Programme:
Strauss - Serenade for Wind in Eb op.7
Beethoven - Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb (soloist - Rebecca Taylor)
Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night's Dream - Mendelssohn
Mozart - Symphony no.25 in G minor
Strauss - Serenade for Wind in Eb op.7
Beethoven - Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb (soloist - Rebecca Taylor)
Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night's Dream - Mendelssohn
Mozart - Symphony no.25 in G minor
Soloist - Rebecca Taylor (Piano)
Rebecca read music as Organ Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, studying with David Sanger. As both an organist and choral conductor she has broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 & 4, made CD recordings and performed in the UK and abroad in venues such as Westminster Abbey, St.George's Chapel Windsor, York Minster, Christ Church Dublin, St Marks Venice. Since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music on the MA Piano Accompaniment course under Michael Dussek and Carole Presland, Rebecca Taylor has been increasingly in demand both as an accompanist and repetiteur. Whilst at the Academy, Rebecca was a prizewinner in the Rex Stephens Lieder Prize, a finalist in the Richard Lewis Song Competition and was highly commended in both the Major van Someron-Godfrey English Song Prize and the Scott Huxley Piano Accompaniment Competition. Rebecca was awarded a distinction in her LRAM diploma and was a member of the prestigious Academy Song Circle. After graduating, Rebecca continued her training as a Junior Fellow Trainee Répétituer and was also successful in gaining a place on the Solti Peretti Repetiteurs' Masterclass Course in 2014. As an accompanist, Rebecca’s reputation is growing following her success in winning the Maureen Lehane Accompanist Prize at Wigmore Hall. In June 2015, Rebecca accompanied the Welsh candidate in the Song Prize Competition of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and she also be performed a song recital at the Three Choirs Festival 2015. As a repetiteur, Rebecca has worked on an wide range of operas, which include Tom Randle's Love me to Death; Ariodante, Handel; Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky. She regularly works on new music with composers, most recently a project with Laura Bowler and the playwright Edward Bond at the Royal Opera House. Rebecca’s work also has an international dimension in that she has performed across Europe and the Middle East at venues which include St.Martin in the Fields, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes in Madrid, St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Macedonia Opera House in Skopje and Al Bustan in Muscat. Rebecca is Director of Music at St.Philip's Earls Court Road where she is founder and Artistic Director for the SPECR Recital Series. She is accompanist of the Leeds Festival Chorus, Assistant Conductor and Pianist with Twickenham Choral Society and joint Accompanist and Assistant Conductor of the acclaimed English Chamber Choir.
York Guildhall Orchestra
Following its founding in 1980 to explore the repertoire of the nineteenth and early twentieth century symphonic music, the York Guildhall Orchestra has become a well-established and popular element in the cultural life of York and the surrounding area, establishing itself as one of the best amateur orchestras in the region. Simon Wright, Musical Director of the orchestra since 1992, has worked hard over the years to hone the orchestra sound; he continues to inspire the York Guildhall Orchestra in achieving its high standards of playing.
The orchestra’s main purpose is to perform concerts of an increasingly high standard in both York Barbican and elsewhere. The programmes performed are wide ranging from the traditional symphonic repertoire, through to light concerts of film music and events for young persons, some featuring world premieres and works composed especially for the orchestra. Where possible, concerts will include leading soloists of national and international renown. Previous performers have included Alexander Baillie, Sarah Beth Briggs, Lynne Dawson, Peter Donohoe, Rodney Friend, Evelyn Glennie, Stephen Isserlis, Emma Johnson, Tasmin Little, Leon McCawley, Jagdish Mistry, Martin Roscoe, Alessandro Taverna, Julian Lloyd Weber and Willard White to name but a few.
The orchestra has featured in events such as Music by Moonlight at Fountains Abbey and has appeared on Radio 3. The Orchestra released its first CD entitled Ring Dance in October 2004.
The orchestra members are mixed – some are semi-professional musicians, but most are competent amateurs. All love playing large scale symphonic works from the late 19th and 20th century repertoire. Several works have been commissioned for the orchestra, and we have had the privilege of performing several world and UK premières.
The orchestra works hard to promote music and orchestral playing amongst the young musicians of York with its outreach work in combination with the York Music Hub. This includes allowing talented youngsters to play with the orchestra during its rehearsals and the setting up of workshop events.
Music Director - Simon Wright
As a conductor Simon Wright has earned universal respect and acclaim for his interpretations of wide-ranging and of challenging orchestral and choral repertoire. Throughout his professional career, which has also embraced roles as organist, accompanist, arranger and teacher, he has become established as a musician of enormous integrity, winning the admiration of musicians, audiences and critics alike.
Born in Sunderland, Simon was educated at Chetham’s School, Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music. A regular accompanist of the Hallé Choir, often working with Sir John Barbirolli, he won, at the age of 16, a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College. In the UK, Simon has conducted many British orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Northern Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and Manchester Camerata. He has also conducted student orchestras at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music in London and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
A prize-winner in the 1986 Leeds Conducting Competition, Simon has been Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Leeds Festival Chorus since 1975 and Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the York Guildhall Orchestra since 1992.
He is deeply committed to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has conducted many orchestral and choral premières, including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Canticum Canticorum and Dominic Muldowney’s The Fall of Jerusalem, both with the Leeds Festival Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic, David Gow’s Marimba Concerto with Evelyn Glennie and the York Guildhall Orchestra, Michael Stimpson’s Clouds of War with the Tallis Chamber Choir and English Chamber Orchestra and, most recently, David Matthews’ Fanfares and Flowers with the Trinity College of Music Wind Orchestra, Geoffrey Kinder’s The Bells of London Town with the Leeds Festival Chorus and Judith Bingham’s Shakespeare Requiem with the Leeds Festival Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic. Simon has toured extensively within Europe, and made his American début in New York in 1986.
Recordings, both as conductor and keyboard player, with John Wallace OBE, the Wallace Collection and with the Philharmonia form a major part of his discography which includes recordings on the EMI, Nimbus, Collins Classics, GMN and IMP Masters labels. In 2003 he made his début with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducting a recording of British trumpet concertos with John Wallace, a recording which was released on the Sanctuary Classics label in January 2006. In January 2006, Simon made his début with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus recording Elgar’s Music Makers and Sea Pictures with Sarah Connolly for Naxos. This recording was released in December 2006 and was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award.
Recent among his European engagements have been recordings and concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen and the Philharmonie und Kammerphilharmonie des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks Leipzig. Recent engagements have also taken him to the USA, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain as well as to the Caribbean with the English Chamber Orchestra, Viktoria Mullova and Mischa Maisky and to Oman. For four years he conducted the English Chamber Orchestra at the Classical Brit Awards and broadcast on national television, working with Plácido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Andrea Bocelli and Sir James Galway.
In April 2007 Simon made his début with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a televised concert from the Royal Albert Hall; he returned to conduct the orchestra again in December that year. In December 2007 he also made his début with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and in April 2008 he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time. In December 2010 he made his début with the Ulster Orchestra – and in October 2011, he travelled to South Africa for the first time to conduct the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in three concerts. Future engagements include concerts with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
In July 2018 Simon was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of York St John University.