Let a feeling of patriotic pride wash over you with the help of the Chester Philharmonic Orchestra who are staging a St George’s Day concert at Chester Cathedral on Saturday, April 23 at 7.30pm.
The orchestra, one of the premier English non-professional orchestras, will be conducted by Stephen Threlfall and feature soloist Guy Johnston in a porogramme including Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches 4 and 1, his popular Cello Concerto and Vaughan-Williams’ London Symphony.
Guy Johnston is one of the most exciting and versatile British cellists of his generation. He sang in the world-renowned choir of King’s College, Cambridge, where he recorded the famous carol Once in Royal David’s City and then went on to achieve important early successes through the BBC Young Musician of the Year title.
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He has made many important debuts including at the First Night of the BBC Proms playing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Brahms Double Concerto with the DSO Berlin, Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with the St. Petersburg State Orchestra in St Petersburg and the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Osaka Philharmonic in Tokyo.
A founding member of the Aronowitz Ensemble, Guy is an enthusiastic chamber musician and regularly performs at London’s Wigmore Hall. He is also the founding artistic director of the Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival.
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Stephen Threlfall is a hugely experienced musician. His career encompasses that of a professional cellist, conductor and, in his current role of director of music at Chetham’s School of Music, one of the UK’s leading musical educators. His professional engagements have taken him to the USA, throughout Europe, and especially Scandinavia, with regular visits to the Urals Philharmonic in Yekaterinburg and the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra.
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This concert is also dedicated to the memory of Michael Kennedy, music critic on the Telegraph and editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Music.
Michael had a particular interest in the history of music-making in Manchester and the North West. He was particularly known for acute and sympathetic studies of the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar and Richard Strauss.
Michael wrote biographies of Vaughan Williams, William Walton and John Barbirolli, with authorisation from the composers themselves and the Barbirolli family, respectively. He died on December 31, 2014.
Tickets for the concert priced at £16, £12, £9 with concessions for students and children are available from 01244 500959 or www.chesterphilorchestra.co.uk.
