Chichester return for cellist Ben Rogerson with BBC Concert Orchestra

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Friday Night is Music Night offers A Celebration of Film at Chichester Festival Theatre courtesy of the BBC Concert Orchestra on Friday, January 17 – a happy return to Chichester for cellist Ben Rogerson who grew up in the city, son of the CFT’s long-serving general manager Paul.

“I first played the cello on the stage there when I was 13 or 14 in the West Sussex Youth Orchestra,” Ben recalls. “I remember Bradley Creswick who was a Bognor boy playing there and he was just really inspiring. He was like a gypsy fiddler in his appearance with his broad grin, and his playing was just out of this world.”

Before that, on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage, Ben had played The Boy in a production of Much Ado About Nothing in 1978 or 79.

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“I'm really looking forward to coming back to Chichester with the band. It's always exciting to play for a large, live and appreciative audience. It really completes the circuit and the feedback we get from the audience enhances what we do. A virtuous circle! We have done some exciting proms this year – notably the Disco Prom and Mancini – but a lot of what we do is studio work eg Call The Midwife which is quite a contrast.”

Friday Night is Music Night is a regular Chichester appearance for the BBC Concert Orchestra: “We love Friday Night is Music Night. It's just the best. It's a really fun show. It's the longest-running live music programme in the world on radio. It first aired in 1953. The BBC Concert Orchestra do around half of them, the lion’s share and the others are spread around the other BBC orchestras. London is the home and we're going to start doing them regularly from Alexandra Palace but we do them regularly in places around the country where we have built up a relationship, places like Chichester which is a regular and also Nottingham and Great Yarmouth and Saffron Walden. Friday Night is Music Night used to be on Radio 2 but within the last six to 12 months it has been rejuvenated and brought onto Radio 3 and they do it brilliantly.”

For Chichester, conductor Richard Balcombe, presenter Petroc Trelawny and the BBC Concert Orchestra invite you to a celebration of great British film scores, including classic movie themes by Vaughan Williams and Arthur Bliss, and melodies that you know and love – 633 Squadron, The Dam Busters, and Walton’s stirring Spitfire Prelude.

The orchestra is promising “big tunes, great stories and glorious nostalgia” – all broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

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