CYO Pre-Tour concert, 23rd June 2018

A fantastic concert was given this evening by the CYO at Northampton High School. The orchestra was conducted first by Richard Roper and began with a confident performance of Verdi's Force of Destiny overture before welcoming NMPAT brass teacher Andy Johnson to perform Vaughan williams' Tuba Concerto. Andy gave a superb performance full of virtuosity, sensitivity and musicality and the orchestra did a fine job accompanying him. CYO finished the first half with 'Four Sea Interludes' by Benjamin Britten, a beautifully descriptive set of pieces taken from the opera Peter Grimes. Tonight was a great opportunity to run through the 'Four Sea Interludes' as the orchestra will be performing them again on stage at Symphony Hall, Birmingham as part of the finals of the National Festival of Music for Youth in two weeks.

After the interval CYO 's leader, Jade Segler, did an amazing job as soloist in two pieces from Schindler's List by John Williams, underlining what an exciting musician she is, with a really bright future ahead of her! The concert concluded with Tim Green conducting Shostakovich's 9th Symphony and the orchestra did a fine job with this incredibly difficult and demanding piece. The performance was full of energy and vitality with some incredible solo work and amazing 'tutti' passages.

With several of these pieces scheduled to be performed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia all that can be said is that the audiences will be in for a real treat, so bring on the tour!...

...although before that we should just get through the two 'Generations' Concerts first...and end of year Concerts for the choirs, Big Band, CYCB & CYBB...and Summer Concerts for the Saturday Centres...and the National Festival performances for 13 NMPAT Groups...and 1000+ County Auditions...

...but after that definitely BRING ON TOUR!!!Read more