Voyage to the moon: Orchestra of the Swan makes its film Luna free online for Random Acts of Kindness Day

Today is not only Ash Wednesday, but Random Acts of Kindness Day when we are urged to explore the good. In a gesture in support of this, Orchestra of the Swan is offering its digital concert Luna free online for 48 hours.

The concert is one of the orchestra's straight-to-streaming Night Owl Digital concerts series. Exploring the moon as an object of longing, mystery, and romanticism, it tells the story of the unprecedented scientific leap that captured the world’s imagination, as man took to the moon half a century ago, intertwining words by Sylvia Plath, Tehereh Mafi, James Joyce, John F. Kennedy, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong with music by Philip Glass, Haydn, Beethoven, Paul Simon, Schönberg and including works from the Swan’s Artistic Director, David Le Page, all beautifully filmed.

Luna can be streamed free from 17 to 19 February 2021 via the orchestra's website.

Wind, Sand and Stars: OOTS' new digital concert explores the early days of aviation in the person of French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This evening, 11 January 2020, the Orchestra of the Swan (OOTS), artistic director David Le Page, releases the latest in its series of Night Owl digital concerts. Entitled Wind, Sand and Stars the filmed concert explores the early days of aviation in the person of French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of Le Petit Prince. OOTS interweaves music by  Ravel, Satie, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Piazzolla, and Charles Trenet with passages from Saint-Exupéry's autobiography, Wind, Sand and Stars read by Graham Padden.

The first concert in the series, Luna, was inspired by planet Earth’s mysterious neighbour – the moon, combining words by James Joyce, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong with music by Haydn, Beethoven, Debussy, Paul Simon, and Schoenberg.

Full details from the Orchestra of the Swan website.

Intimate Voices

Ainola, the home of Jean Sibelius in Järvenpää, Finland

Jean Sibelius is one of those composers whom we think we know, but whose work extends into far darker, more complex areas than is readily apparent in some of his more popular works. This is a composer who suddenly stopped composing at the height of his powers, and burned the manuscript of the symphony that he was sketching, remaining silent for 30 years.

For the Orchestra of the Swan's forthcoming concert at Stratford Playhouse on 21 January 2020, conductor Tom Hammond has curated a programme which explores the wider regions of Sibelius' imagination, combining performances of The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite), a suite from his incidental music to The Tempest, Humoreskes for violin and orchestra (with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen) and Symphony No. 7, with readings from his letters. Symphony No. 7 and The Tempest are two of the last works that Sibelius, before his silence.

Entitled, Intimate Voices, the programme provides audiences with the opportunity to hear some of Sibelius' lesser known works, and also to explore the composer's complex musical imagination.

Full details from the Orchestra of the Swan
's website.

To avoid being the sort of group which comes in, does a concert & goes away again: I chat to violinist David Le Page, artistic director of the Orchestra of the Swan

The Orchestra of the Swan

The Orchestra of the Swan (OOTS), founded in 1995 by David Curtis, is a chamber orchestra based in Stratford-upon-Avon with concert series in Birmingham, Hereford, and Coventry. Having led the orchestra for 20 years, violinist David Le Page took over as artistic director in March 2018. I recently met up with David to chat about the orchestra and his ideas for its performances, the importance of audience engagement, their outreach work and going beyond the concert hall.

David Le Page (Photo Natasha Bidgood)

The 2018/19 season was inevitably a mix of influences, with both David's ideas and prior commitments whereas the forthcoming 2019/20 season is more David's mix of ideas. Audience engagement is a very important to David, and the new seasons includes three immersive residencies, in Stratford, in Hereford and in Birmingham as well as concerts further afield.

Extra, non-concert activities which are different in each place

The residencies will involve extra, non-concert activities which are different in each place, working with students, schools and special needs, with many of the audiences then coming to the orchestra's main concerts. The main aim is to try to avoid being the sort of group which comes in, does a concert and goes away again.

New partnerships for the Orchestra of the Swan

The Orchestra of the Swan

The Stratford-upon-Avon based Orchestra of the Swan is expanding its partnerships and from September 2018 will be Orchestra-in-Residence at two local arts venues, the concert hall at the newly opened Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and the Courtyard Hereford.

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire moved to its new premises in 2017 and OOTS’ residency will not only include seven concerts in the state-of-the-art concert hall but also enable students to enjoy performance and composition masterclasses with its soloists and core players, to join in rehearsals sitting alongside its players and will offer students the chance to compete in an in-house competition winning a valuable concerto performance with the orchestra every year.

The Courtyard Hereford is a theatre and arts venue in Hereford, and it is keen to build its classical music audience. OOTS will provide its entire classical music output for two years with three core concerts, a family concert, a school’s concert, 4 foyer concerts, 4 rural concerts and a series of workshops in care homes for those with dementia annually.