The transformative power of storytelling will be brought to life in Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming Summer Concert featuring the much-loved ‘Scheherazade’. 

Rimsky Korsakov’s epic symphonic suite, composed in 1888, was inspired by tales of the Arabian Nights in which the Sultan’s new bride saves herself from execution by recounting a continuous string of stories over the course of 1,001 nights. 

The composer set out to create ‘an oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders’. Its now well-known musical themes represent the Sultan and the storyteller herself and showcase the wind players in the orchestra - primarily bassoon and oboe. 

The Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra Summer concert, at Christ Church, Bayston Hill on Wednesday, June 24th (7.30pm) will also feature Shostakovich Violin Concerto No 2, with soloist Alex Postlethwaite and Fanny Mendelssohn’s ‘Overture in C’. 

Alex, leader of the London Shostakovich Orchestra and the London-based Blaze Ensemble, has built a strong reputation for professional solo work in the West Midlands since moving to Shrewsbury from London. He is a prime mover on the Shrewsbury live music scene, leading Shropshire’s premier string quartet Jarualda. 

As a soloist, he has performed concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Schnittke, Bartok, Ravel, Szymanowski, Delius, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart as well the Beethoven Triple. He recently performed at Belfast’s Opera House in the UK’s first full production run of Les Misérables outside of the West End to celebrate this musical’s 40th anniversary. 

Although Alex has worked and recorded with the English Symphony Orchestra and Liverpool Sinfonia and served as concertmaster of the UK Proms in the Park tour, he describes his favourite place as being ‘in the depths of an opera pit’. He has led many operatic groups, including Candlelight Opera and Belcanto Opera, and has collaborated on many productions with North Wales Opera Studio. Most recently, he was involved in NWOS’s Rigoletto in Shrewsbury Abbey, as leader of Ensemble-SY1, which he formed along with Jane Park. They are looking forward to returning with Madama Butterfly in December. 

Locally, Alex also leads the Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra and this year is delighted to have been asked to perform Shostakovich’s second concerto with them in June. 

Those who are familiar with ‘Scheherazade’ can also look forward to Alex’s rendition of the famously beautiful violin solo that represents Scheherazade herself, in contrast to the more ponderous bassoon theme, representing the Sultan. 

Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra - Summer 2026 Concert - Christ Church, Bayston Hill, Wednesday, June 24th at 7.30pm. Tickets £2-£17.50 via ticketsource