Our Newsletter

Dear Friend,

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the Studio Symphony Orchestra's 77th season!

We are looking forward to getting our season underway in the Island Arts Centre (Island Hall) in Lisburn on Saturday 19th October at 7.30pm.  Our “Music from the Movies” concert will be a great night out for the whole family with themes from Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond, Jurassic Park, The Magnificent Seven, Schindler’s List and many, many more!  

Our guest conductor will be Paul McCusker and we are delighted that Zuzanna Edmonds returns for her second season as our professional leader.

We do hope you will be able to join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening of music making.   Tickets are already selling quickly so please don’t delay if you do wish to attend this concert.  Tickets are available online at https://islandartscentre.com/event/studio-symphony-orchestra-music-from-the-movies or from Island Arts Centre Box Office on 02892 447452.  

Tickets may also be available at the door, but we cannot guarantee this. We therefore strongly recommend that you purchase tickets in advance.

It would be a great help to us if you could pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested.  A warm welcome awaits everyone.

We do hope that you will be able to join us and help us get our new season off to a great start!

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your email address in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.

Dear Friend,

On Saturday 18th May, the Studio Symphony Orchestra will be returning to Bangor for the final concert of our 76th Season.  This ‘Summer Concert’ will be held in St. Comgall’s Parish Centre, Brunswick Road, Bangor at 8pm and features a joyful programme of established classics including Mendelssohn’s poetic Hebrides Overture “Fingal’s Cave”, Vaughan-Williams’ finely crafted Fantasia on Greensleeves, and Schumann’s stirring Symphony No.4.  

Our guest conductor for this concert will be Paul McCusker, a multi-award-winning local conductor who has directed many established groups including the Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Hard Rain Ensemble and Ulster Youth Orchestra.  You can read Paul’s full biography here.

Tickets for this Summer Concert are available to purchase from the Visitor Information Centre in Bangor, by scanning the QR code on one of our flyers, online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/Ardsandnorthdownboroughcouncil/summer-concert-studio-symphony-orchestra/e-boqkke or at the door.  We do hope you will be able to join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening of music making and an exciting conclusion to our season!

Thank you so much for your support of the orchestra throughout the season. It really is very much appreciated. If you know someone who you think might enjoy our concerts, perhaps you would  invite them to come along to St. Comgall’s on 18th May – thank you! 

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your email address in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.
 

Dear Friend,

We will return to the Elmwood Hall QUB on Saturday 9th March for this season’s Orchestral Masterpieces Concert, our annual tribute to our founder Dr Havelock Nelson.

Dear Friend,

We are delighted to inform you that our next concert will be on Saturday 25th November, with festive music certain to warm the heart of even Ebenezer Scrooge!

Our Christmas concert will be in the Island Hall, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn BT27 4RL and will start at 7.30pm.  

A great sense of fun will be much in evidence in this special concert, as we perform a beautiful selection of music with a seasonal theme, from popular Christmas favourites to much-loved orchestral music.

Conducted by Philip Walton and led by Zuzanna Edmonds, the orchestra promises a wonderful evening of music making -  just the thing to get the festive season off to a great start!

Tickets are £14 with reserved seating and can be purchased from the Island Arts Centre via this link, through the Box Office on 028 9244 7744 or at the door (subject to availability).

It would be a great help to us if you could pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested.  A warm welcome awaits everyone.

We do hope that you will be able to join us and look forward to seeing you in Lisburn!

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your email address in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.

Dear Friend,

Welcome to our 76th Anniversary season! We are pleased to inform you that our opening concert will be on Saturday 14th October, with a programme of established classics to launch our new season.

The concert will be in St. Comgall's Parish Hall, Brunswick Road, Bangor, and will start at 8.00pm.  The programme comprises Tchaikovsky's rousing Waltz and Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, the charming Valse Triste by Sibelius, and Brahms' epic Symphony No.3.  We are particularly excited to be performing Saint-Saëns wonderful Cello Concerto No.1 with Rosalie Curlett as soloist. Rosalie is a member of the Ulster Orchestra and we are delighted to have this opportunity to work with her.  You may read her very impressive biography on our website.

Tickets may be purchased online from Ticketsource. Tickets may also be available at the door, but we cannot guarantee this. We therefore strongly recommend that you purchase tickets in advance.

It would be a great help to us if you could pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested.  A warm welcome awaits everyone.

We do hope that you will be able to join us and help us get our new season off to a great start!

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your email address in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.

Dear Friend,

We will conclude our 75th anniversary season on Saturday 3rd June when we will present our Summer Concert at 8pm in St. Comgall's Parish Hall in Bangor.  And what a great programme we have!  Starting with JC Bach's effervescent Sinfonia in D major, we then have two hugely popular classics - Rachmaninov's famous Vocalise and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, in which the soloist will be the wonderfully talented Ioana Petcu-Colan, associate leader of the Ulster Orchestra.  The second half of the concert will feature Mendelssohn's Symphony No.3, the "Scottish", another very popular and delightful work full of melody and charm. We do hope you will be able to join us for a joyful evening of truly beautiful music.

Tickets £12 (£10 concession) are available online at www.ticketsource.co.uk  We strongly recommend booking in advance.

It would be a great help to us if you could pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested.  A warm welcome awaits everyone!

Thank you for your continuing interest in the orchestra. We do hope you will be able to join us on Saturday 3rd June

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your name in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.

Dear Friend,

The Studio Symphony Orchestra is marking its 75th anniversary with a thrilling programme of Shostakovich and Mozart at the Elmwood Hall in Belfast on Saturday 25th March 2023 at 7.45pm.

Festive Overture by Shostakovich opens this celebratory concert with a fanfare fitting to the occasion before Michael McHale performs Mozart’s universally popular Piano Concerto No.9, known familiarly as Jeunehomme.

Belfast-born Michael McHale has established himself as one of Ireland’s leading pianists and has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. A technically complex work, Jeunehomme is also beautifully expressive – a melancholic lament in the slow movement followed by a swirling and jovial finale.

The second half of the concert features Shostakovich’s magnificent 12th Symphony. Lavishly orchestrated, this powerful work, ostensibly written to commemorate the life of Lenin, is widely recognised nowadays as instead mocking Stalin, who sought to suppress Shostakovich's creativity. It is both powerful and at times very beautiful music, with what must be one of the most dramatic climaxes to any symphony!

This concert also marks the retirement of our long-standing principal conductor David Openshaw MBE, and our leader Ottoline Maas. Both David and Otti will be greatly missed as the orchestra moves into a new chapter in it's history.

Tickets £16 (£14 concession) Available online at www.studiosymphony.org.uk or via Facebook from Matchett’s Music, 38 Wellington Place, Belfast or at the door, subject to availability. We strongly recommend booking in advance.

It would be a great help to us if you could pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested.  A warm welcome awaits everyone!

We do hope you will be able to join us.

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your name in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.

Dear Friend,

The Studio Symphony Orchestra had planned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven with a special concert in November 2020.  Fate intervened in that, but why let a pandemic spoil a good idea?!  We are delighted to be back in the Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, on Saturday 26th November after a gap of three years to present our Beethoven festival. This will include his Overture 'Fidelio', his glorious Violin Concerto with celebrated soloist Tamás Kocsis (leader of the Ulster Orchestra), and highlights from three popular symphonies, the 5th, 6th and 9th. The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets are available exclusively from the Island Arts Centre box office on 02892 447744 on their website at www.islandartscentre.com.

It would be a great help to us if you could pass on this email to anyone you think might be interested.  A warm welcome awaits everyone!

We do hope that you will be able to join us as we continue celebrating our 75th anniversary season.

You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting our website and entering your name in the "Join our Mailing List" box at the top of every page.