THE premiere of a piece by local composer Michael English was one of the highlights of the Royal Forest of Dean Orchestra’s summer concert.
The orchestra was joined at St Mary’s Church in Chepstow on Saturday by the Chatelaines Choir.
It also featured an impressive oboe solo performance by Oscar Pingree Watts.
Michael English’s suite A Summer’s Day, which opened the second half of the concert, is a depiction of sunrise, an excursion, sunset and evening festivities.
He began writing and recording his own compositions and has produced numerous albums of background music for film and television.
Chair of the orchestra Helen Chick said: “Tonight is delightfully different for us as we team up with the Chepstow Chatelaines choir to include some operatic greats in our Songs of Summer concert.
“We have Fiona Crawley, our director, and Jayne Thomas, the choir’s director, to thank for the inspiration behind tonight’s programme.
“We’re very excited to have the honour of performing the premiere of local composer Michael English’s A Summer Day.
“Michael is performing with us tonight.”
The concert opened with the allegretto from Karl Jenkins’s Palladio.
Oscar then performed Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto is D Minor.
He is originally from Thailand and has been a member of the Royal Forest of Dean Orchestra for three years.
He is also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales.
In contrast to the recent heatwave, among the pieces performed by the Chatelaines was The Snow by Elgar.
The concert also featured music by Gilbert and Sullivan, Bizet, Tchaikovsky and Wagner.
A retiring collection was also made for the Chepstow Foodbank.
The Foodbank was set up 13 years ago and over the last three years has given out 5,000 food parcels, many to people in work.
For more about the orchestra visit www.rfdo.org.uk
Comments
This article has no comments yet. Be the first to leave a comment.