Our winter concert was special as one of our members - Julian Ward wrote the music for The Lewis Chess Suite with support from Michael Graham and arranged for orchestra by Lorna McLaren. Little did we know that when Julian joined us a few years ago that such talent was lurking underneath the surface, or that it would open up new doors and opportunities for LoCCO.
Our concert started with Haydns Trumpet Concerto. arranged by Andrew J Smith for the BBC Ten Pieces programme
This was followed by Pippa Reid- Foster and her students; Brooke Campbell, Robyn Flemming and Sophie Twist playing the harp. Pippa featured some of her own compositions and arrangements. This was the first time this group had joined us at a concert and we hope it will not be the last.
We then moved on to the main event - The Lewis Chess Suite which was inspired by Julians own sculptures of 5 of the Lewis Chess Men - The King, The Queen The Berserker or Rook, The Bishop and the Knight. The Bishop is written for a choir and St Michaels Church Choir joined us for this performance. The was another first for LoCCO and we look forward to collaberating with them in the future.
Learning a new piece of music is allways a challenge but learning a piece for it first public performance has extra difficulties and we needed extra support from our tutors to make this a success. Fortunately the SCOPS Art Trust generously granted LoCCO funds to get the extra tuition we needed.
This was the first concert under the baton of our new condustor Moira Frize-Williams. She has welcomed the challenge that this term brought with enthusiasm and we hope this will be the start of a long and happy partnership.
You can hear an electronic version of the music by clicking on the link below