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15th May 2023

The Bardi 2022-23 season concluded on Sunday with a concert of classical favourites enthusiastically received by a good audience. 

Players and audience alike enjoyed the evergreen Bruch Violin Concerto when they were joined by international soloist Zoë Beyers, who is also the leader of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The Bardi concert was a total contrast to Zoë’s appearance with that Orchestra in the Eurovision song contest the previous evening, but an appearance she clearly relished. 

The concert opened with Weber’s Oberon Overture and concluded with Beethoven’s evocation of the countryside, Symphony No 6 the ‘Pastoral’. The perfect piece for a sunny, spring afternoon and the conclusion of a very successful season of varied concerts given by the Orchestra. Behind the scenes work is well advanced on our 2023-24 season, keep an eye on the website for emerging details! 

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28th March 2023

Lights, Camera, Action! There was plenty of all three at the Bardi Orchestra’s ‘Rodgers and Hammerstein on the Silver Screen’ concert on Sunday.

Special lighting effects enhanced the performance on the stage, the action was provided in plenty by the Orchestra and West End soloists Shona Lindsay and Stephen John Davis who were all on sparkling form. The camera of David Calow was in action so that the event was captured for posterity and you can see his work below.  

Sadly much of the original material used for the film versions of these great musicals got lost and separated but British conductor and arranger John Wilson painstakingly and reassembled it for his memorable 2010 BBC Prom concert. It was this material that was used in the Bardi concert. The score called for a number of extra instruments such as saxophones and a massive percussion section so the stage was very full indeed. The concert had one direct connection to that 2010 Prom, the finale from Oklahoma! called for two extra soloists, local soprano Eleanor Charman, and from the Bardi violin section, to the surprise of Orchestra and audience, up stepped Michael Lessiter who actually sang in that 2010 Prom! Our biggest audience since the pandemic made this a concert to remember.  

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9 March 2023

There is something special for audiences in our next concert: not one, but TWO West End singers will be taking to the stage to perform favourites from the films of Rodgers and Hammerstein. 

Shona Lindsay began her career early with the title role in Annie when she was just 12, and she’s been a staple of British theatre ever since. Her show credits include starring roles in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Grease, The Sound of Music, Chicago, and she was one of the youngest ever singers to be cast as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera. She has also sung in concert with greats such as Sarah Brightman and Michael Ball. No stranger to the small screen, Shona has appeared on classic programmes like Crossroads and Casualty, and can be heard regularly on Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2. 

Stephen John Davis, at home in both the worlds of musicals and opera, has a long list of stand-out theatre roles, including The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, South Pacific and Mamma Mia. On film he can be seen in the tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, and in the 25th Anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. 

The Bardi are delighted to welcome Shona and Stephen to De Montfort Hall on Sunday 26 March.

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31 January 2023

Bardi’s latest Young Musician appeared with the Orchestra at a special concert in Leicester’s Holy Trinity Church at the end of January. 

Joseph Geary, a flautist and Music Scholar at Loughborough Grammar School, was chosen as Bardi Young Musician 2023 after auditions last autumn. Holy Trinity is a new venue for this special concert and proved very popular with the large audience who heard him perform in Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 2. Joseph, from Barrow on Soar, has played the flute since the age of seven and the audience were treated to an extra bonus when he was promoted (for one piece only!) to the Principal flute desk for a performance of Fauré’s Pavane which has a substantial flute solo in the score.  

Presenting his trophy, Vice Chair of the Orchestra Mary Moore told the audience that he had literally just heard the previous day that he had been awarded a performers diploma on the flute from Trinity Laban College of Music in London. Congratulations Joseph! 

Aside from Joseph’s performances, the concert opened with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and the second half featured a wonderful performance of Mendelssohn’s Third ‘Scottish’ Symphony concluding a fantastic concert to warm a cold January evening.

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17 January 2023

There’s just under two weeks to go until the Bardi Young Musician 2023 concert. 

Our Bardi Young Musician is flautist Joseph Geary a music scholar at Loughborough Grammar School who has been playing the flute since the age of 7.  He has recently been performed with the English Schools’ Orchestra and was previously a member of the National Schools’ Symphony Orchestra. He was selected as Bardi Young Musician 2023 following auditions in October, and is greatly looking forward to performing with the Orchestra at the concert performing Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2.  His future plans include a performance of the Reinecke Concerto for Flute and Orchestra with the Loughborough Orchestra in June. 

In addition to playing the flute Joseph is also a keen singer and has a strong interest in early music. Alongside his musical studies, he is also studying French and Spanish at A-level. Joseph attained a DipLCM performance diploma from the London College of Music in May 2021 and is eagerly awaiting the results of an LTCL examination in flute performance from Trinity College London.  

Joseph is proud player of Miyazawa flutes and is delighted to be a Miyazawa Young Artist.

You can hear Joseph’s performance of the Mozart Flute Concerto in D along with Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony and more at Holy Trinity Church, Regent Rd, Leicester, on Saturday 28 January. A concert not to be missed!

Joseph Geary, 2023 Bardi Young Musician; Scottish scenery

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29 November 2022

There was a real buzz in the foyer for the first concert of Bardi’s De Montfort Hall 2022-23 Season.

A number of people in the audience were there for the first time in almost three years keen to hear Adam Summerhayes’ violin concerto The Fiddlers Tale as well as the Orchestra playing the ever-popular Mussorgsky work Pictures from and Exhibition and, as a curtain raiser, Sibelius’ Finlandia. Audience attendance at concert halls across Europe and further afield is slow to return to pre-pandemic levels, but we were delighted to welcome a good-sized audience who showed their appreciation of the violin concerto (a De Montfort Hall premiere). 

The orchestra were delighted to perform alongside a colourfully-clad Adam, normally their leader, in the concerto. One attendee at the pre-concert talk, when questions were invited, asked “where did you get that shirt?” – he was told it was purchased at Glastonbury!

Adam has been the leader of the Orchestra for much of it’s existence and to mark the collaboration between Orchestra and composer/soloist on this occasion there was a surprise presentation, to a delighted Adam, at the rehearsal before the concert of a special picture by professional artist and Bardi Board member David Calow. 

A sparkling performance of Pictures at an Exhibition, in Ravel’s orchestration, ended the concert and was received with very enthusiastic applause by the audience. The buzz continued as concert goers headed into the cold damp November evening.   

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