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We’re so excited to work with hugely talented young music student Joe (Chu-Yu) Yang in our Brahms and Debussy concert in Feb 2020.   We met Joe in the 2019 ERSO Soloist of the Year competition and were hugely impressed by his performance as a Finalist.

If you are an ambitious soloist like Joe check out our ERSO Soloist of the Year 2020.   The winner will be our June soloist AND have a solo piece commissioned for them by the winner of our composers’ competition.   To be eligible you’ll need to take part in our Feb or March concerts – see dates: https://erso.london/members/current-detailed-concert-schedule/

As Joe’s story proves, the Finalists have a very good chance of being engaged as soloists in other concerts too.  And of the 8 Finalists from 2018 and 2019 HALF of the musicians were violinists!

At ERSO we’re excited like a child before Christmas – we can’t wait to review all of the amazing submissions for our ERSO emerging composers’ competition

Did you know that it’s not such a new idea for ERSO to be getting involved with composers?  John Rutter’s Partita for Orchestra (his first orchestral work!) was commissioned by the Ernest Read Music Association to celebrate the 50th anniversary concert of the London Junior Orchestra (later known as the Ernest Read Youth Orchestra). Rutter dedicated his work to Ernest’s wife Helen.

April 1976 saw the first performance at the 50th anniversary concert at the Festival Hall.  The concert was attended by royalty  – Princess Alexandra (the Queen’s cousin and ERMA’s patron) was present!

If the answer is yes, then good news!  Our ERSO Soloist of the Year 2020 competition could make your wish come true!

We have some spots left in upper strings and double basses for our Brahms and Debussy.

Anyone who takes part in this project (including rehearsals) will be eligible to enter and potentially win the prize of being our soloist in the June concert, as well as having a solo piece commissioned from the winner of our emerging composers’ competition.

This solo piece will be premiered by the winning soloist in ERSO’s 90th Birthday concert at the Duke’s Hall in February 2021.

Interested?  Get in touch on ersoinfo@gmail.com

At ERSO we are SO excited to be working with hugely talented young soloist Joe (Chu Yu) Yang in our Brahms and Debussy concert in Feb 2020.  He’ll be delighting our audience with The Lark Ascending by Vaughan-Williams.

 

We met Joe when he applied for the 2019 ERSO Soloist of the Year competition and were hugely impressed by his performance in the final.

If you are an ambitious soloist and feeling envious of Joe, then check out our ERSO Soloist of the Year 2020 comoetition – the winner will be our June soloist AND have a solo piece commissioned for them by the winner of our composers’ competition.  And Joe’ss story proves, the finalists have a very good chance of being engaged as soloists in other concerts too.

At ERSO we are so pleased to welcome our great friend Tom Hammond back as our guest conductor for our November “Firebird” choral concert.

It is always such a pleasure to work with Tom and we know that we’ll create a really special concert together with the talented young musicians at the Camden School for Girls.

That’s certainly what our appreciative audience thought at last night’s Mozart and Mendelssohn concert!

They clearly loved soloist Isabella Fleming’s beautifully sensitive and accomplished performance of Mozart’s 2nd Violin concerto.  Bella was a Finalist in the 2019 ERSO Soloist of the Year competition and we were so impressed by her performance in the Final that we just had to ask her to be our soloist.

The evening commenced with the striking Chavez arrangement of Buxtehude’s Chaconne and concluded with a stirring performance of Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony.

We can’t wait to get started on rehearsals for the next concert which includes Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

Did you know that the winner of ERSO’s 2020 Soloist of the Year competition will have twice the prize this year?

 

They’ll have the chance to perform the concerto of their choice as our soloist in the June Waterloo Festival Concert

AND they will also be our soloist in ERSO’s big 90th Birthday concert in spring 2021, playing a new piece that will be commissioned for them by the winner of the ERSO emerging composers’ competition: “A Fanfare for Ernest Read”

Interested?  To be eligible players need to take part in one ERSO concert (including rehearsals).  We are looking for for a few more experienced string players for our November 24th concert which has a great programme incuding Stravinsky’s Firebird.

Check out the November rehearsal dates on the Rehearsal schedule and the details about the 2020 ERSO soloist competition.   Get in touch on ersoinfo@gmail.com

 

ERSO’s Mozart & Mendelssohn concert this coming Sunday (27th October) has amazing music, a fabulously talented soloist Bella Fleming PLUS the chance to win over £400 of luxury chocolate from ethical producer MIA.

And tickets are a hugely reasonable £10 in advance from We Got Tickets. And only £5 for children and students!  What are you waiting for??

 

Ernest Read was passionate about spreading music as widely as possible to children and young people and put on his first concert for schools in 1929.   He developed an innovative format that many professional symphony orchestras still follow today, with short programmes, accessible introductions to the repertoire and audience participation.   The renowned Ernest Read Concerts for Children began in 1945 and sold out for over 50 years.

Today, we devote at least two concerts a year to working with Camden children.

We’re so excited to work with the talented young singers and players from Camden School for Girls in the November 24th “Firebird” Choral Concert at the beautiful church of St Martins at Gospel Oak.

The concert will be a real treat and will include Stravinsky’s haunting Firebird Suite and Mussorgsky’s dramatic Night on a Bare Mountain, in which ERSO will be joined by the talented young orchesral musicians from the school.  The school’s fabuous chamber choir will perform Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit accompanied by ERSO and we’ll also be presenting some wonderful solo singers.

Entry to the concert is free with a retiring collection

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