WREXHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
40TH 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”
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
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
Conductor: Richard Adamson
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Barber: Adagio for strings
Copland: Rodeo
Dvorak: Symphony No.9 “From the
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
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
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,
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
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”
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 28th 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)