Orion Orchestra brings Latin American warmth to the South Bank

The Orion Orchestra's concert at the South Bank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 9 December 2013 is something rather different. Brain-child of the orchestra's artistic director Toby Purser, Serenata Latina combines the Orion Orchestra with Latin-American soloists and dancers and a London-based jazz group to provide and evening of Latin American dance and song. The Orion Orchestra, conductor Toby Purser, will be performing alongside jazz group the James Pearson Trio, Mexican tenor Jesus Leon (who impressed immensely in Grange Park Opera's I Puritani this year), violinist Lizzie Ball and dancers Raquel Greenberg and Omar Ocampo.

The programme includes orchestral music by Gerwshin, Marques, Ginastera and Romero, plus songs by Lara, Gardel, Freire, Velazquez and Cortez and tangos by Piazzolla, Gardel and Ponce. The Orion Orchestra is a young group, its members selected from young musicians leaving music college, so we can expect fireworks. Sound just like the sort of evening to bring a flash of Latin warmth to a cold December Monday. Further information and tickets from the South Bank Centre's website.