Ashford Sinfonia

2025 has got off to a brilliant start. Displaced from our usual venue at the beautiful Church of St Mary the Virgin, Willesborough by a problem with the heating system, we have fallen on our feet and moved to the the lovely Church of St Michael and All Angels at Kingsnorth. Here we are toasty warm and have been made very welcome by the church wardens.

A relaxed start to the term, we have nonetheless made progress on Coates’s Dambusters March, Brahms’s Hungarian March, a charming little baroque piece and Mozart’s 25th Symphony – and this week we made a start on a selection from Les Miserables.

Our new librarians are making inroads into organising our music into binders and keeping the local stationers in business buying them.

Do come and join us – Monday evenings around 7 p.m. for a 7.30 start!

Happy New Year! As ever, nothing runs quite as smoothly as we would hope, but we have been well looked after by Ashford Town Parish, and in particular Libby Varley. We have been offered the use of the church of St Michael and all Angels at Kingsnorth, while essential repairs are carried out to our normal home at Willesborough. St Michael’s is a beautiful little church on Church Hill at Kingsnorth and I am sure it will suit us very well.

This term we welcome our new conductor, Dr Tim Bushnell. The orchestra knows Tim already, as he has played in the brass section for a while, but he has also filled in when our conductor has been unable to attend in the past, and his sessions were enjoyed by all of us!

So – new term, new scenery! I look forward to seeing everyone for our first session on Monday 13th January.

Roger

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our visitors, members, families and friends!

The coming year will see some changes in our orchestra. May I start by welcoming Dr Tim Bushnell as our new conductor, and wishing him a happy and rewarding time with us?

Our committee met this evening, and discussed our repertoire for next term, and also decided that we should defer the start of term to Monday 13th January, as several members have already indicated that they would not be able to attend on 6th January. We really want to start the term with as full an orchestra as possible!

We have nominated Brahms Hungarian Dance No 5, Khachaturian’s Masquerade Waltz and Price’s Juba Dance as our music for the term, along with the slow movement of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10 as a study piece. Most of the music will be from available on-line resources such as the BBC ten pieces, and links will be sent to members. If there is any difficulty printing these, please contact a member of the committee and they will be pleased to help.

We are also very keen to attract new members, so if you know of anyone who would like to give us a try, please do use the “Contact Us” link on this site.

Do have a wonderful Christmas break, and I hope to meet many of you in the New Year.

Roger Pinnock

Many of us will remember performing a summer concert with Gabriel and Emanuel Webb, ably assisted by their father Jonathan – it was a huge privilege for me to perform “Lark Ascending” with Manny soloing on the violin, and movements of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Gabriel soloing on the cello. A very proud Gill has just alerted me to the fact that Manny Webb led the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra in their performance of the planets in prom 46 last Sunday – which is available in iPlayer. Everyone involved in our performance of the Lark Ascending a few years ago can now say that they have accompanied a proms star!

RP