O F F I C IA L N EW S L E T TER PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY

V o l u m e 1 , I s s u e 2 J u n e 2 0 1 3

h a r r o g a t e o r c h e s t r a . o r g . u k

to our second newsletter. By the time you read this I hope spring has at last arrived! We had some excellent feedback from all walks of life for our last newsletter. It seems to have been a hit with members, friends and our general audience alike. not sure if I appreciated the conductors’ jokes but I am now working on some appropriate viola jokes in retaliation! Glad to see people are visiting our website and a number of people have entered our word search quiz. Wasn’t it tricky! still lots of things happening in the musical world so sit down and relax and read all about it. Bryan. Ps: Don’t forget to use the website to add comments, make suggestions or simply chat to us. We are in the process of redesigning of website to make it more user friendly and with lots more exciting things to look at and listen to.

It doesn’t bode well does it, when a phone call at 8.00am from our Inca soloists saying they were snowed in and might not be able to dig their way out. Three of them were staying at Anna noakes’s mother’s farm above Pateley Bridge. Three foot of snow meant they were not going to be able to make the workshop at best! Help! To the rescue Grant and Tony along with myself managed to make the children welcome and at home and within 20 minutes we were rehearsing our piece. 5 saxes, 9 flutes, 3 clarinets, a recorder a guitarist and 3 percussion players managed to brave the weather and we had a great time. A phone call later informed me that the percussionist, Ray who provides all the instruments for the concert

was also stuck in leeds and more to the point has injured his back trying to dig his van out. This just gets better and better I thought. no percussion, only 2 soloists, probably only half the orchestra and an audience that is surely going to be put off by the conditions: what would you have done? Two hours later Ray had turned up, drugged up to the nines on painkillers, Anna, Gary and Julie had walked in to hear the end of the workshop and members of the orchestra had started to arrive. In the end all went ahead as planned and only 3 people could not make it; 2 of them from Grassington and couldn’t even get out of their house. Credit must be given to the wonderful audience, which although was not as large as

we would have hoped, in view of the conditions, it was a fabulous size. We had a number of new visitors who had be lured to come because of Inca, not apparently knowing much about the Hso. What a surprise they had (their words not mine). They couldn’t believe the standard of the performance and they say are now going to book for June. others have said that this was the best concert they have ever been to! Wow! Inca have individually sent me a number of emails to say what a super time they had: they loved the Harrogate audience and were amazed at the quality and standard of our musicianship.

On 21st April, HSO’s 1st violinist, Katharine Blease, ran the London Marathon in a time of 4 hours 25 minutes, raising a fantastic £1,505 (and counting!) for the Sense Charity (www.sense.org.uk). Well done!

h a r r o g a t e o r c h e s t r a . o r g . u k

Tony and Grant from INCA

The Owen-Hughes boys loved the concert!

INCA workshop

INCA workshop

INCA workshopINCA workshop

INCA workshop

HSO with INCA

The SNOW!

Further news about the exciting exchange with Argentina. The trip for Bryan to conduct the Buenos Aires Chamber orchestra in August has been finalised. He will be performing the Passacaglia (Death of Falstaff) and Touch Her soft lips and Part (from Henry V suite), Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto (with Alberto Portugheis as soloist) and Beethoven’s 5th symphony.

The concert in november when Alfredo Corral makes the return trip, will now be on the 10th november (not the 9th as stated in the last newsletter) and is at the school of music at leeds university. Alfredo will be directing the Hso with Rossini’s semiramide, Beethoven 3rd piano concerto (again with Alberto) and Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony. He might well be bringing some short Argentinean piece too to get our fingers round. You will notice that this is the basis of our own Harrogate based concert on the 16th with the exception that Bryan will conduct and the concerto is to be with the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet,

with whom we have worked on 2 occasions before. since then they have appeared regularly on Classic Fm and toured throughout the world. Here they will be performing a world premier by Koshkin and a solo piece Folias by Ian Krouse. They were a great hit with the audience last time so look out for some stunning music making.

Alberto Portugheis

Bryan Western

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Find the six instruments above for a chance to win a pair of tickets to our november concert with the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet. email your answers to: admin@harrogateorchestra.org.uk

Congratulations to the winner of the last issue’s Wordsearch, Sharon McKenna, who won a pair of tickets to the June concert .

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2015

21st march: Beethoven – Coriolan overture; Brahms – Piano Concerto no 2 (soloist – Julian saphir)

20th June: Proms

21st november

2013

10th november @ leeds university Hso with Alberto Portugheis and Alfredo Corral

16th november @ Royal Hall Aquarelle Guitar Quartet

14th December @ HICC Family Christmas Concert

2014

15th march: Beethoven – egmont overture; Beethoven – Violin Concerto (soloist – Bartosz Woroch from YCAT); sibelius – symphony no 1

7th June: Tour de France Gala Concert

some more dates with programmes yet to be finalised:

15th november: sibelius – Karelia suite; shostakovich – Cello Concerto no 1 (soloist – Laura van der Heijden, BBC Young musician of the Year 2012 winner); Waltz from 2nd Jazz suite; Respighi – Pines of Rome

Armed forces and cadet volunteers from north Yorkshire have been awarded the lord-lieutenant’s Certificate – an achievement recognised as one of the highest honours in the forces, ranking alongside the mBe, amongst them our very own Chris Crebbin AKA Flight lieutenant Christopher Crebbin (Commanding officer of Ripon ATC). He was awarded his certificate by Colonel edward York, Vice lord-lieutenant for north Yorkshire, in recognition of his outstanding contribution and dedication to the Reserve Forces. Throughout his 17 years of voluntary

service, Christopher has worked hard and selflessly for the benefit of the cadets under his command and the Air Cadet Wing in general. Despite the demands placed on him in his civilian life as a police officer, and his other passions for music where he plays first violin for Hso, and for athletics where he officiates at all levels including at the london olympics, Christopher’s commitment and dedication to the Air Cadets has never wavered. Read the full story online, including Chris’ reaction to receiving this prestigious honour (link shortened): http://bit.ly/18qphJB

A warm welcome to our newest members:

Philip Gaertner (Violin)

Rhona Carse (Trumpet)

Allan Jarvis (Viola)

Caroline Frazer (Violin)

Did you know that we now have over 80 friends? It is certainly a package that can’t be ignored – preferential seating and free signed programmes plus a reduced yearly cost. Kathy Western (possibly related to our mD and conductor, although she may deny this!) has kindly offered to continue Brian Rankin’s sterling efforts. Consult the web page for details to become a Friend of the Hso.

This is surely going to be the concert of the year! Involving our friends from the “no strings” charity and their amazing work to raise world wide issues using puppets, along with narration from Hugo speer, can this get any better? Well, the programme might help too: Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the orchestra and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf are certainly going to go down well in the afternoon matinee for the children: along with a puppeteer from the T.V. muppet show and TV actor Hugo speer. This is followed by the evening concert featuring the Prokofiev again with Danse macabre, the sorcerer’s Apprentice and Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony.

Why is a viola better than a violin?It burns longer.

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There is a rumour that we have been invited to take part in the 2014 umea celebrations. It is the swedish city’s turn as european City of Culture to host this cultural event. If we go ahead, Alberto (who has organised many of these events and from whom the invitation has come) has suggested we

perform the piano concerto by swedish composer

Jonathan Östlund? There are no dates or costs yet

so watch this space.

There is another rumour that malcolm our

esteemed trumpeter is moving to Hull to be

near his boat. Anyone who fancies an attractive

apartment in Harrogate should contact him.

Does this mean we’ll need another ace trumpeter?

Have you got one of our Hso logos for the car?

They are available free of charge at each concert.

CDs, videos, T-shirts and fleeces are also still

available. other than a good publicity ploy, a

good reason for buying some of our Hso lines

can be seen in an incident that happened to

our lead cellist Fran Hannan a few weeks ago.

one afternoon I received a call from the police

station at skipton. Quite a scary experience I’ll

tell you — I thought of all sorts. “Do you happen

to know someone called Hannan?” the voice

said. “I sure do” was the reply. He continued to

say that the family had clearly been out walking

in the countryside in the morning (clearly this

was before the snows came) and dropped a fleece.

someone had handed it in (along with credit

cards, cash etc). “But how did you know to ring

me?” was the question I asked. “simple” said the

detective. “The fleece had an Hso logo on it. I

looked it up on the Internet, got to your website,

found your contact details and here we are”. I

gave them Fran’s number and shortly afterwards

clothing and owner were reunited. Result, eh!

now that is why you need to get an Hso fleece.

If you have any suggestions for future newsletters please contact: admin@harrogateorchestra.org.uk

If you have any contacts with anyone who would like to donate a prize for the raffle or sponsor the event or help in any way, please ask them to contact us asap. Any further ideas you have to raise awareness of the event too would be most welcome.

Hot off the press! We have sight of the Wolf puppet already!

Both concerts will be focussed on raising funds for “no strings” and there will be a short video presentation introduced by their charismatic founder Jonnie mcGlade.

There are lots of exciting activities that have already been planned to go alongside our concert, including the children making puppets prior to the concert so they can actively take part in the matinee.

There will be an auction, a commemorative “Hso and no strings” T-shirt designed by the muppet show artists themselves, a raffle, competitions and anything else we can think of to try and raise a substantial amount.

Jonnie is talking to Tyne-Tees, BBC York and Yorkshire TV as we speak, to get their help to promote the concert. The concerts will also be videoed and made available for sale after the event.