August 17, 2010
New commission for China Tour
The Amadeus Orchestra, with funding from the RVW Trust, has commissioned British composer Alastair King to write a new work for large orchestra that they will take on tour to eight Chinese cities between December 26th 2010 and January 7th 2011. Alastair has had several of his works premiered by Amadeus over the past 15 years and is as at home in the Hollywood studio as he is on the concert platform, having been a finalist in Masterprize (LSO) and also having worked on films such as the Harry Potter series, Pirates of the Carribean and Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
June 28, 2010
Correction
The most recent news item titled “YCAT success” should have read:
On Friday 21st May 2010 Michael Gurevich, our principal guest leader and David Edmonds, our principal cellist, were selected for representation by YCAT (Young Concert Artists Trust) at the Public Final Auditions held at Wigmore Hall. Michael and David will be performing concertos with the orchestra on our next tour of China which takes place from 26th December 2010 – 7th January 2011. See http://www.ycat.co.uk/rhodes-piano-trio for more details.
June 17, 2010
YCAT Success
Michael Gurevich, our principal guest leader and David Edmonds, our principal cellist, have just been awarded the Elias Fawcett award in the Royal Oversees League Ensemble Awards finals. Michael and David will be performing concertos with the orchestra on our next tour of China which takes place from 26th December 2010 – 7th January 2011.
May 24, 2010
Concert Dates
Our main summer concerts will take place in Exeter Cathedral on 22 July and Wells Cathedral on 23rd July. The programme will consist of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Janis Kelly (Soprano) and Richard Morrison (baritone), Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with Francesca Barritt, and Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel. This year sees the 80th birthday of one of Britain’s most important living composers: Peter Hope. We will be celebrating with him by performing his sizzling piece, Kaleidoscope.
March 25, 2010
Seventeenth International Week of Beer and Music
The dates of the Seventeenth International Week of Beer and Music have been announced as 18 – 24 July 2010. The course is an orchestral training course for music students and young professionals and will feature concerts in Wells and Exeter Cathedrals. Tutors on the course include Philip Mackenzie, Edwin Roxburgh, Peter Bassano and Mark Messenger.
February 23, 2010
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus
One of Britain’s leading choruses, the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, is to join forces with Amadeus Orchestra in a performance of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony in Exeter Cathedral on 22 July and Wells Cathedral on 23rd July this year. The soloists will be Janis Kelly (Soprano) and Richard Morrison (Baritone). The programme will also feature the Lark Ascending and music by Strauss and Peter Hope.
December 16, 2009
Playing for the King
Two Amadeus musicians were recently selected to form part of an international orchestra to play for the King of Thailand’s 82nd birthday celebrations in Bangkok. They played to nearly 1.5 million people live over the course of three evenings.The musicians were Leah Evans (cello) and Biff Norton (percussion).
August 28, 2009
Michael Gurevich
Michael Gurevich (member of Amadeus Orchestra since 2006 and guest leader of the 2007 China Tour) has been notching up a number of notable successes recently including being asked to trial for the post of Leader of Manchester Camerata (one of the UK’s finest chamber orchestras) and being asked to join the London Haydn Quartet. He will appear with this quartet at the Carnegie Hall in New York in March 2010.
June 12, 2009
China Tour dates announced
The dates for the fourth tour of China undertaken by the Amadeus Orchestra will be 26 December 2009 – 8th January 2010. The orchestra will perform a selection of English and Chinese pieces to audiences in seven Chinese cities.
May 5, 2009
Kathleen Ferrier Award
Britain’s most prestigious award for singers, the Kathleen Ferrier Award, has been won by Sarah Jane Brandon. Sarah Jane has been a regular with Amadeus over the past two years, having performed ten concerts with us and undertaken a tour of China with the orchestra.
April 17, 2009
Symphony Orchestra of India
The Symphony Orchestra of India has invited 25 members of the Amadeus Orchestra to work alongside them in Bombay for two weeks in September. The orchestra last visited Bombay at the invitation of the British Council in 2001 and is looking forward to a fruitful collaboration with SOI.
April 15, 2009
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
David Edmonds, principal cellist of the Amadeus Orchestra since 2006, has been accepted on the academy course in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He will play with the orchestra for six months while receiving lessons from their principal cellist. This prestigious post is only offered to one cellist each year. Read more here: http://www.concertgebouworkest.nl/page.ocl?pageID=44
March 5, 2009
You Tube Symphony Orchestra
One of Amadeus Orchestra’s percussionists, Owain Williams, has been selected to play in the You Tube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York. Owain, 23, has been selected in a world wide on-line vote along with 90 other musicians from 30 different countries. He was chosen from 3000 audition videos submitted to You Tube from amateur and professional musicians.
December 1, 2008
Week of Beer and Music 2009
The dates of the Sixteenth International Week of Beer and Music are to be 19th – 25th July 2009. It will be held as usual at Perrott Hill School in Somerset with concerts in Wells and Exeter Cathedrals. The programme will include Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with Alexander Karpeyev, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Shostakovich’s First Symphony. Applications for this summer orchestral training course are invited via the Amadeus Orchestra website.
October 3, 2008
Radio 3 Performance
The Amadeus Orchestra will appear on Radio 3 on Thursday 16th October, between 7pm and 9.15 pm. They will play one movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony, recorded live at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on March 30th 2008, conducted by Philip Mackenzie.
September 24, 2008
Amadeus chosen to launch new Ford Fiesta
The Amadeus orchestra has been chosen to provide the live music at the launch of the new Ford Fiesta on Tuesday 30th September 2008 at the Tower of London. The orchestra was selected for its quality and youthful vitality. We will be accompanying Mark Ramprakash and some dancing cars, playing two Tangos by Piazolla.
September 20, 2008
Our Musical Director
Our Musical Director, Philip Mackenzie, has just been appointed Principal Conductor of the London Mozart Symphony Orchestra. He will combine this international role with that of MD of the Amadeus Orchestra.
July 8, 2008
Summer concert dates
You can hear the Amadeus Orchestra in a number of locations this summer: on July 23rd at Exeter Cathedral with Eduard Diadiura, the famous Russian conductor and on July 24th in Wells Cathedral with their musical director, Philip Mackenzie. They appear in chamber form in Chipping Sodbury on July 26th and will give an outdoor fireworks concert at Burntwood Wakes on August 9th. On August 20th they appear at Ipswich School. For more details, see our concerts page.
May 8, 2008
More outside gigs for Amadeus Orchestra
More and more promoters of classical music are turning to the Amadeus Orchestra for their live music. Two more Choral societies, the Frome Festival Chorus and the Athenaeum Singers of Warminster have booked us to accompany them in May and June this year. We will be playing Bach’s B minor Mass in Wells Cathedral on May 26th and Brahm’s Requiem at the Minster in Warminster on June 7th.
January 24, 2008
Third visit to Burntwood
The Burntwood Wakes have invited the Amadeus Orchestra back for a third time this August to give a fireworks concert that includes playing the Dambusters while a Spitfire flies overhead.
November 29, 2007
World’s Newest Concert Hall?
The Amadeus Orchestra is to play in what is perhaps the world’s newest concert hall. Opened in July 2006 the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre will host the Amadeus Orchestra in January for two concerts titled “Imagine Olympics”.
Skandia and LSO St Lukes
Three more dates are announced for the Amadeus Orchestra. Skandia, (savings, pensions, investments etc) has booked Amadeus to add a sense of occasion to their forthcoming conference in Newport in January. We have also been booked to play at LSO St Lukes on May 23rd. February will see the entire orchestra play at a private wedding. Now there’s style!
September 5, 2007
Concerts in Ipswich and Chelmsford
As the fame of the orchestra spreads, our bookings increase. After the success of this year’s concert, Ipswich school have asked us back next year and Bishops Stortford Choral Society have made their first booking with us to perform Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Chelmsford Cathedral.
August 13, 2007
Amadeus goes Carbon Neutral
As our forthcoming tour to China is likely to use around 2 tonnes of CO2 per person in flights alone, we decided to do something about it. We will therefore be planting 200 trees in Gloucestershire this autumn. This will replace the CO2 over the course of the trees’ lifetimes. Players in the orchestra will be invited to come and help dig!
July 26, 2007
New CD released by Musical Director
Our Musical Director and Principal Conductor, Philip Mackenzie, has just released a new CD on the Dutton Digital label. “Over the Water” was recorded by Philip and the Manchester Camerata last summer and features John Turner as soloist.
June 23, 2007
School visit
The orchestra has been booked by Ipswich School to give workshops and a concert on 22nd August this year. See the concerts page for details.
June 12, 2007
3rd Tour to China
The dates have now been fixed for the 3rd Amadeus Tour to China. These are 26th December – 9th January. More details will be published on the website when they are available.
May 21, 2007
Getty Images
The photographs that Getty Images took of the Amadeus Orchestra last year are now up on their website. These pictures are used by newspapers worldwide to illustrate stories as well as being bought by advertising companies etc.
May 17, 2007
New Trustees
The appointment of four new Trustees of the orchestra was confirmed yesterday at the Trustees’ Annual Meeting. The new Trustees are: Nick Ayling OBE, Veronica Faulks, Bridget Hanbury and Ian Warren.
May 16, 2007
Faure Requiem
The Amadeus Orchestra has been booked to perform Faure’s Requiem at St Botolph’s Church, Bishopsgate, on Thursday 12th July at 6pm. The conductor will be Peter Asprey.
April 27, 2007
Rawsthorne World Premiere
We are to give the world premiere of Alan Rawsthorne’s newly reconstructed Kubla Khan at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, on Sunday 30th March 2008. This was to have taken place at the Royal Albert Hall but with Rawsthorne’s strong Manchester connections, it was decided to move the event to the more prestigious Bridgewater Hall.
March 29, 2007
Harry Potter!
Our Composer in Residence, Alastair King, is currently orchestrating and conducting the music for the next Harry Potter film, The Order of the Phoenix
March 17, 2007
New video clips of the Amadeus Orchestra in action
We’ve added some video clips to the website, of the orchestra performing in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.
The clips include excerpts from the Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
We’ve also updated our forthcoming concerts page, and there’s still time to register for this year’s International Week of Beer and Music
March 5, 2007
We launch our new website!
Welcome to the new Amadeus website, where you can discover more about the orchestra.
Find out about the 14th International Week of Beer and Music and how you can get involved,
as well as details of our upcoming concerts
We hope you’ll enjoy exploring the site
© Amadeus Chorus & Orchestra 2007. All rights reserved