Wednesday, 6th April 2022

7.30 pm, Alington Hall, Shrewsbury School, SY3 7AT

The second concert in Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra's 2021-2022 season.

Conducter – John Moore
Soloist – Gareth Brynmor John, Baritone
Leader – Alex Postlethwaite

Programme:

• Lili Boulanger – D'un matin de printemps
• Gustav Mahler – Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen)
• Jean Sibelius – Symphony no 2

Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra will showcase the work of a brilliant French female composer - Lili Boulanger - in its Spring concert (April 6) which also features works by Sibelius and Mahler. (Photo credit:musictheoryexamplesbywomen.com)

Marie-Juliette Olga 'Lili' Boulanger was the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize in 1913, aged 19. She seemed destined for a glittering career as a composer, but she suffered from intestinal tuberculosis and tragically died aged just 24. 

The orchestra will play her lively instrumental work D'un matin de printemps, Also in the programme is Jean Sibelius’ glorious Symphony no. 2 and Mahler's song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, with baritone Gareth Brynmor John, who has recorded the same with Trevor Pinnock, available on Linn Records. This cycle contains some of Mahler’s most affecting song settings drawing from especially the musical language of his first symphony and elsewhere.

Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award, baritone Gareth has performed with top orchestras in the UK and has had many leading roles with the Royal Academy Opera, Welsh National Opera and English Touring Opera. Recent highlights include: Handel's Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, Carmina Burana with the Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall and Elijah with the Really Big Chorus at Birmingham Town Hall. A graduate of St John's College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio, Gareth is also part of the Songsmiths and regularly sings in the London English Song Festival. 

Tickets £15/£2 (children) available now from TicketSource.