Ely Sinfonia concert in Ely Cathedral Presbytery – Fri. 19th June.

Ely Sinfonia

One of the highlights of the Isle of Ely Arts Festival is coming up on Friday 19^th June, when Ely Sinfonia plays an exciting and unusual concert in the intimate surroundings of Ely Cathedral Presbytery.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue is a radical departure from the orchestra’s traditional classical repertoire.  Taking as its starting point the well-known rhyme from English folklore, the programme breaks rules by mixing musical genres, ranging from Purcell and Haydn at one end of the spectrum to

Jenny Bingham

Nina Simone, Regina Spektor, Weather Report and Evanescence at the other.  Ely Sinfonia and its conductor Steve Bingham are joined by Steve’s daughter Jenny on vocals and local music theatre director, musician and composer Rowan Marshall, who has done new arrangements of some of the songs especially for this concert.

Not only will this give the audience an exceptional opportunity to experience a wide range of musical styles, but it allows the orchestra to make imaginative use of the space provided by the Cathedral, for example, in Haydn’s Symphony no 45 (Farewell), when orchestra members will leave the stage until only two solo violinists remain.  Dido’s Lament, from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question and Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Song suite provide a more classical antedote to Rowan Marshall’s lively and well-crafted orchestral arrangements of pieces such as Evanescence’s rendering of Lacrymosa from Mozart’s Requiem.  These and more should make for an entertaining and surprising evening.  To add to the entertainment and intimacy of the event, the interval drinks bar will also be serving strawberries and cream.

Alongside the concert, as part of Ely Sinfonia’s Outreach programme, artistic director Steve Bingham will be running workshop in a number of local schools.  Additional workshops run by Ely Sinfonia can be arranged for interested schools by contacting elysin@gmail.com.

Tickets for the concert cost £15 (£12 concessions) and are available from Ely Cathedral Box Office (Tel 01353 660349), email box.office@elycathedral.org, or online from  https://tickets.elycathedral.org.