Chetham’s School of Music Piano Residency
April 29th-May 1st 2016, JAM
From April 29th to May 1st we will have a group of five young piano students accompanied by piano professors Simon Bottomley and Lulu Yang over from Chetham’s School of Music for a weekend residency packed to the brim with piano-related activities. Full programme to follow shortly, concerts are free of charge and open to all.
End of Term Concerts
March 2016, JAM
A whole range of concerts to give all students the opportunity to perform in front of a friendly audience of family and friends:
- Fri 18th March 7pm = Grace Garnier and students
- Sat 19th March 11am = Tara Copus and students
- Sat 19th March 2pm = Julie Robinson (toddlers/minis) and students
- Sat 19th March 5pm = Young Pyo Lee and students
- Sun 20th March 11am = Chris George and students
- Sun 20th March 4pm = Emmanuelle Dumas and students
- Sun 20th March 6pm = Andrew/Claire Harvey and students
- Mon 21st March 6pm = Julie Robinson and students
- Tue 22nd March 6pm = Pippa Lumbard, Morag Copus and students
- Wed 23rd March 7pm = Georgina Sutton, Brent Connan, Sam Bisson and students
All concerts are free of charge with a retiring collection in aid of the Antoine Trust.
Sunday 7th February 2016, 7pm, Jersey Arts Centre
This term’s Jersey Youth Chamber Orchestra project brought together forty of the island’s leading young musicians to perform an exciting programme of works at the Jersey Arts Centre, joined by the Singcredibles choir led by Maggie Picot and Hugh Lince.
Rehearsals begin in January, with the initial ‘read-through’ session bringing the orchestra together for the first time.
The orchestra met again two weeks later for sectional rehearsals, giving everyone the opportunity to receive more intensive coaching on their parts. The actual concert weekend then involved the conductor David Lawrence, and the final day’s rehearsal took place at the Jersey Arts Centre:
The concert itself took place in front of a full audience, and the orchestra opened the concert with Schubert’s Overture in D Major D.566, a performance of great energy and vivacity, followed by Elgar’s Salut d’Amour which had some beautiful moments of string sonority. The Sincredibles choir then took to the stage with a wide range of songs, many with a foot-tapping Gospel feel, and many featuring lovely solos from various choir members. The orchestra then returned to the stage for their main work of the evening; Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. The movements of this work each depict a different fairytale, and in particular the woodwind section had many stand-out moments with solos for most of the players (and a special mention in particular for the ‘Beast’ solo in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ performed on contrabassoon by Daniel Hayden!).
Following a short speech given by David Watkins, Chairman of the Strasser Jersey Foundation (who have financially supported the orchestra since its outset in 2012), the evening concluded with the joint choir and orchestra performing Wings, in a special arrangement written for the occasion by young composer Ruben Maric. The whole project was a rousing success, and thoughts now turn towards the next project in October, which is based around World War One and will culminate in a concert at the Jersey Opera House on 22nd October 2016.
