Morning Everyone!

Another great concert yesterday – so a huge well done to all. I will leave the ‘technical’ feedback to Clare – see below, and Arturo, but on an emotional basis and from an audience perspective, it was another ‘cracker’. Challenging music performed really well, and undoubtedly the best of the term – peaking at the right time.

Rather than waffle on, I thought it probably better to leave my ‘sign off’ comment to one of the audience who e-mailed me the following this morning, so enjoy the read and I’ll see you again in January (I’ll publish dates, once the school confirms them) and have a great Christmas & New Year break!

Miles

Audience Feedback:

Dear Miles Leonard, Chairman,

I must thank the orchestra, conductor, yourself and everyone else involved in putting on last night’s wonderful concert. The whole performance was a delicious treat of English pastoral music and with Nimrod cleverly included for good measure. I often think it’s a little greedy for an audience to expect an encore (at the end) after the players have already done an amazing job, so that was a neat surprise.

The playing by everyone was superb and the sounds produced for each piece were so rich and engaging. The pastoral and emotional qualities of all four pieces came across very clearly. The Elgar must be quite an effort to keep the thread going over such a long piece. It was so beautiful.

Every department of the orchestra was clearly audible. The conductor was ‘invisible’, except to the players; by that I mean, of course, that his work did not distract from the orchestra. We’ve all seen the over-dramatic gestures of a conductor coming between the audience and the music. Well done to Arturo Serna. Additionally, his programme notes were most helpful for those who haven’t heard these pieces for a while and always appreciate some guidance.

I look forward to your next concert with much anticipation.

JA

Dear All

Well done for a fabulous concert yesterday.  It was an emotional occasion, and an excellent performance.

The Holst was very accomplished, with some excellent solos, I just need to mention Caroline here with her oboe d’amore (I had to google that).  There were many solos besides, all brilliant.  The Butterworth was very controlled and beautiful, probably the best we had played it.  Nimrod was very moving, and was a lovely tribute to Brian.  Thank you.

I thought that the Elgar was very accomplished.  The orchestra really captured the different moods and qualities of the music, and achieved a really great performance, of what is a very difficult and challenging piece of music. Each of the sections were really on top form. Well done.  I was very proud to be part of the orchestra.

Thank you to Arturo for his exceptional conducting skills and leadership of the orchestra.  Once again, he has encouraged us to achieve a great performance, whilst having a really enjoyable time each rehearsal.   We are so lucky to have him.

Thank you for Miles for all the work he does behind the scenes, and front of house too.  It is a lot of work and the orchestra really benefits from his time and effort in making the orchestra thrive.

Thank you for Josh for his lovely programme design and for managing the website.  Loved the programme and posters!

Thank you to Trevor and Katie for the work they do with publicity and social media.  Thank you of course to Merrill as librarian.  I hope we managed to achieve 100% in our return of music!  Thank you to Judith for booking the venues and to Caroline for looking after the finances, and to Helen as membership secretary.

There are many people who help to run the orchestra, so thank you to all.

Thank you to all the ‘extra’ people who came on Saturday.  We very much appreciate your support.

I hope you have a fantastic Christmas break and look forward to seeing you in January.

Thank you once again.

Clare