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So we might have missed out on 2 of our 2020 concerts due to Covid. But we did manage to hold 2 really special competitions. Our emerging composers competition was the very last thing we did before lockdown no.1! We had a full orchestra and massive percussion section and spent the afternoon workshopping our fab five finalist’s pieces. Getting a chance to talk to them about their work and how they saw their pieces was a a great experience and the young composers had the chance to learn from each other and acclaimed composer Emma-Ruth Richards. A magical afternoon!

We selected 19-year old Alex Papp as our winner and, because the standard of the fanfares was so high, we also selected Jared Destro as a runner-up and both of their fanfares will feature in ERSO’s 90th birthday concert. Alex has also been commissioned to create a new piece for soloist and orchestra in partnership with tuba player Grady Hassan, the winner of the 2020 ERSO Soloist of the Year. This new solo piece will also be performed in our Birthday Gala concert.

We are very grateful to the RVW Trust for their generous support for this competition.

Well, 2020 hasn’t been quite what we expected…

But despite it all, there have been some magical musical moments and we’ll be taking a look back at them over the next few days. Meanwhile, we wish our audiences, friends, families and our wonderful players a very happy Christmas.

Last night’s Illuminating Classics concert at St Andrew Holborn was our first concert in the world of Covid-19 – and it was amazing to be back playing together for our small, socially distanced but incredibly warm and appreciative audience.

Despite the social distancing and mask wearing for all players apart from wind and brass, it really felt very special to be able to perform the Ballet Music from Idomeneo by Mozart and Haydn’s 99th Symphony, complete with musical examples and commentary to illuminate the music for our audience.

We are SO excited at the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra to be working with Grady Hassan, the winner of our 2020 ERSO Soloist of the Year competition.

First we’ll have the chance to perform the Vaughan Williams Tuba concerto with Grady as our soloist in next summer’s Waterloo Festival Concert.

And in November 2021 we’ll premiere an exciting new piece for tuba created by ERSO’s winning composer Alex Papp

Growing up surrounded by musicians, learning a musical instrument was almost an inevitability for Grady. Upon taking up the tuba, with support from his brass teaching father, Grady was soon playing with the National Youth Brass Band of Wales, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 

He is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music, having completed a Masters in Performance, where he studied under Lee Tsarmaklis and Peter Smith. Whilst at RCM, Grady was a recipient of the Michael Quinn Award, the Parnassus Award and Study Award as well as winner of the 2019 tuba prize. Prior to pursuing a career in music, Grady studied a Bachelors in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London.

From 2019 to 2020, Grady participated in the LPO Foyle Future Firsts professional development scheme. During this time, Grady regularly performed as an extra with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to his performing career, Grady is a peripatetic brass teacher for Lambeth Music Service.

“I am so excited to be performing the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra. I chose this piece as it beautifully showcases some of the lesser heard qualities that the tuba has to offer. With its virtuosic cadezas, lyrical passages and playful gestures, Vaughan William’s tuba concerto is really something special. I can’t wait!”

After an absolutely amazing set of performances from all four finalists, it was incredibly tough for our panel to decide on a winner for the 2020 ERSO Soloist of the Year competition.

We’re delighted to announce that we did reach a decision and that the winner is ERSO’s hugely talented brass leader and tuba player Grady Hassan.

Grady will perform the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with ERSO in our June concert and will perform a solo piece created by the winner of our composer’s competition Alex Papp at ERSO’s 90th Birthday Concert in November 2021.

It’s been a while coming, as Covid meant we had to postpone the Final of our 2020 ERSO Soloist of the Year competition. And today it’s finally time!

Want to know more about our “fab four” finalists??

Grady recently graduated from his Masters at the Royal College of Music.  His ambition is to secure a professional orchestral job and says, “to be able to make a living from playing the tuba would mean I’d never work a day in my life!”  He told us that he has always had an affinity for the lower pitched instruments of the orchestra, having also dabbled in bassoon and cello in the past. However, having grown up in a brass dominated household (Grady’s dad played in ERSO on occasion in the past!), the tuba won out.

Hugo is a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music and is also on trial with the BBC Philharmonic as sub-principal bassoon.  He started as a violin player before switching to the bassoon at 15 due to a lack of bassoons in the school’s orchestra, and has never regretted the change as he finds the bassoon much more rewarding to play!

Alastair splits his time between performing, composing and teaching. He is a Visiting Professor of Saxophone and Electronics at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performs as a soloist and in chamber ensembles and composes both contemporary works and educational music.

Preston, who is studying for a Masters told us  that when he was about three years old, as he was listening to his older sister practising at home and felt inspired to pick up one of her tiny violins and join in!

After more than 6 months, it was so great to be making music together again at ERSO this afternoon. A little different of course with social distancing, masks and all of the risk management processes, but totally worth it!

At ERSO we are proud and excited to share our very first #ERSOOnline project with everyone.

Check out our film  Lili Boulanger – D’un matin de printemps – An introduction by Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra which illuminates key aspects of the piece through examples and commentary from our conductor Chris Stark, followed by a full performance of the work.  At ERSO we’re all slightly obsessed by this fantastic piece and with Lili Boulanger, who deserved to be far better known!

A huge ERSO “thank you!” goes to our amazing principal conductor Christopher Stark, whose skill and masses of hard work meant that all of our individual parts were combined into this lovely film.

Enjoy and share!

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow it will be five whole months since our last ERSO rehearsal.  But how great that Sunday 15 March was an amazing one..

It was the Final Workshop for our ERSO Emerging Composers’ competiton.  We had a really tough choice to make in selecting a winner.  Our fab five finalists were selected from a really impressive set of candidates and the workshop showed why these five earned their places in the final.  Each composer had a totally unique approach to creating a Birthday Fanfare for Ernest Read –  but the thing that united them was talent!

After much deliberation, we were delighted to announce that talented young composition student Alexander Papp was the winner.  Alex will be creating an amazing new piece for the winner of our ERSO Soloist of the Year competition – watch this space to see who will be the lucky soloist who gets the chance to work with Alex…..

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At ERSO we really, really miss rehearsing and performing in front of our lovely audience of friends and family.  However, during the last few months we’ve been keeping busy and we’re almost ready to unveil our very first online musical project.

Our aim was to get ERSO players making music together again, albeit in a different way.  We’re all slightly obsessed with the piece we picked – “D’un matin de printemps” by the female composer Lili Boulanger, who deserved to be far better known.

A couple of lovely afternoons have been spent in virtual rehearsal, the players have all recorded their parts and many hours have been spent editing and now its almost time to share it with you all!

Meanwhile here’s a great recording of our chosen piece to whet your appetite!

Whilst we are waiting for Government guidance on when amateur orchestras will be allowed to start rehearsing again, we’re also making plans to ensure that we have protocols in place to allow this to happen safely once we are given the green light.

And finally, we’re enjoying staying in touch online with our players in our Online Quizes.  Turns out those violins are smart…

Hope to see you all soon, and meanwhile stay safe and well.