THE UK’S MOST EXCITING ORCHESTRA OF YOUNG MUSICIANS
TO PERFORM FIRST CONCERT SINCE THEIR ACCLAIMED BBC PROMS DEBUT
STRINGS AND SERENADES
ST GABRIEL’S CHURCH, PIMLICO, LONDON
FRIDAY 18 OCTOBER 2024
Fantasia Orchestra, the dynamic and versatile ensemble of some of the UK’s finest young musicians, will perform their first concert since making their debut at the BBC Proms 2024.
Strings and Serenades will take place St Gabriel’s Church in Pimlico on Friday 18 October,a programme exploring some of the musical giants of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
From meditative Pärt and smooth Duke Ellington to virtuosic Ligeti and trailblazing Alberga, the evening will showcase Fantasia’s strings and percussion. Star soloists Ben Goldscheider (horn) and Toby Spence (tenor) join Fantasia Orchestra to perform Benjamin Britten’s iconic Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, a beautiful work that will soar through the mid-19th century gothic interior of St Gabriel’s – a venue renowned for its resonant acoustics.
This concert demonstrates the orchestra’s ethos of creating genre-blurring programmes and forging creative connections and collaborations through music.
Programme
Pärt – Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Ellington, arr. Gould – Sophisticated Lady
Kidane – Be Still
Alberga – Shining Gate of Morpheus (for horn & strings)
– Interval –
Ligeti – Ramifications
Ellington, arr. Gould – Solitude
Percy Grainger – Irish Tune from County Derry (Danny Boy)
Benjamin Britten- Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Conductor and Artistic Director Tom Fetherstonhaugh said, “Making long-lasting connections through music is at the heart of Fantasia’s mission, and it is a joy to be bringing this programme to London with two of the country’s finest soloists – Ben Goldscheider and Toby Spence. For the first concert this season, I’m delighted to be playing an eclectic programme that brings together music from Duke Ellington to Eleanor Alberga.”
Fantasia’s BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in August featured soloists and long-time collaborators Sheku and Braimah Kanneh–Mason and Plínio Fernandes,and won them a host of new admirers as they brought a youthful energy and vibrancy to the famous festival. Their repertoire included music by Bartok, Brahms, Dvorak, Laura Mvula, Piazzolla, and Chic.
Fantasia Orchestra was founded in 2016 by conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh and is home to the best of young British classical music talent today. It has recently collaborated with other eminent soloists including Martin James Bartlett, Alim Beisembayev, Jess Gillam, Thomas Gould, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Vadym Kholodenko, Jennifer Pike, Laura van der Heijden, and Steven Osborne. The connections in the orchestra were forged at the Royal Academy of Music, where Tom and many of the other musicians and soloists met and studied together from 2011 onwards.
Education is central to the ethos of Fantasia and 2020 saw the launch of its partnership with the music education charity the DaCapo Music Foundation. Together, they have delivered initiatives including a series of school workshops entitled ‘Take Note’, bringing music-making to primary schools in London with little or no music provision – these sessions repeatedly receive fantastic feedback from children and teachers alike. They have also created a new resource for the primary classroom: DaCapo Online is a comprehensive, ambitious and inclusive music curriculum that features Fantasia musicians at every stage.