A SUMMER PASTORAL WITH EPSOM CHAMBER CHOIR
Epsom Chamber Choir invites you to join them on 27th June to welcome in summer with a programme of choral music celebrating the British countryside (with just a brief detour into Bavaria). The concert begins at 7.30pm at St Martin’s Church, Epsom.
Allow Vaughan Williams to lead you into Windsor Forest with an adaptation of his opera Sir John in Love, based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. Elgar will then take you to the Bavarian Highlands to entertain you with a set of songs inspired by his holiday there. While in Bavaria, the tenors and basses will recount the sad and lusty tale of The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, composed by Britten for a friend at a prison camp in Bavaria where it was first performed.
Back in England, listen to the cooing of The Turtle Dove (courtesy of Vaughan Williams) and admire The Oak and the Ash (take a bow, Bairstow) before taking the high or the low road to Scotland and Loch Lomond (arranged by Jonathan Quick). On the way, the sopranos and altos have their chance to shine with Paul Mealor’s I am the Still Rain Falling, written for women’s voices and hand-held percussion, and Falling Up by Cheryl Frances Hoad, both settings of appropriately pastoral poems. The men however fight back with Bushes and Briars (Vaughan Williams again). The whole programme is summed up in a duet for flute and piano by Richard Rodney Bennett, played by choir members Stella Baylis and Stephen Ridge and entitled Summer Music.
This highly-regarded choir will be directed by the choir’s award-winning conductor Jack Apperley in what will sadly be his farewell concert with the choir and will be accompanied by pianist Benjamin Frost.
Join the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra tonight, at 7.30pm, in St George’s church, Ashtead for our first concert of the season. It features Mozart’s flute concerto with award winning soloist Daniel Shao. Adapted, by Mozart, from an original oboe concerto, it is said to be an excellent showpiece for a modern virtuosic soloist.
The concert opens with Schumann’s Overture, Sherzo & Finale. Written rapidly in 1841, the work reflects Schumann’s happiness at marrying Clara Wieck.
You will also hear Beethoven’s 8th symphony. Described as compact & witty, it is Beethoven’s penultimate, & shortest symphony.
An evening of Jazz and Swing in South Nutfield by local jazz singer Alice Black and her quintet, featuring Dave Black on tenor sax, Joe Pettit on double bass, John Pearce on piano and Kieran Crowley on drums. Proceeds will go to the local community.
Venue: Christ Church, South Nutfield.
Tickets: £16 and can be purchased in advance from Christ Church and Holborns on Mid Street.
Music starts at 7.30pm. There will be a licensed bar.
The Surrey Philharmonia’s first concert of the year will take place on Saturday, 28th February, at St George’s church, Ashtead. It features Mozart’s flute concerto with award winning soloist Daniel Shao. Adapted, by Mozart, from an original oboe concerto, it is said to be an excellent showpiece for a modern virtuosic soloist.
The concert opens with Schumann’s Overture, Sherzo & Finale. Written rapidly in 1841, the work reflects Schumann’s happiness at marrying Clara Wieck.
You will also hear Beethoven’s 8th symphony. Described as compact & witty, it is Beethoven’s penultimate, & shortest symphony.
Continue reading “Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra Concert 28 February 2026”
The Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra is proud to present a concert dedicated to the memory of Neil Gilchrist, who is much missed by all his fellow orchestra musicians.
The Magic Flute is a melodic fusion of the sublime & the silly. Following its solemn introduction, the overture continues with animated, fugue-style orchestration. Although the opera proved to be a great success, Mozart died only two months after its opening, at the age of 35.
The third symphony is the shortest of Brahms’ four symphonies. Its third movement will be familiar to many from its frequent use in films. One of the composer’s greatest triumphs, It is considered by many to be the first Romantic symphony.
Schumann’s cello concerto in A minor was completed in just under two weeks & was never played in the composer’s lifetime. It’s form is somewhere between three movements played without pause & one continuous movement.
Our soloist is Kosta Popovic who was born in 2000 into a musical family in Podgorica, Montenegro. The winner of many international competitions, Kosta is the founder member of the prize winning
Fibonacci Quartet.
Join the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra for a musical treat on Saturday 24th May at the Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall.
Beethoven’s Egmont is both powerful & expressive, while the Bruch violin concerto no. 1 offers soaring melodies combined with lush & passionate orchestral writing. The concerto, with its notoriously difficult virtuoso passages for violin, will be performed by our very own orchestral leader, Joshua Hugo Von Bohlen.
The Gounod 2nd Symphony is an understated but tasteful piece which is both polished & a delight to listen to.
Join us on March 1st for a varied & melodic orchestral concert at St George’s Church Ashtead.
Prize winning Catalan cellist Gerard Flotats brings us Tchaikovsky’s elegant & ever popular Variations on a Rococo Theme. Gerard will also play a gem of the Romantic era, Romanze for cello & orchestra in F major, from a young Richard Strauss.
Other gems include an overture from Mendelssohn & two short pieces by Delius. The concert will close with a short symphony from a young Camille Saint-Saens.
