10th September 2024
Dear Friends and Supporters
It has been a while since we brought you news of WCS’ progress following our re-launch earlier this year. Suffice it to say that we have been delighted with the generous financial and other encouragement received during this initial period. The post-Covid “overhang”, the plethora of existing musical offerings, and the general air of economic gloom, not least for the funding of the arts, suggested that we might struggle to compete with rival attractions and, critically, to raise the funds necessary for the re-launch.
We were also starting from scratch in the sense that we were a new “team” without the safety net of two very generous individual supporters who funded the lion’s share of the pre-Covid WCS programming.
In the event, and with your very generous support, our first concert with the London Mozart Players, and the brilliant Hungarian violinist Julia Pusker, was very nearly sold out. Any logistical problems failed to undermine WCS’ renewed determination to bring the highest standards of performance to the wilds of South Gloucestershire – with due respect to the residents of Wotton-under-Edge and its hinterland!
Our next concert
Following the success of our first concert, we now look forward to our second programme at St Mary’s on 30th November at 7.30pm.
Organist Richard Gowers, the Choir of St. George’s Hanover Square, Mayfair and the Bristol Ensemble, conducted by our artistic director Benedict Hoffnung, will be performing two epic works from mid-20th Century France – the Poulenc Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani, and the Duruflé Requiem. Both will feature the magnificent organ at St Mary’s, with Richard as our soloist in the Concerto, and as our accompanist in the Requiem.
Richard, a former chorister at King’s College, Cambridge has just been appointed Music Director at St George’s Hanover Square, and thus follows in the footsteps of Handel himself. He is shortly to make his debut as soloist with the Symphonic Brass of the Berlin Philharmonic and will also be appearing in China, Korea and Japan with the London Symphony Orchestra in performances of the Saint-Saens Organ Concerto, a piece not unfamiliar to Wotton audiences.
We very much hope we can count on your support for this exciting concert, and please encourage your friends and relations to come out in force. As before, tickets will go on general sale via the Three Choirs Festival booking facility and can be easily accessed via the WCS website at www.wottonconcertseries.co.uk
Tickets will be on general sale from the 14th October, with Friends’ priority booking commencing from:
30th September (for Sponsors),
4th October (for Platinum Friends),
7th October (for Gold Friends).
Please click to book tickets for Poulenc and Duruflé
2025 and beyond
Looking further ahead, we’re planning a return to the three concert formula in 2025. Therefore please make a note of the following dates in your diaries:
8th March: repertoire to be confirmed;
28th June: The London Mozart Players; and
November: ‘Heroic Music for Brass and Organ’, a collaboration with Wells Cathedral School.
However – and you’ll be forgiven for anticipating this – in round terms a three-concert programme will be a more expensive investment than for this year’s two concerts. Without having yet procured a major sponsor, the Wotton Concert Series currently depends on the continued generosity of our Friends and the individual supporters aided and abetted – our Chancellor permitting – by the valuable Gift Aid recovered from individual donations now that WCS has become a registered charity. We do hope that when the time comes, you will feel able to renew the support you have given so generously this year and, not least, join us – with all your friends and relations – at our future concerts.
Educational outreach
Having already commenced discussions with Gloucestershire Music, the county’s hub for young musicians,we remain committed to supporting musically talented youngsters both locally and further afield. Our clear aim is to offer a series of workshops, courtesy of our visiting artists, timed around our concerts. While there will be extra costs, indications are already that our visiting musicians are enthusiastic at the prospect of nurturing future generations. The WCS team will be encouraging young people to attend our rehearsals and ensure that a number of free tickets are made available for each concert.
Trustees
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to my fellow trustees – Ben Hoffnung, Edward Harford and Roger Wyn-Jones – for all their hard work enabling us to get this far. We are a small but perfectly formed team doing our best to keep the show on the road. I might add that if any of you would (or know of anyone who would or might) like to help out in some way, whether as an additional trustee or as a volunteer helping at concerts, or in some other way, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
With best wishes
Rod Marlow
WCS Chair
Tetbury Music Festival – 3rd to 6th October
Please also support the up-coming Tetbury Music Festival from 3rd to 6th October, details kindly provided by Caz Weller Knight – more information and online booking is at www.tetburymusicfestival.org.
The Festival marks its 21st festival this year with a varied and impressive series of concerts, presented in the candlelit beauty of St Marys’Church. Renowned pianist Imogen Cooper makes her festival debut performing Beethoven’s last three Sonatas on Thursday 3 October. The following evening, Friday 4 October, an energetic evening with Amy Harman, bassoon and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective includes a world premiere by Gary Carpenter, as well as works by Mozart, Dora Pejačević, and Dvořák. On Saturday 5 October Stephen Layton conducts his choir Polyphony in a programme of English Romantic choral masterpieces. Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang concludes the Festival on Sunday 6 October with the forces of Arcangelo conducted by Jonathan Cohen together with soprano Julia Doyle.
The musical programme is complemented by two lectures, the first, presented by Donald Macleod, explores the world of fine instruments and how those priceless Stradivari reach the hands of the musicians who can bring them gloriously to life, and the second, presented by Sir Nicholas Kenyon, looks at how the whole period performance movement became such a game changer in the world of classical music.
