SEDBERGH ORCHESTRA ACTIVITES

_{The next Sedbergh Orchestra concert, entitled The Nutcracker Suite and more music from Russia, will take place at 8.00pm on Thursday, November 29th, in St Andrew’s Church Sedbergh. Roland Fudge will conduct and Val Snelling will be leading the orchestra.}

_{Shirley Smith and Judith BushShirley (left) in discussion with Judith Bush at a Pepperpot concert in 2016 Russia is very much in the news these days and usually for not very pleasant seasons. Sedbergh Orchestra is doing its best to counteract this doom and gloom by delving into Russian music from a past era, not for the first time in recent concerts. Both players and audiences have enjoyed the Russian music that the orchestra has already performed and the new all-Russian programme is proving popular in rehearsals.}

 _{There will be just three works in the concert, all composed in the last half of the 19th century.}

_{Glinka’s overture to his opera ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ will get the programme off to a rousing start. He came from a privileged background, but this interfered with his wish to compose, since he was expected to take up a position in keeping with his station in life. However, the death of his father when he was thirty released him from this straightjacket and he was at last free to compose. He wrote the opera eight years later, inspired by time spent in Italy.}

_{By contrast, Kalinnikov suffered illness and poverty and died in his mid-thirties. But both composers produced music which is easy on the ear and full of vitality and exuberance, although Kalinnikov’s Symphony no.1 is very different in style. His inspiration came from the folk music of his homeland.}

_{The second half of the concert programme will be devoted to the well-known and well-loved Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky. He wrote it not long before he died. It is a work which continues to give pleasure to so many people. We hope that the youngsters at Sedbergh Primary School, along with visitors from Settlebeck and Dent and Ryelands Primary Schools, will be amongst that number. Sedbergh Orchestra will visit the school on November 7th. Mr Roland Fudge will be in charge. As well as playing excerpts from the concert programme, the Orchestra members will demonstrate their instruments to the youngsters and offer them the opportunity to try them out.}

_{We look forward to seeing you at the concert!}

_{(Full details including ticket prices can be found here).}

                                                                                                _{Shirley Smith}