and residency with the North Wales International Music Festival (NWIMF) goes from strength to strength and we recorded a special 50th anniversary string orchestra concert from St Asaph Cathedral earlier this month, which will go live here on Saturday 8th May at 7.30. World renowned choir Tenebrae will perform on Friday 7th and we are proud to feature alongside them. In September our festival concert was watched worldwide with an audience of over a 1000, so please spread the word and help us take NEW Sinfonia and the North Wales International Music Festival to an expanding international audience.
NWIMF celebrate their 50th year and to mark this impressive milestone they commissioned my bro Jon Guy to write a piece for the event called “Shining Dawn”. “The piece takes inspiration from the natural world that surrounds St Asaph where the festival takes place each year. In particular the beautiful North Wales coastline which can be viewed from numerous lofty hilltops and mountains. I imagined the first rays of sunlight touching and shimmering on the waves in the sea. This visual idea straight away sparked off a few musical ideas as to how I could musically represent this shimmering quality.”
The concert also features a piece which you may not be familiar with. I have fallen in love with this piece called “Lyric” by George Walker. He was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. The full programme can be viewed here: there really is something for everyone.
The reality for many of our professional freelance musicians is that they have fallen through the cracks in the Government financial support systems, but these signs of life give us all hope that we are heading in the right direction. At NEW Sinfonia we are ready to embrace that future.
WNO Community Chorus North is back!
The project will comprise of sectional rehearsals led by Jenny Pearson and yours truly, and we will also joined by opera professionals who will share their experiences and insights. You can sign up here! Rehearsals will be on Monday evenings throughout May and June.
Can you help?
What music you want to hear when orchestras are back performing live? Where do you want us to play? Who do you want us to collaborate with going forward? What are your musical dreams?
Manchester farewell
For now, I wish you all the best and congrats to my students Dexter Drown, Zoë Kundu, Maria Kolpaktchi and Matti Borchardt-Hume who had their final assessment this week. Fingers crossed for you guys!
Rob
xxx
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