As I gradually come down from the exhilarating concert last night (full review below) I wanted to share with you some exciting news and to update you on some matters.

Firstly, we are absolutely delighted to let you know that Howard Shelley, currently our Associate Artist, has agreed to be our Patron, filling the big shoes of Sir Karl Jenkins who stepped down at the end of last year. As well as being an outstanding musician, Howard has always been a good friend of Grayshott Concerts and we look forward to him coming both to attend concerts and to perform here in the future (this will, I am sure, be a pleasant surprise for those who attended his 'retirement' concert last year !)

Secondly, at our AGM, Mark Turner resigned as a Trustee, as he will be moving from the area. We are grateful to Mark for the immense contribution he made in updating our compliance policies and establishing the charity as a CIO. At the same meeting, Jan de Walden was approved as a new Trustee and it is wonderful to have his warmth and his enthusiasm for music within the team. I expect that Jan will be in touch with many of you in due course with his 'liaison with Friends' hat on.

If you are already a Friend of Grayshott Concerts, you will be aware of the many advantages that being a Member brings.

If you are not yet a Friend of Grayshott Concerts please Click Here to review the benefits of Friends membership that gives:

Our next concert on Thursday 19th June 2025 is an exclusive Friends Evening with Emma Johnson & The Orchestra for the Environment.

If you think there is more that we could do to enhance the position of being a Friend, please do drop me a line at sally@grayshottconcerts.co.uk . We are very open to new ideas!

The Gift Aid that we are able to collect on Memberships is used to support our Outreach activities, which have included providing free instruments and lessons in schools and concerts in old people's homes.Jim, Mike and I were very moved to have attended one of the pupils' first concerts; we hope that this positive experience will inspire the children to aim to become the Jess Gillams of the future. We have an exciting concert coming in September (Surrey Jazz Youth Band at the Phoenix Centre in Bordon) to which we shall be able to provide free or subsidised tickets to those who would not normally be able to attend such a concert.

We have our forthcoming Friends' exclusive concert coming up and we shall be showcasing some of the fruits of our Outreach activities - watch this space! It's not too late to buy tickets for the Friends' Evening with an exciting programme with Emma Johnson and the Orchestra for the Enlightenment. You can buy tickets here for the Friends Evening Thursday 19th June.

Baroque lovers may be interested in the Tilford Bach Festival which will be taking place in the eponymous village of Tilford. There is now quite an overlap in the organisation of Grayshott Concerts and the Festival. This year's Festival has been put together by its musical director, Adrian Butterfield and will take a weekend journey from a Celebration of Scottish Baroque music on Friday 6th June, taking in Bach's unsurpassed Mass in B Minor on Saturday night arriving at the 'Best of Baroque' special on Sunday showcasing exciting new talent. You can find further details of the programme on the website and you can buy tickets here

Grayshott Concerts programme last Thursday simply sizzled with splendid saxophone sounds! The wonderful Jess Gillam wowed the packed audience with her astonishing virtuosity and vibrant personality, and the programme was more varied and eclectic than Grayshott programmes often are, (no bad thing some might say). The music all proved to be as accessible as it was stimulating - the audience simply lapped it up.

The evening began with the strings of the London Mozart Players in top form with American composer Jessie Montgomery's own string orchestra arrangement of her piece Strum. Layers of harmonic interplay gave the music an expansive and dance-like quality that brought to mind elements of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring.

Jess Gillam, resplendent in a bright red trouser suit, matching the corporate red of the LMP's stage wear, then joined the orchestra for a brilliant performance of James Macmillan's Saxophone Concerto. The Concerto is based on various strands of Scottish folk music, the themes of the first movement accelerating in pace throughout. The second movement plays the soloist against the orchestra in something of a contest. Both soloist and orchestra produce marching rhythms, interspersed with sounds of laughter, all of which is so reminiscent of Bartok's send up of the march in Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony in his Concerto for Orchestra that the reference must surely be deliberate. In the final movement the orchestra play pizzicato throughout with a dazzling display of saxophone playing layered over it in the dancing rhythm of a jig.

Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves followed, with the LMP strings ever taut and sensitive under the inspiring conducting of Jonathan Bloxham. We then heard Flow my Tears by the Tudor/Jacobean composer John Dowland, Vaughan Williams' great predecessor in the English musical tradition. In this arrangement the soprano saxophone replaced the voice part of the score with subtlety and style.

The first half concluded with Bartók's Six Romanian Folk Dances. Bartók and Vaughan Williams were contemporaries, each collecting the folk songs of their respective countries, saving them from oblivion. The songs set by Bartók vary from the tremendously exciting to the elegiac, and orchestra leader Ruth Rogers played the solo elements with charm, excitement and élan as the music dictated.

The second half began with Shine you no more by Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen. This is full speed reel, although the music was influenced by the Dowland work we heard in the first half. Jess Gillam sailed effortlessly through the phenomenal difficulties of the solo part with aplomb.

One of the two most substantial works of the evening (together with the Macmillan Concerto) Tchaikovsky's Serenade for String Orchestra, followed. This music simply burst out of the composer; he wrote it out of pure creative desire, not having received a commission to produce it. It brims over with typical Tchaikovsky melodies, all beautifully shaped by Jonathan Bloxhams's wonderfully sensitive conducting. The final programmed work was John Harle's RANT! Harle wrote the work as a portrait of Jess Gillam, who had been his pupil at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. RANT! draws on Cumbrian folk tunes, reflecting Jess Gillam's birth in Ulverston in Cumbria. It demonstrated Harle's awareness of his former pupil's extraordinary playing skills as well as his own talent for producing truly modern music from folk music sources. The work included a highly entertaining 'duel' between Gillam's saxophone and Ruth Rogers' violin - the result was a definite score draw!

As a soothing encore we were treated to a serene arrangement for saxophone and strings of Joni Mitchell's song A Case of You. A very sympathetic tribute by a brilliant instrumentalist to a wonderful singer/composer and a truly moving end to a great concert.

This concert marked the final performance at Grayshott Concerts for the wonderful cellist Sebastian Comberti; he is moving on to other activities after 48 years with LMP and more than 20 years visiting Grayshott. We shall miss him and thank him for so many wonderful performances.

Our Next Concert Friends Evening with Emma Johnson & The Orchestra for the Environment Thursday 19th June 2025 Emma Johnson For our Friends Evening, we welcome the distinguished clarinettist Emma Johnson, one of the UK's best-loved classical musicians. A former BBC Young Musician winner and internationally acclaimed soloist, Emma brings a unique ability to connect with audiences through both music and storytelling. She will be performing alongside the Orchestra for the Environment, a hand-picked group of virtuoso musicians who share a passion for environmental causes. Emma will also provide a personal narrative throughout the concert, giving insight into the music and its themes. The programme will feature pieces inspired by nature, including: ♫ Holst - Brook Green Suite A charming and elegant work written for St Paul's Girls' School, where Holst was Director of Music. The suite is filled with delightful melodies and a sense of pastoral beauty. ♫ Puccini - Crisantemi A deeply expressive elegy composed in memory of the Duke of Savoy, this short but moving piece showcases Puccini's gift for melody. ♫ Gershwin - Walking the Dog Originally composed for the 1937 film Shall We Dance; this light-hearted and jazzy piece is a delightful contrast in the programme. ♫ Emma Johnson - Tree of Life A powerful and evocative work composed by Emma herself, Tree of Life explores themes of nature, renewal, and conservation. Tickets for this concert may only be purchased by Friends of Grayshott Concerts. For more details and ticket options please Click Here If you are not yet a Friend of Grayshott Concerts please Click Here to review the benefits of Friends membership.

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