It has been an incredibly hard two years. The pandemic made us stop so many things. There’s a pop song that sums it up – just when you watch the first 1 min 20 of this video, replace the word ‘dancing’ with ‘music’.
Now, finally, there seems to be some glimpse of normality. We are allowed to make music, we have been vaccinated, we have protocols to keep us feeling safe. but… recovery is a process.
The orchestra started 2022 tentatively… who would come back? What were our goals? Were we going to be allowed to continue? Would there be another ‘wave’ of COVID?
Restrictions have mostly lifted now, and yes, we are keeping gentle distance from one another (as happens in orchestra – try putting the string section less than 1 metre apart and you get a traffic jam!) and we still wear masks as we go in/out of rehearsal, as a sign of respect and care for others. But, we are back!
This semester we are working toward a concert! On May 18th we will be in the Chapel of the Ascention at the University of Chichester to present our first programme since 2019.
Here’s what we’re working on:
- Smetana’s Ma Vlast
- Mahler Symphony 2 Andante
- Goldsmith’s Heritage of Freedom (an American themed medley)
- Joplin Rags
- Bizet’s Minuet from L’Arlésienne
- Shostakovich Symphony 10 mvt 2
- Mozart Horn Concerto (solo on baritone sax)
- Elgar Cello Concerto (solo by me!)
- …and we may revisit Schubert’s 8th that we played some years ago!
That should be a mix of things people know and don’t know – as always my hope is to have fun and educate people. There is nothing like coming together as an orchestra.
We meet at the University of Chichester on Wednesday evenings from 7-8:30 and ask for a voluntary contribution of £5 per rehearsal. There is no subscription or requirement to turn up- The hope is that you will be inspired to come regularly.
Want a peek of what we get up to? This was a few months ago… and yes, we were down on numbers (yes, because of coming out of covid) but that has very little impact on the sound and the experience.
I am always amazed what we produce as a group.
Hope you will consider joining us!
