News: Wolsey Orchestra – Promoting Musical Excellence

40th Birthday Musical Treat

Wolsey Orchestra – “Promoting Musical Excellence”

Ipswich-based Wolsey Orchestra, conductor Anthony Weeden, launches its 40th Birthday Year Celebrations with a concert at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, where it played to a packed house last February! The programme features Shostakovich: Festive Overture; Stravinsky: Divertimento - The Fairy's Kiss and Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade. Saturday 11 February 2012 at 7.30 pm; tickets are £12 [£9 Concession] £5 student/child from the Apex Box Office on 01284 758000 or www.theapex.co.uk.

Opening with a rousing, celebratory blast to kick off the birthday year and as a fanfare to herald the 2012 London Olympics, Shostakovich’s Festival Overture (the signature tune for 1980 Moscow Olympics) leads into the gentler, elegant music of Stravinsky’s tribute to the ballet music of Tchaikovsky – The Fairy’s Kiss. Later, Bury’s Jamie Foreman, the orchestra’s leader, plays the beguiling violin solos in the ever popular story of A Thousand and one Nights in Rimsky Korsakov’s evocative Scheherazade.

Chairman Ian Payne said, “For this amateur orchestra to survive and thrive over a forty year period says much about the sheer quality of programming and standard of performance that has continued to attract audiences. At a time when professional orchestras seem to fight shy of touring in provincial towns due to funding cuts, it is dedicated amateur groups which keep the musical flame alive. It is a real treat for us to be starting our celebrations in this world class concert hall. I’m sure many in the orchestra will be imagining a large bottle of champagne being cracked across the bows of Sinbad’s ship once the baton falls on ‘The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,’ the opening movement of Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade.”

Wolsey Orchestra, one of the region's finest amateur orchestras, was founded in 1972 by Tricia Catchpole (now Tricia Maguire) as a chamber orchestra for like-minded local musicians, conducted for its first four years by BBC Radio 3 producer Adam Gatehouse. It gradually developed into a full symphony orchestra in the mid 1980s and was already working with established professional conductors and featuring nationally renowned soloists. Three of its founder members are still regular players, one of whom has only ever missed one concert. The main core of players comes from across Suffolk, and parts of Norfolk and Essex. Jamie Foreman, (pictured left) the leader since 2006, was Head Chorister at St Edmundsbury Cathedral and the Leader of Suffolk Youth Orchestra during his schooldays. Finally making its first appearance in Bury in February 2011 at The Apex, the Wolsey Orchestra had the privilege of being the first full symphony orchestra to christen the acoustics in a concert performance to an appreciative capacity audience.

Further information on www.wolseyorchestra.org