WREXHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

40^TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

Our Fortieth Anniversary Season already promises to be the most exciting and ambitious group of concerts Wrexham Symphony Orchestra has ever put together, with a mix of international and local conducting talent combined with a local but internationally renowned soloist for our May concert.

“Russian Nights”

Saturday 13^th December 2008, NEWI William Aston Hall

Conductor: Kenneth Woods

Mussorgsky: Night on a Bare Mountain

Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé

Rachmaninov: Symphony No.1

Hailed by the Washington Post as an “up-and-coming conductor” and a “true star” of the podium, American Kenneth Woods has built a reputation as a multifaceted musician whose credits range from the Mahler symphonies to collaborations with members of James Brown’s classic band. He is currently conductor of the Oregon East Symphony, Surrey Mozart Players and the Rose City Chamber Orchestra.

Already known in America as one of the most exciting conductors of the new generation, Kenneth Woods is quickly becoming recognized as major talent on the international scene. He has worked with many orchestras of international distinction including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared on the stages of some of the world’s leading music festivals, including Aspen, Lucerne, Round Top and Scotia. His work on the concert platform and in the recording studio has led to numerous broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, National Public Radio, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Despite this international acclaim, Kenneth has held his links with WSO since 2004, when he acted as tutor and conductor for its morning’s workshop with members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He returned in Spring 2007 for a memorable full programme which included Elgar’s First Symphony. It will indeed be a pleasure for the orchestra to work alongside him once more, with an exhilarating Russian trio of works.

“From the New World”

Saturday 28^th February 2009, NEWI William Aston Hall

Conductor: Richard Adamson

Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

Barber: Adagio for strings

Copland: Rodeo

Dvorak: Symphony No.9 “From the New World”

In this concert we welcome Richard Adamson to the podium for the first time. He is a young conductor based in St Asaph who regularly plays viola within the orchestra. Richard has always had a passion for music with a strong nationalistic flavour, regardless of latitude! In this concert he indulges his taste for music from across the pond with some of the best known works by Dvorak, Copland and Barber.

LLŶR WILLIAMS

Saturday 2^nd May 2009, NEWI William Aston Hall

Wrexham Arts Festival

Conductor: Mark Lansom

Piano: Llŷr Williams

Wagner: Prelude to Act I: Lohengrin

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2

Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Gershwin: An American in Paris

We are extremely honoured to be welcoming Llŷr back to our orchestra for the third time, though it is certainly his first time as an internationally renowned pianist.

His success, however, is of little surprise to long time members of the orchestra and its audience who will remember him playing Shostakovich and Gershwin with them whilst still a teenager. He went on to read music at Queen's College, Oxford, graduating in 1998 with a first class alpha degree, continuing to take up a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he won every prize and award. He shot to fame in 2002 in a sensational debut the Edinburgh International Festival.

Llŷr Williams has appeared recently with the BBC Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras at the BBC Proms, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra, and toured the United States with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in January 2007.

We are very proud that he has agreed to perform with us once more, indeed playing probably the most popular piano concerto of all time. His performance is complemented with three other extraordinary pieces, from the high romanticism of Wagner, through the sensual impressionism of Debussy, to the heady jazz of George Gershwin.

FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

“The Planets”

Saturday 11^th July 2009, NEWI William Aston Hall

Conductors: Mark Lansom, Greg Williams

Bryn Williams: Welsh Folk Song Suite

Khachaturian: Spartacus (Suite No. 2)

Holst: The Planets

In this celebration concert, the orchestra performs music by its founder, Bryn Williams. He wrote his Suite in 1970 for the newly formed Wrexham Orchestra (the title “Symphony” was added in the early 1990’s) and conducted it himself that year. Forty years on, his son Greg takes to the platform for what will surely be a memorable repeat performance.

Mark Lansom – himself son of a previous conductor of the orchestra – will by now have been a conductor of the orchestra for ten years, and reprises the Khachaturian Suite from his own 1999 debut.

To round off the first forty years in no uncertain fashion is a performance of Holst’s Planets Suite, which will require the largest ensemble the orchestra has ever put together.

The best way to reserve your tickets for all four of these concerts is to pre-book by becoming a Friend of the Orchestra. We expect all to sell well, especially of course Llŷr Williams’s performance. For “non-Friends”(!), tickets for Llŷr’s performance will go on sale at the February 28^th concert.

Tickets £9 Balcony, £7 Stalls, £5 Concessions (excepting the special offer outlined above). Free child ticket with each full-paying adult. Available from Denbighshire Travel, The Music Place, DSL Mobility, or at the door. Please get in touch with the website if you live beyond Wrexham and wish to reserve tickets.

(WSO reserve the right to change any of the above information if necessary without prior notice)

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