STEVENAGE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Let there be music once more
After the restrictions of Covid and 18 months of only seeing each other on Zoom, the orchestra was delighted to resume rehearsals once more in October 2021.
The first rehearsal saw a fantastic turn-out, with almost everyone returning - and a few new faces.
We look forward to setting out a public concert programme for 2022 over the coming months.
Tom Briers takes up the baton
Stevenage Symphony Orchestra is delighted to welcome our new Musical Director, Tom Briers, who joins us at the start of the 2019/20 concert season.
With Tom, we're putting an exciting programme of concerts and activities together throughout the year - more details of which will be published on this website and the orchestra's Facebook page.
Myths & Legends concert
Very well done to everyone involved in our summer concert "Myths and Legends". This was a very exciting and ambitious project for us and we pulled it off in style! A very big thank you to all who came to watch - we had our largest ever Gordon Craig audience! We are very grateful for your support and hope to see you again at future concerts.
Particular thanks to all the children who performed. For some it was their first time on stage and they all did a splendid job. Thanks to the Music Workshop Company for making this possible.
Simon Hewitt Jones was a real star as The Devil in Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre"! A real asset to the concert.
One of the main highlights was the premiere of Alison Wrenn's "Legends of the Tor" suite. Alison was delighted with the performance and would like to thank the orchestra for their committment to the piece, belief in it, and hard work in rehearsals!
The whole concert was professionally recorded and CDs are now available! Order yours here:
Myths and Legends CD
£10 + £2 p&p
Current delivery time 1-2 weeks
BBC Success!
Stevenage Symphony Orchestra recently applied to the BBC Performing Arts Fund's
"Community Music" scheme, and we have just heard that our application has been successful! The
focus of the scheme is to benefit the community and commission a new piece of music, which in
our case will be written by our very own member of the cello section, Alison Wrenn.
Alison is rapidly establishing herself as a name to look out for in the field of accessible new music,
with her works being described as "very refreshing... beautiful and very finely written" and
"overwhelmingly life affirming... joyous, reflective and sad in equal measure... fresh new music that's worth listening to". She won the Yorkshire Late Starters String Orchestra's composition competition 2011/12 and has since received several commissions, as well as being a judge for the ESTA Young Composer of the Year 2012 competition. Her music has been performed around the UK, in London, and in New Zealand.
The piece that Alison will write for us is a suite in five movements, called "Legends of the Tor". It will be included in our summer concert in 2013 at the Gordon Craig Theatre, as part of the Stevenage Arts Festival. The concert will be on the theme of "Myth and Legends". Alison has created a microsite for the project.
As part of the "Community Music" aspect of the grant, members of the orchestra will visit five local schools, giving workshops and helping the children to create their own music based on a myth or legend, which they will perform in the concert with us.
Read the BBC's official announcement here.