West Sussex Music’s Super Weekend
From an orchestral performance in Birmingham, to three end of term concerts held the following day, it’s fair to say last weekend was a busy one for a West Sussex music charity.
To kick off the weekend on Saturday 6 July West Sussex Youth Orchestra was invited to perform at the Music for Youth National Festival in Birmingham. In total 65 young people took the journey up with their conductor and supporters from WSM, where they had the opportunity to perform at Birmingham Symphony Hall. It was a busy day with a huge audience, but the performers kept their cool and received an excellent response from the audience and adjudicators.
The following day, on Sunday 7 July, WSM held three summer concerts at Worthing Assembly Hall where more than 400 children and young people performed to nearly 1,000 people in total.
John Randall, Music Centres Manager for West Sussex Music, said:
“This was the first time we have held three concerts like this in one day and the feeling in the building was incredible. We’re so proud of all the children and young people who have been learning and performing with us this year, and so sad to see some of our older ones leaving us for higher education and elsewhere but proud to have played a part in their music education.”
The first two concerts were end of term Music Centre Summer Concerts and the last was the County Ensembles Summer Concert. The concerts were an opportunity to showcase the talents of the children and young people who have been learning, playing and singing across all stages of their musical education. In the first concert the Tomorrow’s Orchestra Programme group had their debut performance, made up of children who only began their musical education at the start of this year, whilst in the third concert we said goodbye to several students who are leaving for university and music college.
During concert one, the programme consisted of performances by the Horsham Elementary Wind Ensemble conducted by Nick Chalk and Luca Imperiale; the West Sussex Training Wind Orchestra, with Luca Imperiale debuting as conductor; the West Sussex Training String Orchestra conducted by Adam Barker, and Tomorrow’s Orchestra Programme conducted by Saba Safa, where a highlight included members of the audience being given bubbles to blow during a performance of Bubble Waltz.
The second concert featured performances by Play in a Band, conducted by Tina Oberman; Drum Lab conducted by Dale Bennet; Chichester Youth Orchestra and Worthing Youth Orchestra, conducted by Saba Safa and Russ Robinson, and Young Voices, conducted by Mark Bradbury.
The final concert was the County Ensembles Summer Concert. During this programme the West Sussex Youth Wind Orchestra, conducted by Vincent Godfrey performed three pieces; West Sussex Youth Choir, conducted by Mark Bradbury gave a tour de force performance of five pieces, followed by an incredible three performances by the West Sussex Youth String Orchestra, conducted by Adam Barker. The West Sussex Youth Orchestra rounded off the evening with five pieces, conducted by Adam Barker and Vince Godfrey, including a tuba solo by Fraser Cornell, one of the WSM leavers.
West Sussex Music runs music activities and lessons all year round across the county including in Bognor Regis, Chichester, Horsham and Worthing.
For information on what’s available at all the music centres go here.
