The Tempest in Welwyn Garden City

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On Saturday 17 November 2018 at 7.00pm a semi-staged performance (without vocal parts) of The Tempest with Sibelius’s original theatre music, preceded by Finlandia, will take place in Welwyn Garden City, performed by the Mid Herts Youth Orchestra conducted by Tom Hammond.

The performance is directed by Peter Avery, with actors from the Mid Herts Centre for Music & Arts Community.

The Mid Herts Youth Orchestra is a full symphony orchestra and plays on a weekly basis with the aim of giving young musicians the opportunity to play in a high-standard orchestral setting.

This event is supported financially by Sibelius One.

Venue: Ridgeway Academy, Herns Lane, Welwyn Garden City AL7 2AF (a 10-minute walk from the station / ample parking)

Tickets:
Adults £6 / Concessions £3 / Accompanied children free. Tickets are available on the door.
Sibelius One members can obtain complimentary tickets. Click here to order these.

Illustration by Paul Harraway

Sinfonia Tamesa all-Sibelius concert

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Sinfonia Tamesa, one of London’s leading amateur symphony orchestras (est. 2001) will give an all-Sibelius concert at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, London on Saturday 10 November 2018 at 7.30 pm. The conductor will be Tom Hammond.

Programme:
Scenes with Cranes from ‘Kuolema’
Violin Concerto (soloist: David Le Page)
Symphony No. 2
Tom Hammond

After his selection by Sir Charles Mackerras as the first Junior Fellow in Conducting at Trinity Laban Conservatoire (2006–08), Tom Hammond has developed a rich and musically diverse career. He is currently music director of the Essex, Hertford and St Albans Symphony Orchestras and the award-winning Yorkshire Young Sinfonia. He also holds positions with the Palestine Youth Orchestra and Ingenium Academy International Summer School, and regularly guest conducts with many groups including the Britten Sinfonia Academy and Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 he was appointed conductor emeritus of Sinfonia Tamesa, of which he was music director between 2007 and 2017.

David Le Page

Born on the island of Guernsey, David Le Page began playing the violin at the age of seven. He was offered a place at the Yehudi Menuhin school when he was twelve and has since forged a diverse career as a performer, composer, producer and arranger. He appears regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader and has formed a number of ensembles of his own.

Tickets cost £15 (concessions £10) and can be booked online until 1 hour before the performance begins. Click here to book tickets.
Click here for directions to the concert venue.

Sibelius in Killing Eve

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Keen Sibelians watching the hit BBC thriller Killing Eve will no doubt have spotted that music by Sibelius featured in Episode 5, ‘I have at thing about bathrooms’. To accompany the scene where the assassin Villanelle is talking about death while preparing to kill Frank, the opening of Valse triste (slowed-down and stylized) is heard in the background.

Hear it for yourself here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06kcg94/killing-eve-series-1-5-i-have-a-thing-about-bathrooms
The extract from Valse triste is heard at approx. 33’54 until 36’11.

Sibelius Première in Lahti

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Luukas Hiltunen outside the Sibelius Hall in Lahti. Photo: © Sibelius One

The world première performance of a new arrangement by Lahti music student Luukas Hiltunen of Sibelius’s Intrada for organ, Op. 111a (1925), was given as an encore on the last night of the 2018 Sibelius Festival in Lahti (8 September 2018).

This sonorous and well-received arrangement was scored for full symphony orchestra (without percussion), and is dedicated to its performers, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.

Luukas Hiltunen has also made an arrangement of the companion organ piece, Surusoitto (Funeral Music).

Further information will be published in the January 2019 issue of Sibelius One’s magazine.

New curator at Ainola

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Ainola (photo: © SIbelius One)

At a meeting on Saturday 8 September 2018, the Ainola Foundation decided to invite Julia Donner to become the new curator at Jean Sibelius’s home, Ainola. She will start work on Monday 8 October 2018. Her predecessor, Hanne Selkokari, will become an amanuensis at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, starting on 15 October 2018.

Julia Donner is an art historian who has specialized in garden art and landscape architecture. Since 2012 she has taught and undertaken research at the Aalto University; she has written many books and articles. With specific reference to Ainola she has written ‘Oi terve tarhurineito…’: Aino Sibeliuksen puutarha (2006) and contributed to the book Ainola – The Home of Jean and Aino Sibelius (ed. Esko Häkli & Severi Blomstedt; Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 2015)

Ainola’s summer season ends on Sunday 30 September 2018.

Source: Ainola Foundation press release

 

Lahti Sibelius Festival 2018 ends

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Banner for the 2018 Festival in the Metsähalli, Sibelius Hall

Sibelius One’s visit to the 2018 Lahti Sibelius Festival has just ended (posted on 10 September 2018). All events were well attended and enthusiastically received.

Highlights included:

Wednesday 5 September: trip to Hämeenlinna; reception hosted by Erkki Korhonen and the Hämeenlinna Sibelius Society at the Town Hall; visit to the new Sibelius Forest national park.

Thursday 6 September: trip to Ainola; Sibelius One’s AGM in Hesan kamari at Ainola (minutes and accounts will be made available soon); concert by the Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk with Baiba Skride, violin (Overture in A minor; Violin Concerto; Swanwhite); concert by the Wellamo Trio (‘Hafträsk’ Trio). Review of the concerts (Bachtrack): click here.

Members of Sibelius One at Ainola, 6 September 2018

Friday 7 September: concert by the Estonian National SO/Neeme Järvi (Romance in C; Scene with Cranes & Valse triste; Symphonies 3 & 4); reception hosted by the Sibelius Society of Finland at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti.

Saturday 8 September: concert by Meta4 string quartet (Voces intimae); concert by the Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk with Baiba Skride, violin (In memoriam; Six Humoresques; Symphonies 6+7); world première [encore] performance of a new orchestration by Lahti music student Luukas Hiltunen of the Intrada, Op. 111a;  group meal at El Toro restaurant

Sunday 9 September: performance of the Five Piano Pieces (‘The Trees’), Op. 75 and of the Violin Concerto with additional choreography (Minna Pensola / Heini Kärkkäinen)

Provisional dates for the 2019 festival: 5–8 September. More details will be posted later.