Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra
www.gloucestershiresymphony.org.uk
At our recent rehearsal we bid fond farewell to long standing orchestra member, Trevor Pleass.
Trevor has been a regular member of the orchestra violin section for many years, and was formerly the treasurer.
At age 94, he has decided to step down.
Our youngest members presented him with some gifts as an appreciation of his long service to the orchestra. We wish him well for the future, and hope to see him in the audience at some of our future concerts.
Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra has hit The Citizen and Echo headlines this week thanks to fabulous photos by Mikal Ludlow who visited our rehearsal at Gloucester’s St Barnabas’ Church.
Different sections of the orchestra are featured, along with conductor Glyn Oxley, leader Marie Roberts-Watkins and the soloist for our concert in the church on July 17th Chris Roberts, who will be performing the beautiful Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo.
Tickets, priced at £12 for adults, all under those under 26 free, from https://www.eventbrite.com/…/summer-concert-2021…
We are delighted to be returning to live GSO rehearsals from May 18 after nearly 7 months! And to add to our excitement, the soloist for our July 17th concert – superb guitarist and composer Chris Roberts – will be joining us at St Barnabas Church in Gloucester. We’ll be playing Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto with him. This will make the centrepiece of our programme line-up of Mozart’s Don Giovanni overture and Prokofiev’s Symphony No 1 (The Classical). Chris is one of the great teachers at the Gloucestershire Academy of Music, helping to encourage music making with students of all ages.
We’ll be social distancing and following Covid protocols but there is nothing better than playing together!
We are delighted to announce that the Gloucestershire Young Musician competition will restart this year.
We will launch the competition in September 2021. Auditions are planned for 9 January 2022, with the finals concert on 8 March 2022.
See the ‘Gloucestershire Young Musician’ pages for details of past winners and finalists.
We are planning the winner’s concert for the 2020 winner, Darcy Beck, on 21 November 2021. More details will be posted here in due course.
Due to Covid restrictions, the live stream of a virtual concert planned for 14 November 2020 was cancelled.
However, we enjoyed rehearsing and here is a picture of our rehearsal with horn soloist Laura Morris. You can listen to a recording of the rehearsal on:
GSO Facebook page, recording of rehearsal
Darcy Beck was always fascinated by the sounds of instruments coming from the back of the orchestra and so began her career as a percussionist.
Last night, the 18-year-old gap year student from Prestbury, became the county’s Young Musician of the Year 2020 – and the first percussionist to do so.
Her spell-binding performance on a marimba, loaned by the Nicholas Branston Foundation, opened the finals at Pittville Pump Room. She wowed the judges – complete with one piece on timbales involving light sticks in a darkened auditorium.
The former Cheltenham Ladies’ College student will be setting off to read Music at Cardiff University in September. But, just as with last year’s contest, the audience had a different idea about who should have won. Their choice was 16-year-old pianist Edwin Ward, from Cirencester, whose superb ‘smoking-jacket’ inspired performance of Erroll Garner’s ‘Misty’ persuaded the audience he should receive the Carducci Music Trust Audience Prize.
The county’s musical youth shone with superb performances from 15-year-old cellist Souny Park from Cheltenham Ladies’ College, 17-year-old pianist Aaron Le Maistre from Sir Thomas Rich’s School and 18-year-old flautist Bethany Loader, from Denmark Road High School.
And to top off the evening, while the judges Professors Derek Aviss and Christine Hankin, and Meurig Bowen considered their verdict, the audience was treated to a performance by 2016 winner Adam Heron, who played Sonata No 3 by Chopin.
Glyn Oxley, musical director of organisers Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra, compered the evening with great humour.
Watch a video of Darcy’s winning performance.
Darcy Beck playing timbales using light sticks
Darcy Beck, winner GYM 2020
GYM 2020 winner Darcy Beck receives the Hewitt-Jones Trophy from composer Thomas Hewitt-Jones
GYM 2020 finalists from left, Edwin Ward, Aaron Le Maistre, Darcy Beck (seated), Bethany Loader and Souny Park
GYM 2020 Audience Prize winner Edwin Ward
Darcy with the judges, from left Professor Derek Aviss, Professor Christine Hankin and Meurig Bowen
Adam Heron playing during the judging
Darcy Beck receives her £500 cash prize from Patrick Daly of the Brimpsfield Music Society