On Saturday 4th May 2024, Ely Sinfonia will play an exciting programme of film music, ranging from the classical to the modern. Watch this space for further information. Artistic Director Steve Bingham writes:
“So much great music has been written for film over the last 50 years and more, and when we saw that our spring 2024 concert was going to be on ‘Star Wars day’ it was unthinkable for us not to mark this with a rich programme of film music from a range of composers and genres. This is definitely going to be a blockbuster of a concert!”
Bolero, An American in Paris and Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony – a total triumph
Saturday 23rd September 2023, Ely Cathedral
“Ely Sinfonia’s best concert yet” was how one audience member described it. Saturday 23rd September saw Ely Sinfonia playing to an almost capacity audience, with what was tantamount to a standing ovation at the end.
The concert began with Ravel’s Bolero, made famous by Torvill and Dean’s iconic figure skating performance in the 1984 winter Olympics, which won the highest ever figure skating score– straight sixes.
After one of the most exciting starts to any concert, we travelled to France with Gershwin’s An American in Paris, one of the lushest pieces to come out of the USA in the early twentieth century. The taxi horns came through loud and clear.
Finally, we buried ourselves in Saint-Saens’ organ symphony. “You ask for the symphony: you don’t know what you ask,” said the composer. “It will be terrifying . . . ” At the first performance the critics were unsure, but the audience loved the piece and Saint-Saens’ colleague Charles Gounod responded with “There goes the French Beethoven”. Come and decide what you think.
Tickets start at £10 and are available from Ely Cathedral Box Office, tel 01353 660349, email box.office@elycathedral.org or online from https://www.elycathedral.org/events/ely-sinfonia-2. For further information check out https://www.facebook.com/events/765934415331845
Download a copy of the flyer here
Rehearsal video from the joint concert with Ely Choral Society on July 8th 2023
Fantasia on Greensleeves in rehearsal on the day of the concert