News

20th August, 2021

The Bardi are delighted to announce the Young Musician Competition 2022 is now open for applications!

With a chance to perform live with the Bardi Symphony Orchestra, this is a must for any aspiring musician aged 18 or under, and an opportunity for audiences to meet the next generation of classical musicians from Leicestershire and Rutland.

Ten years on from the first Young Musician concert, in 2022 the competition is being relaunched and will now be open to young players of any orchestral instrument (strings, wind, brass and percussion) so if you or someone you know would like to take part, apply today!

Good luck!

Closing date: Friday 24 September 2021.
Those selected for audition need to be available on Saturday 30 October 2021.

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13th August 2021

After eighteen months of enforced silence the Bardi Symphony Orchestra are back with an enticing season of varied concerts appealing to all tastes. Their season opens in style in October with a blockbuster symphonic programme featuring not one but two soloists. The concert opens with Elgar’s sumptuous arrangement of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in in C minor. Former Bardi Young Musician Amalia Young joins the orchestra for a performance of Mendelssohn’s ever-popular violin concerto and, in the second half, the renowned De Montfort Hall Organ springs into life with a performance of Saint-Saëns ever-popular Organ Symphony featuring organist David Cowen.

November brings an afternoon of ‘Stage and Screen Favourites’. Join Claus Efland and the Orchestra for a lightening tour through decades of film and musical memorables. For an early spring Sunday afternoon treat, in March join the Bardi for ‘Fantasy and Adventure’ and immerse yourself in familiar but other-worldly sounds and let your imagination run riot. The programme opens with the mischievous Sorcerer’s Apprentice followed by the Suite from the tuneful and playful ballet Les Biches. The second half features Rimsky-Korsakov’s powerful Scheherazade portraying the timeless love story of the young Prince and Princess. 

In ‘The Essence of Elgar’ the Bardi’s De Montfort Hall season finale sees three works showing the different sides of one of England’s greatest composers, Sir Edward Elgar. The first half has the delightful String Serenade contrasting strongly with the passionate and powerful Cello Concerto. The mighty First Symphony brings the concert to a magnificent conclusion with one of Elgar’s most inspired themes.

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30th July 2021

We’re pleased to bring you two performances from the Bardi’s recent play day on July 10th at Holy Trinity Church, Leicester. Bardi Wind Orchestra conductor David Calow opens with Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Overture in C major for Winds and Orchestra Leader Adam Summerhayes follows with Elgar’s sumptuous Serenade for Strings. Concert recording courtesy of the wonderful team at Holy Trinity Church. 

The Bardi’s 2021-22 season officially launches on 13th August – just two weeks to go! We can’t wait to bring back more live music to Leicester very soon!

Concert introduced by Orchestra Manager, Robert Calow.

Bardi Wind and Brass
Felix Mendelssohn – Overture in C Major for Winds Op.24
Conductor, David Calow.

Bardi Strings
Edward Elgar – Serenade for Strings in E Minor Op.20
Conductor, Adam Summerhayes
I. Allegro piacevole
II. Larghetto
III. Allegretto – Come prima

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18th June 2021

The Bardi Symphony Orchestra’s founder Dr Andrew Constantine moved to the USA in 2004 but was recently back in the UK to adjudicate at the prestigious Donatella Flick Conducting Competition (of which he was the first winner in 1991) in London. Andrew’s career in the USA began as Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and he is now Music Director of the both the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra and the Reading Symphony Orchestra.

Andrew and his wife Jane remember their time in Leicester with great fondness and were keen to catch up with old Bardi friends.  Orchestra Manager Robert Calow managed to organise an ad-hoc gathering and rounded up some of Bardi’s original members for a great afternoon of reminiscences in the garden of Zeph’s café in Oadby before Andrew and Jane jetted off back to the USA.   

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28th May 2021

Our Timpani are top of the range Premier Elite instruments, but they are twenty-five years old and have given sterling service over that time. One of the things that we, in common with many other orchestras, have been looking at over the lockdown months is the need for refurbishment; just as one’s GP sends out an invite for a health MOT, or the family car needs a service, so did our timps!

Through the good offices of our percussion team, a range of repairs and improvements have been carried out. After careful examination we were sent some very startling photos of the somewhat decrepit insides of the instruments and some very sensible suggestions for repair and upgrade. Maybe some little good has come out of the pandemic – we would have found it difficult to fit in a trip to the repairers for those timps if we had been undertaking our usual programme.

Thanks to the generosity of the T S Shipman Trust and some of our other supporters who contributed to the refurbishment of the timpani, they are now back and looking good for another 20 years. The repairer has done an outstanding job and our Orchestra Manager failed to recognise them when they were returned. To finish our percussion spruce-up we felt it necessary to purchase new covers for some of the other instruments and a new chair for our timpanist – the old one had a very high mileage and was in danger of becoming a health and safety hazard!

If you would like to support the orchestra to help with similar projects, please do get in touch and join the Bardi family.

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