Dear friends,

Hello and welcome to the first newsletter from the Royal Sutton Coldfield Orchestra.

We hope you’ll be able to join us this Saturday 5 March 2020 at 7.30pm at Emmanuel Church, Wylde Green for our Young Soloists’ Concert, our annual showcase of some of the astonishing music talent in Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield and the wider area.

Our five exceptional young musicians, aged 12 to 18, are Rebecca Baslov (piano), Aidan Hopkins (cello), Ben Scott (horn), James Smith (clarinet) and Betty Thompson (bassoon).

They’ll play movements from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 12 in A and Weber’s Bassoon Concerto in F, three of Finzi’s Bagatelles for clarinet, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei for cello and the Morceau de Concert for horn by Saint-Saëns. There will also be orchestral interludes with Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Hérold’s Zampa Overture and the first movement of Dvořák’s Symphony No 8.

Our first Young Soloists’ Concert was in 1998 and, as conductor Bob Vivian, says, “The quality of the performance and musicianship these young people display never ceases to amaze us.”

“For a young musician to perform with the accompaniment of a live orchestra is a rare opportunity. It can also be quite daunting, and it’s wonderful to see how each of them grows in confidence through the rehearsals to the final concert, with the enthusiastic support of the orchestra. 

12-year-old James, the youngest of this year’s soloists, had the additional challenge of having broken his wrist in January and playing at his first orchestral rehearsal in a plaster cast. Now the cast is off, he is promising to take no risks before the concert!

We look forward to welcoming you for what is sure to be a wonderfully entertaining evening.