Orchestra serenades audience with sounds of love

Saturday 25 January 2020

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, a local orchestra is planning to bring sounds of love to islanders' ears.

Taking to the Opera House stage at 20:00 tonight, Jersey Chamber Orchestra has concocted a programme of Love Stories, which they'll be bringing to life under the direction of Eamonn Dougan for their first concert of the year.

They promised the Love Stories programme will have a tune for everyone, “whether you prefer the heart-on-sleeve, sweep ‘em off their feet approach, a more relaxed slow-burn, or you like to nail your colours to the mast early and then persevere.”

The concert will open in the City of Love itself – Paris - with the Prelude to Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’, a tragic love story in the tradition of Italian Operas.

Pictured: The concert will take place at the Opera House.

Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova will then join the Orchestra to play Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

The second half of the show will be inspired by William Shakespeare’s words, “If music be the food of love, play on…”. The orchestra will first perform the Wedding March from Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, a piece that no musical celebration of romance could be without.

The award-winning Musical Original Singers will join before a moment of pastoral tranquillity in Frederick Delius’ ‘A Walk to The Paradise Garden.’

The orchestra’s Leader, Anna Smith, will then perform Edward Elgar’s ‘Salut d’Amour’ before the grand final in whirls and smiles of a Viennese Waltz, ‘Roses from the South’ by Johann Strauss II.

Pictured: Local choirs and the String Quartet will perform a family concert.

Players from the orchestra will be joined by several local Jersey choirs - St Michael’s Choir, Gorey Young Singers – as well as soloists from the for a family concert at 12:00.

“The JCO reached a new level of musicianship in the last concert, the Mozart Gala in October, so it is very exciting to be able to welcome a soloist of Anna Fedorova’s standing to join the orchestra in chasing away the January blues. For us also to be able to feature so many young choirs – all of a very high standard – is also very important…and very exciting!” Music in Action’s Chair, James Mews, commented.

Both concerts, sponsored by UBS and Mulberry Property Management, will help raise funds for the Oscar Maclean Foundation. A charity set up to provide additional support to local children and their families suffering from cancer and other chronic illnesses, in memory set Oscar who lost his courageous fight to a rare and aggressive form of brain tumour.

In addition to rehearsals for the concert, groups of players from the Orchestra visited local schools and care homes this week in a bid to bring live music to hundreds of children and elderly islanders across the island.

Anna Fedorova also gave a Masterclass to some of Jersey’s advanced piano students, giving them the opportunity to work closely with an internationally known soloist.