Chichester Symphony Orchestra and the University join musical forces

The concert will be at St Paul's in Northgate, Chichester on Saturday evening March 29, starting at 7.30pm when the programme will be Richard Strauss – Also Sprach Zarathustra (excerpt); Jeff Wayne – music from War of the Worlds; Calvin Custer & M Giacchino – Star Trek through the years; David Bowie – Space Oddity & Life on Mars; Elton John – Rocket Man; John Williams – Flying theme from ET; Claude Debussy – Clair de Lune; John Williams – Star Wars suite; and Gustav Holst – Mars, Venus and Jupiter from The Planets Suite.

Crispin Ward, head of orchestral studies at the University of Chichester, will conduct the first half; Simon Wilkins, who conducts the symphony orchestra, will conduct the second half. Their reward, as Crispin says, will be the chance to work with a genuinely big orchestra, the two groups together.

“The chairman of the symphony orchestra Greg Slay asked if we would be interested in getting together. Their conductor Simon and I came up with the programme with the theme of space and science fiction. It just seemed like fun. This is our first joint venture and it makes a really big old orchestra plus we've got the singers. It really is a big project.”

Crispin is delighted to include the Star Wars theme: “My uncle was the literary editor of The Observer at the time of its premiere and I went to the premiere. I suppose I was 11 at the time and it was just remarkable. I'd always been a fan of sci-fi, but when Star Wars came out there was just nothing else like it. We had had Star Trek which was a 60s show really but then we had this and I can remember being at the front of the balcony and I just remember the noise of this huge monstrous spaceship coming over my head. It really was quite something.”

Also part of the programme, Crispin is delighted to include both Space Oddity and Space Odyssey plus three of The Planets by Holst who is buried in Chichester Cathedral.

“We will be rehearsing separately and rehearsing together and then coming together on the day. Until we do it we won't know how difficult it is but every day there are so many questions to answer. It takes a lot of doing but it's great because it gives on students the chance to work with a really big orchestra – and the symphony orchestra is great. I've seen them several times. They are a fine amateur orchestra, and I'm really pleased to be working with them.”

As for whether this is the start of an ongoing collaboration, as Crispin says, it's a question of seeing how big an audience they get and how it goes on the day: “But maybe to do something like this once a year would be good.”

Tickets are adults £17, students £5, under 16s free. Tickets are available on the door or to reserve in advance from TicketSource and Chichester Box Office.