European Medical Students’ Orchestra and Choir concert at Chester Cathedral

Jul 29 2010 by Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle

Young doctors and medical students from all over Europe will share their passion for music at Chester Cathedral next Saturday.

The European Medical Students’ Orchestra and Choir (EMSOC), conducted by John Anderson and Daniel Parkinson with Lucy McLellan on piano, will play Elgar's Enigma Variations, Howell's Requiem and Finzi's Lo, the full, final sacrifice, on August 7 at 7.30pm.

Daniel, from Kelsall, has recently launched the Chester Chamber Orchestra.

The European Medical Students’ Orchestra (EMSO) was founded in Wurzburg, Germany, in 1993.

Each year, the musicians meet in a different European city for intensive rehearsals and social activities culminating in several concerts. The course is organised by medical students and junior doctors in the host country, and this year's course is in Manchester.

Since its origins as a chamber orchestra, EMSO has grown in size and popularity to a full symphony orchestra of about 60 musicians, from more than 20 European countries.

In Ljubljana in 1996, the orchestra’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was sold out, and the concert was broadcast on Slovenian national radio.

In Budapest in 2002, a Hungarian journalist wrote that the orchestra’s performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto was “thrilling from beginning to end”. In 2004 in Poznan, the concert was attended by more than a thousand people, in addition to being broadcast on Polish national radio.

The choir (EMSC) was founded in London in 1996 by Vasuki Sivagnavel.

Proceeds from the concert at Chester Cathedral and at the Royal Northern College of Music on Sunday August 8 will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust Young Oncology Unit at the Christie Hospital.

Tickets cost £8 (£5 concessions) from Chester Cathedral on 01244 500 959.