Welcome to our October Concert

Weston Youth Orchestra would like to welcome you to our October Concert which includes a wide variety of music, performances from both our Junior and Senior Orchestras, and a solo item. We hope that you enjoy your time with us this evening!

The Orchestra is very grateful for the support received from our audiences as well as from family and friends of Orchestra members. We are pleased to be able to offer young musicians the opportunity to experience orchestral playing, including concert performances, as well as the chance to socialise with other young musicians and to experience a broad repertoire of music.

The orchestra continues to invest in new items to add to our extensive library of music and some of our most recent purchases feature as part of tonight’s programme.

We continue to welcome new members each year to both our Junior and Senior Orchestras, so if you are inspired by what you hear this evening, or know of a young musician who might be interested to join us, please get in touch! More information about the orchestra, including its history, past programmes and how to join can be found at our website: www.westonyouthorchestra.org.uk.

Forthcoming Concerts

Saturday 16 December7.30pm

Junior & Senior Orchestra Christmas ConcertSt. Paul's Church

Walliscote Road, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1EF

Sunday 18 March4.00pm

Junior Orchestra ConcertBoulevard United Reformed Church

Waterloo Street, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1LF

Sunday 22 April5.00pm

Junior & Senior Orchestra ConcertSidcot School Meeting House

Oakridge Lane, Sidcot, BS25 1LT

Available in the Foyer

50th Anniversary Concert CD - £10(recorded at Weston Playhouse, 2009)

Music from Stage & Screen CD - £10(recorded at Weston Playhouse, 2013)

Weston Youth Orchestra Stickers – 50p

Raffle Tickets - £1

All funds raised contribute to the running costs of the orchestra

About Our OrchestraWeston Youth Orchestra was established in 1958 to provide an environment for young musicians to improve their performance skills through playing in an orchestra.

Many former members have gone on to forge careers within the world of music, including conducting and performing with the world’s top orchestras, arranging and composing music as well as playing for West End shows. In 2010 Nigel Hess, a former orchestra member and prominent composer of television and film scores, became the orchestra’s president.

We are a self-funding voluntary organisation whose income is generated solely from public performances and annual membership fees.

On average we perform four full concerts each year. Repertoire for these is primarily sourced from our own library; this includes works ranging from standard Classical repertoire through to music from Stage & Screen.

Our Soloist – Martha McLorinanMartha trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has received prizes at the Thelma King Award and ROSL. 2016 saw her perform as a soloist at York Early Music Festival (lute songs with Jacob Heringman), the Barbican festival (Copland's In The Beginning, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore) and Aldeburgh Festival (Bach's Magnificat, Les Siecles and London Voices/Francois Xavier Roth).

Operatic roles include The Notary's Wife and Anna (cover) in Strauss's Intermezzo and Lotinka in Dvorak's The Jacobin (Buxton Festival Opera), Mrs. Noye in Britten's Noye'sFludde (community opera in Somerset), Second Witch in

Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Trevor Pinnock at the Wigmore Hall) and La Messaggeraand Proserpina in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (I Fagiolini at Cheltenham and SwidnicaFestivals).

Solo oratorio highlights include both of Bach's passions (Birmingham Symphony Hall, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore), Handel's Messiah (Birmingham Symphony Hall, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Halsey and Cadogan Hall, English Chamber Orchestra/Nigel Short), Bach's Magnificat (St.John's Cathedral, Malta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/James Burton), Vivaldi's Gloria (St. Stephen's Walbrook, The Gabrieli Players/Paul McCreesh),Haydn’s Harmoniemesse (Holland, The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and The Sixteen/Harry Christophers) and Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes (Kings Place, The Sixteen/Harry Christophers). She has also toured How Like An Angel and Betrayal: A Polyphonic Crime Drama with I Fagiolini.

Solo recordings include Garcia's Missa Pastoril (Brazilian Adventures, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore), Gorczycki's Conductus Funebris and Litiania de Providentia Divina (Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki, The Sixteen/Eamonn Dougan) and Judith Bingham's The Drowned Lovers (Tenebrae/Nigel Short).

Programme Notes – Second Half Senior Orchestra

Carmen Suite – Georges BizetA failure at its premiere, Bizet's Carmen began to find its enormous success only a few months later-and a few months after its composer's death. The opera's acclaim is mirrored by the popularity of the first orchestral suite drawn from it-like a second suite-by Ernest Guiraud, who also provided sung recitatives for the opera after Bizet's death. Our Senior Orchestra will now perform an arrangement of Bizet's 'Carmen Suite' for us.

Selections from Beauty and the Beast – Alan MenkenMuch like the film production, Beauty and the Beast's soundtrack was a massive critical success, receiving universal praise and recognition from both film and music critics. The music featured on the album won several awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television. Its title track and only single, "Beauty and the Beast", achieved similar success, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, Academy Award for Best Original Song and Grammy Awards for both Best Song Written for Visual Media and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Our Senior Orchestra will perform an arrangement of some of the highlights from the popular soundtrack for us today.

Caprice no.24 – Niccolo PaganiniCaprice No. 24 is a famous work for solo violin. The work, in the key of A minor, consists of a theme, 11 variations, and a finale. Paganini's 24 Caprices are thought to have been composed in 1817, while he was in the service of the Baciocchi court.

Junior Youth Orchestra Members:

1st Violin Cello OboeToby Mitchell (leader) Natalie Page Archie HarrisLuke Curran Charlie Mitchell Anna WhitingAmelia Ford Peter SkeenChloe Hanlon Ella Hutchinson Clarinet

Chloe Phipps2nd Violin Double Bass Laura CatonMaisy Bartlett Peter RiceJulia Trybull TrumpetSophie Gardner Flute Daniel Lucas

Vicky LeeViola Maisie Slingsby TromboneGeorge Skeen Jess Lee Max Hutchinson

Lydia Cashmore Matthew LucasPianoJohn Skeen French Horn Percussion

Katherine Dunbell John SkeenBen DoswellLuke Bartlett

Programme Notes – Second HalfJunior Orchestra

Grand March from Aida – Giuseppe VerdiOur Junior Orchestra will introduce the second half of our concert with the Grand March from 'Aida', which is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi. Set in Egypt, it was commissioned by and first performed in Cairo on 24 December 1871; Giovanni Bottesini conducted after Verdi himself withdrew. The work receives performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886.

Selections from Harry Potter – John WilliamsJohn Williams is an American composer who composed the soundtracks for the first three Harry Potter films. Well known in the film industry, he has frequently collaborated with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to score such films as Jaws, Superman: The Movie, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, E.T., Hook, Jurassic Park and the Indiana Jones and Star Wars sagas. Our Junior Orchestra will perform a selection of musical highlights from Williams' Harry Potter scores for us today.

Rustic Dance – Charles WoodhouseCharles Woodhouse was born in London in 1879. He was a pianist and conductor; occasionally conducting for the Proms and regularly for the Civil Service Orchestra. Most of all he composed and arranged music for young musicians to play. Our junior members will perform one of Woodhouse's compositions 'Rustic Dance' for us today.

Theme from Thunderbirds – Barry GrayBorn into a musical family in Blackburn, Lancashire, Gray was encouraged to pursue a musical career from an early age. Starting at the age of five, with piano lessons, he studied diligently and became a student at the Manchester Royal College of Music and at Blackburn Cathedral. Although best known for his score to Thunderbirds (in particular the "March of the Thunderbirds" title music), Gray's work also included the themes to all the other "Supermarionation" productions, including 'Stingray', 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' and 'Joe 90'.

Programme Notes – First HalfSenior Orchestra

Overture to Orpheus – Jacques OffenbachThe musical score of this piece was composed by Offenbach to a French text by Ludovic Halévy. The work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta. It also marked the first time that Offenbach used Greek mythology as a background for one of his pieces.

Three Pieces from Sigurd Jorsalfar – Edvard Greig'Sigurd Jorsalfar' is a work of 'incidental music' composed by Edvard Grieg for a play by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson to celebrate King Sigurd of Norway. The full work consists of nine parts; five are purely orchestral, and four are scored for tenor or baritone, male chorus, and orchestra.

Serenade for Strings – Antonin DvorakThe Serenade was composed in 1875 and it remains one of Dvorak's more popular orchestral works to this day. Dvořák is said to have written the Serenade in just 12 days, from 3–14 May. The piece was premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by Adolf Cech and the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres.

Voi Che Sapete – Wolfgang Amadeus MozartThe Marriage of Figaro is an 'opera buffa' (comic opera) in four acts. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. This particular piece details when character 'Cherubino' arrives, sent in by Figaro and eager to co-operate. Susanna urges him to sing the song he wrote for the Countess (aria: Voi che sapete che cosaè amor – "You ladies who know what love is, is it what I'm suffering from?").

Suite from An American in Paris – George GershwinAn American in Paris is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by the American composer George Gershwin, written in 1928. Inspired by the time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it evokes the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s. Gershwin brought back some Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall.

Mambo from West Side Story – Leonard BernsteinBernstein was one of the central figures in 20th Century American music. He was a conductor, composer, educator, pianist and TV star. Perhaps his biggest success was with his musical West Side Story - a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet updated and moved to New York City.

Youth Orchestra Members are taught by:

Violins & Violas Cellos ClarinetsDennis Cole MBE Anne Tyler Laura BakerAndrew BarringtonLaura Heathcote Flutes TrumpetsHelen Page Diane Parfitt Sarah AlsopJenny Heathcote Helen Page

Joyce Ruddal Alison Warner TrombonesSusie Spanring Carole Jenner-Timms Jon Hopes Nicola Bradshaw

OboesRob Heathcote

Senior Youth Orchestra Members:

1st Violin Cello ClarinetGeorge Skeen (leader) Ella Hutchinson Adam MorrisChloe Hanlon George Rabin Laura BakerSam Elms Natalie Page Chloe PhippsAndrew Barrington Charlie Mitchell Laura CatonDennis Cole MBE Anne Tyler

Bassoon2nd Violin Double Bass Beshley St LegerToby Mitchell Peter RiceLuke Curran TrumpetPeter Skeen Flute Daniel LucasHelen Page Vicky Lee Sarah AlsopEmma Hanlon Maisie Slingsby

Jess Lee TromboneViola Diane Parfitt Max HutchinsonMaria Parfitt Abi EvansTim Harrison OboeMartha McLorinan Anna Whiting Percussion

John SkeenAlto Saxophone French Horn Ben DoswellLouise Druce Katherine Dunbell James Packer

SECOND HALF

JUNIOR ORCHESTRA

Grand March from Aida Verdi

Selections from Harry Potter Williams

Remembrances from Schindler’s ListSoloist: Toby Mitchell (violin)Accompanist: Helen Page

Williams

Rustic DanceConductor: George Skeen

Woodhouse

Theme from Thunderbirds Gray

SENIOR ORCHESTRA

Carmen SuiteSoloist: Martha McLorinanI. PreludeII. AragonaiseIII. SeguedilleIV. HabaneraV. Les Toreadors

Bizet

Selections from Beauty and the Beast Menken

Caprice no.24 Paganini

FIRST HALF

SENIOR ORCHESTRA

Overture to Orpheus Offenbach

Three pieces from Sigurd JorsalfarI. VorspielII. IntermezzoIII. Huldigungsmarsch

Grieg

Serenade for StringsI. Moderato

Dvorak

Voi Che SapeteSoloist: Martha McLorinan

Mozart

Suite from An American in Paris

Mambo from West Side Story

Gershwin

Bernstein

Interval - 20 minutes

Refreshments will be available at the back of the church