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The Bardi Wind Orchestra conducted by Music Director David Calow presented a “Stage and Screen Spectacular!” at De Montfort Hall on Sunday 24th June at 5pm. The Charity Gala Concert was again in association with Oadby and Wigston Lions Club and supported the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre Children’s Heart Hospital Relocation. An enthusiastic audience enjoyed the mix of well known favourites from the musicals and movies including Superman, Titanic, Schindler’s List, The Mission, Les Misérables, Beauty and the Beast, Chariots of Fire and ending with a rousing Sound of Music sing-a-long! The encores included a 75th Anniversary tribute to The Dam Busters and the march from Wallace and Gromit!

Martin Ballard from BBC Radio Leicester was the compère and the soloist were Soprano Jenny Saunders and Tenor David Morris.

Bardi Young Musician 2018 is Trumpeter Evie Dunn.
The 2018 Bardi Young Musician Concert was held at the newly re-opened Haymarket Theatre in Leicester on Sunday 8th July 2018 at 3pm.

The concert included the Mother Goose Suite by Ravel and Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 Pastoral.
Bardi Young Musician Evie Dunn played the Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto

Conductor Paul Hilliam and Bardi Young Musician 2018 Trumpeter Evie Dunn.

Marina Chiche, Guy Johnston and Tom Poster.

On Sunday 13th May 3pm The Bardi Symphony Orchestra ended the 2017/8 De Montfort Hall season with a concert showcasing three stunning international soloists and a major performance of a work not heard in Leicester for fifty years.

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto featured in the first half of the concert with a line up of soloists well known to the Leicester International Music Festival audiences; Marina Chiche violin, Guy Johnston cello and Tom Poster piano.

The second half saw a stunning performance of Richard Strauss’ large-scale tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). The autobiographical work is scored for a huge orchestra and was a fitting way to end the De Montfort Hall season.

The photo shows Music Director Claus Efland rehearsing Ein Heldenleben at Leicester Grammar School and the concert in De Montfort Hall, Leicester

The Bardi Wind Soloists directed by David Calow performed at the Museum and Art Gallery after the AGM of Leicester’s oldest society, The Literary and Philosophical Society on Monday 23rd April 2018. The winds and horns of the Symphony Orchestra performed music by Elgar, Dvorák, Carl Davis, Järnefelt and Sullivan. Society President Sir Kent Woods introduced the players and gave thanks at the end of the concert.

For our March Concert the Bardi took a large and enthusiastic audience to Broadway and the West End with
a superb collection of Showstoppers from Carousel, South Pacific, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Mack and Mabel, Anything Goes, Man of La Mancha, Cats, West Side Story, The King and I, My Fair Lady and of course The Sound of Music! The concert was conducted by Claus Efland with compere Colin Blackler and soloists Soprano Elise Fairley and Baritone Andrew Randall.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen

The Bardi Symphony Orchestra got 2018 off to a Classical start on Sunday February 4th at De Montfort Hall with a well attended concert featuring Mozart, Beethoven and Sibelius. The concert started with the ever-popular overture to The Magic Flute by Mozart and then we welcomed back soloist Tamsin Waley-Cohen who gave a superb performance of the Violin Concerto by Jean Sibelius. The second half saw the Orchestra give a brilliant rendition of the revolutionary third symphony by Beethoven – the ‘Eroica’.

The Bardi were delighted to take part in Leicestershire Chorale’s 40th Anniversary concert.

The Orchestra played at De Montfort Hall alongside the Chorale in a performance of the Verdi Requiem and Walton’s Coronation Te Deum on Sunday 19th November at 3pm.

The Walton was conducted by Paul McCreesh and the Verdi by the Choral’s Music Director Tom Williams.