Author: ersosite

The Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra, one of London’s leading and longest established amateur orchestras, has a few spots left for experienced string players.

We are a friendly group, playing challenging and diverse repertoire to a very high standard and we work with professional conductors of a very high calibre.  Our membership is diverse and includes conservatoire students, music teachers, professionals at the start of their careers and skilled amateur musicians.

Our next concert is the 8th October concert of Romantic Music under the baton of Samuel Burstin, the accomplished violist and conductor, and we will be playing Rachmaninoff’s  Piano Concerto No. 3 with award winning soloist Ana Sinkovec and Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony.

Players who take part in this concert are also eligible to apply for our ERSO Soloist of the Year competition.

Up to 4 semi-finalists will be selected to work on their concerto with ERSO and the eminent conductor Peter Stark (Hon D Mus, Hon FTCL, Hon ARAM, GRSM, ARCM) at an open rehearsal on January 21, 2018.  The winner will have the opportunity to perform their concerto in our 11 February Concert conducted by Peter.

Join us! If you are a grade 8+ player and interested, please contact us on ersoinfo@gmail.com.

www.erso.london

http://www.facebook.com/ErnestReadSymphonyOrchestra

ERSO’s membership has always included talented music students and young professionals at the start of their careers who are keen to gain repertoire experience.  We have a long tradition of working with emerging soloists, choosing where we can to work with players from within the orchestra.

Recently this has included Matthew Strover as the soloist in Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Caroline Welsh playing Nielsen’s Flute Concerto and players who have been selected for Making Music’s Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists such as Dinara Klinton.

In 2017, we initiated a scheme for paid string section principals. These are developmental roles for post-graduate music students which give the successful applicants valuable experience of leading and managing their musical section and playing a part in helping to run an orchestra, including fixing players, communication and publicity and, crucially, planning and delivering our education projects.

Some years ago, ERSO also had an Assistant Conductor position to enable young conductors to develop and learn from the Principal Conductor. Most recently this role was held by Andrew Gourlay who has gone on to achieve considerable professional success with major orchestras and opera houses in the UK and abroad.

The trials for a new Principal Conductor and appointments of our String Section Leaders have acted as a catalyst for ERSO to develop a more formal programme to link all our work with emerging professional musicians under the ERSO Talent Programme.  This programme will bring together all our work with emerging soloists, conductors and paid section leaders, potentially expanding into further areas such as reviving the Assistant Conductor position and working with emerging composers in the next few years.

In its first year the ERSO Talent Programme will focus on emerging soloists through the ERSO Soloist of the Year 2018 competition and emerging conductors in our Behind the Baton project in May 2018.

We currently have a vacancy for a 2nd trombone player.  If you are a trombonist of grade 8+ standard and are interested in joining a friendly orchestra, gaining some excellent orchestral experience and performing exciting repertoire please contact ersoinfo@gmail.com. You can also find us on the ERSO facebook page.

ERSO are delighted to announce that Tom Hammond will be our conductor for the next Family Concert in Camden.  We recently worked with Tom in a wonderful Nordic themed concert and we are very excited to work with him again.  We will be joined by the talented young children from The Camden Music Service’s Camden Sinfonia in a family-friendly concert which will includes pieces from the BBC’s educational 10 Pieces project.

We’ll announce the concert theme and programme soon – its sure to be a fantastic concert!

Join us on 18th March at the lovely church of St Mary’s at Primrose Hill!

On 8 October, the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra, one of London’s leading and longest established amateur orchestras, will be presenting a wonderful evening of Romantic music by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov under the baton of Samuel Burstin, the accomplished violist and conductor.

If you are grade 8+ standard and are interested in taking part in this concert, please contact ersoinfo@gmail.com. You can also find us on the ERSO facebook page.  We are always keen to hear from string players across all sections and would be particularly pleased to hear from trumpet and trombone players interested in joining the orchestra.

Players who take part in this concert are also eligible to apply for our ERSO Soloist of the Year competition (open to anyone over 18 years of age, of any nationality, who has played in at least concert with ERSO including the concert on October 8^th, 2017 with Samuel Burstin).

Auditions will take place in November and candidates will be asked to perform part of one movement of their chosen concerto, accompanied by piano, and will be judged by a panel of ERSO Committee members plus the conductor Chris Stark.

Up to 4 semi-finalists will be selected to work on their concerto with ERSO and Peter Stark at an open rehearsal on January 21, 2018.

The winner will have the opportunity to perform their concerto in our 11 February Concert with Peter Stark.

Great rehearsal at ERSO last Sunday with Tom Hammond with some excellent (and fun work) done on Nielsen (Overture & Dance of Cockerels from Maskarade) and Sibelius 5.   A wise move to start with last movement of Sibelius as it can only get easier from there…..

We’re all looking forward to next Sunday when we will also have the chance to work on Grieg Piano Concerto with award-winning soloist Dinara Klinton.

We still have room for one or two more first violins for this fantastic concert – contact us on ersoinfo@gmail.com

if you know anyone who might like to join us.

We’re looking forward to Sunday’s first rehearsal for the ERSO Nordic themed concert with Tom Hammond. A reminder of rehearsal timings is shown below.

If any of you have any violin or double bass playing friends please do bring them along as we have a few more spaces (and plenty of chocolate brownies!) available. Its a fantastic programme and a rare chance to play the Nielsen pieces from Maskerade!

Let us know if you’re doing this so we can plan desking.

We have room for a few more violin and viola players to join us for a fantastic concert at St Johns, Waterloo on 21 May.  Its a Nordic programme, conducted by the wonderful Tom Hammond, and featuring award-winning young soloist Dinara Klinton.

The programme consists of the Overture and Dance of the Cockerels from Maskerade by Nielsen, the Grieg Piano Concerto and Sibelius 5 Symphony.  There are 2 rehearsals (10-5pm) on 7  and 14 May at Camden Girls School, NW5 2DB plus a rehearsal on the concert day at St. Johns, Waterloo.

The Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra (ERSO) is one of London’s leading and longest established amateur orchestras and we are a friendly group, working to a really high standard over a concentrated rehearsal period for each concert.

If you are a grade 8+ string player and are interested in playing in this concert or joining us more permanetnly please contact us on ersoinfo@gmail.com