Ensemble Reza set to delight Crawley's Christmas shoppers

They will be performing a 20-minute festive set on the hour and on the half hour from 12 midday to 4pm in the County Mall Shopping Centre on December 11.

Their festive programme of music will include The Snowman, Nutcracker and carols to sing along to.

Hannah Carter, Ensemble Reza managing director, said: “It will be like a series of mini concerts and there will be chairs. People can come and sit down and listen and have a break from their Christmas shopping with some world-class musicians. And it will be very festive. Our stage will have a lot of festive lights and we will be dressed festively. It’s about audience development and also about lifting the spirits of people and getting people engaged with classical music and also just raising awareness of Ensemble Reza, letting people know that we exist and letting them know about the work that we do in the community. And we will have our free lunchtime concerts in Crawley every fourth Tuesday of the month from January. We’re going to be making it a roaming series and we will be travelling around Crawley. You will be able to get full details from the website.

“We have done this kind of Christmas thing before with the community orchestra quite a lot in Haywards Heath but it was not under cover and it was very, very chilly! After most of the musicians turned blue we decided not to do it anymore at that time of the year but to do it in the summer. But during the festive season, it’s really nice to go out and play in public spaces. I don’t think you can get a better exposure than doing that at this time of year. It is about taking the music to the people rather than expecting them to come to the venue. I’m really hoping in January we will be playing in more public spaces and being more active around Crawley.”