Performing Arts in Surrey, Sussex & Kent

Archive for the ‘conductor’ Category

Harry Leader: 1906-1987

“So, Mister Leader, play your lilting melodies . . . Music Maestro Please!” 

So went the words to the song that bandleader Harry Leader used as his signature tune, but the apparent lyrical reference to his name was quite coincidental. It was an American song composed in 1938 by Herb Magidson and Allie Wrubel and the moment it became popular over here it was too good for Harry to ignore. But that was many years after he had created his professional name, for Harry Leader was not the name he began life with.

His Russian father, Wolf Lebys, was a trumpeter in the Army of the Tsar and had studied music at St. Petersburg Conservatoire. The 1905 revolution prompted the family to immigrate to Britain and, settling in Poplar in London’s East End, Harry was born there in January 1906 and named George Henry Lebys. There was some pressure on the young lad to become a musician just like his dad but, not keen on playing the trumpet, he initially took violin lessons.

At 14 he bought an alto saxophone and taught himself to play by listening to the records of American clarinettists Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman – and so began his lifetime relationship with that instrument.

 Read more in March/April issue of Words & Music Magazine

Frederick Delius, Composer: 29 Jan 1862 - 10 June 1934

How is it that a lad from Bradford, the son of German immigrants, involved in the local industry of woollen mills, holds an unique place in the hearts of all who love romantic, colourful, emotional music, venerated as the producer of some of the most vivid musical pictures of the twentieth century?

Frederick’s parents were already moderately well-to-do when they arrived in the UK from Germany, though his father’s family was originally Dutch. Frederick, known as Fritz till his teenage years, was the second of four sons – they also had ten daughters!

He was given a comprehensive education at the long-established Bradford Grammar School, where his music teacher who rejoiced in the name Mr Haddock gave him his first lessons. Later Delius was to say these were the only times he ever learnt anything. His father determined to groom him for a career in his firm and much against his will, in spring 1884 the young Delius was sent to manage an orange plantation near Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast of Florida, where he dodged his managerial duties in favour of listening to Afro-American music.

With the sole use of a fine house with servants and guest rooms, Delius found Jacksonville’s strong musical ethos much more to his taste than orange-growing. On the water-front he heard the deck-hands singing as they worked and this sparked his introduction to spirituals.

Read more in March/April Words and Music Magazine!

Conductor - Stephen Hope

September 25th saw the inaugural rehearsal session of The Orchestra of the 19th Century – an exciting new, and possibly first ever, Professional/Pro/Am Symphony Orchestra.

The orchestra is the brainchild of Surrey-based conductor Stephen hope, well known for his work in the south of England, and in particular with the Sussex Festival Choir, with whom over the last nine years he has given highly acclaimed performances with star – studded line-ups of soloists at Arundel Cathedral, raising in excess of £45,000 for St. Catherine’s and St. Wilfrid’s hospices.

The orchestra is designed to be an eclectic mix of leading professional players and ‘professional amateurs’ – instrumentalists of grade 8 plus/diploma standard are warmly invited to contact Stephen – there is currently NO audition!!

Read more in the November-December 2011 issue of Words and Music Magazine!

The concert in Avila Cathedral under the baton of Carlos Aransay.

Tomas Luis de Victoria was born in Spain in 1548, not in Italy, as those who latinise his name to “da Vittoria” would have you believe. He did, however, live in Italy for a time and is thought to have studied with Palestrina.

He was born in Avila, part of the Castile and Leon area of Spain and served for a time as a choirboy in the Cathedral. Avila Cathedral is a magnificent Romanesque structure, begun in the late eleventh century whose apse forms part of the walls to the city.

Victoria died 400 years ago and his music was celebrated in a wonderful concert, mainly of his music in the cathedral on 26th August this year. An international group of sixty-six singers representing fifteen countries gathered under the “Lacock Courses” banner in Avila, rehearsed together for five days under the baton of Carlos Aransay, founder of Coro Cervantes, and then gave a concert in Avila Cathedral thanks to the cooperation of Caja de Avila.

Read more in the November-December 2011 issue of Words and Music Magazine!