Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra flourishing as they offer latest concert

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Orchestral Transformations is the autumn concert from Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra in Worthing Assembly Hall on Sunday, November 24 at 3pm.

The programme will be Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1919 Version); Liszt: Piano Concerto No 1 in E-flat major; and Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra – Ekaterina Grabova, piano (winner of the 2024 Coulsdon and Purley Festival) and Dominic Grier, conductor.

It all comes at a great time for the orchestra, as Dominic says: “We are doing really well. We are attracting more players which really helps when you're presenting the big virtuosic symphonic pieces to a good standard in a way that is attracting more audiences and more players. I'm noticing perhaps some new faces in the audiences. We are in a very good place at the moment in terms of membership. We've got about 80 subscribing members and we are able to make sure that we are providing something slightly different to the excellent Worthing Symphony Orchestra.

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“We are so far out of the choppy waters of the pandemic now that people have settled into new rhythms in their lives and that has given us a number of opportunities. People have come to me and said that they have not played the violin in public for years but have started practising again personally and they would like to be part of the orchestra or people have moved down here for a few years to be doing a doctorate and I'm always very happy to accommodate them in the orchestra.

“And for me what makes it so enjoyable is being able to give people something special on a weekday at end of the day when they've had a hard day at work, to be able to facilitate their joy in music-making and also to give them the chance to come together socially. And it's also great how we can bring something very special to the community in terms of collaborations with people wanting to do things with us, whether it's a rock band wanting to work with us or people wanting to put on an outdoor concert or music therapies. There is a huge range of activities that we can do as part of the community and to be able to do that is a particular joy for me. Doing a professional freelance job you can just tend to fly in and out but it's lovely to be able to do this kind of work with the orchestra in the community across such a wide range activities.”

As for the programme for the latest Worthing concert: “I wanted to string together pieces that to some extent were to do with the transformation of thematic material which sounds very high falutin’ but all of these composers were interested in traditional folk melodies and to some extent built these melodies into their writing. All of them transformed material into greater orchestral sonority and use the pieces in different ways, whether they're dressing them up in different contexts or faster or slower. And the piano concerto does this as well. That's really the thread between the pieces but also two of the conductors Liszt and Bartók were both Hungarian.”

Also coming up from the orchestra is A Fairytale Christmas on Sunday, December 15 at 3pm, a Christmas concert for all the family including selections from The Sleeping Beauty, Mother Goose, Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella, seasonal favourites, popular classics and sing-along carols for all, featuring Worthing Choral Society, Sompting Village Primary School Choir and Dominic Grier, conductor.

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