A Scandinavian Triumph at De Montfort Hall

26th March 2024

The music of Finland, Norway and Denmark added to the enjoyment of a sunny early Spring afternoon when the Bardi played a programme of Sibelius, Grieg and Nielsen at De Montfort Hall on Sunday.

The programme opened with a performance of Grieg’s Peer Gynt suites Nos 1 and 2 which was followed by a rare performance Nielsen’s Flute concerto by flautist Anna Wolstenholme, an internationally known player based in Norway. The piece demands a virtuoso player and Wolstenholme was certainly the right choice for the piece.

The second half of the concert was occupied by a performance of Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D major.  Probably the most well-known of Sibelius’s Symphonies and certainly the most frequently performed, the piece runs through a wild gamut of feelings from a depiction of pastoral peace and quiet, through patriotism, the depiction of a national uprising and a positive finale portraying hope and victory over oppression.  The Bardi did justice to all of this in good measure and the overall mood of the departing audience was certainly life affirming and happy.


Flautist Anna Wolstenholme completes an all-Scandinavian line up for the Bardi’s return to DMH

13th March 2024

The Bardi Symphony Orchestra’s next concert at De Montfort Hall on Sunday 24th March is all set to be a Scandinavian extravaganza!

Not only does the concert feature favourite works from Grieg and Sibelius, the Bardi are once again led by our Danish Maestro and Music Director Claus Efland. To complete the line up, the Orchestra are to be joined by Norwegian soloist Anna Wolstenholme to perform Nielsen’s virtuosic Flute Concerto in the first half.

Anna’s hybrid career as flautist and educator spans several countries and institutions. She has held positions in orchestras from Brazil (OSESP) to Norway, where she has been Principal Flute of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for a decade.  She can often be heard on film and TV soundtracks (Anna was prominently featured on the 2022 score of Mrs Harris Goes to Paris) and regularly works as a guest principal with the UK’s major symphony orchestras including the LSO, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia, BBC, Royal Opera House, Halle, Opera North, RTE, CBSO, ENO, Sinfonietta and RSNO, with whom she has also toured and recorded for Chandos, BIS, NRK, Sony, Landor and the BBC for live and studio performances including the Proms.

Anna Wolstenholme, flute; Danish composer Carl Nielsen

Having been an Associate Professor of flute at the University of Bergen, Anna is now a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music in Artist Development and Chamber Music. She has been an examiner for the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall, as well as a visiting professor at flute festivals and the National Youth Orchestra. Her immersion in talent development has also led to work with the Drake Calleja Trust where she is now a mentor, panellist and Creative Development consultant. Anna has reviewed a variety of new music publications for Rhinegold Press and worked extensively in outreach across a wide spectrum including Jessie’s Fund, Prince’s Trust, LSO Discovery and the Beddgelert Music Festival which she co-founded in 2013.

Book your tickets today to hear Anna perform Nielsen’s Flute Concerto alongside Grieg’s incidental music from Peer Gynt and Sibelius’ soaring Second Symphony.


Well done BYM24 Ewan Metcalfe on an excellent concerto performance.

29th January 2024

The Bardi Young Musician concerts go from strength to strength!

Last Saturday’s concert saw 2024 winner Ewan Metcalfe give a breathtaking performance of Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 to a large audience in what has become the Bardi Young Musician concert’s annual home – Holy Trinity Church in Regent Road, Leicester. 

The Orchestra revelled in the excellent acoustic of the venue with some well-chosen pieces from the classical repertoire, beginning with the overture to Mozart’s opera Cosi fan Tutte and the second half was taken with a comparatively rare opportunity in recent times to hear Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in the concert hall. 

In a speech at the end of the first half Vice Chair Mary Moore said she was heartened, with all the gloomy news in the media about music education in schools, that Bardi have been able run the competition since 2012 with a consistently high standard of winners. 

In a surprise move she invited Joseph Geary, last years’ BYM winner who was in the audience for the concert, to present the trophy to Ewan neatly rounding off the competition.

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

Bardi Young Musician 2024 – Ewan Metcalfe performs Weber Clarinet Concerto No.1 on 27th January.

17th January 2024

On Saturday 27th January at Holy Trinity Church, Leicester, Bardi Young Musician 2024 Ewan Metcalfe performs his competition-winning concerto, Weber’s First Clarinet Concert in F minor.

17 year old Ewan Metcalfe is Leicester born and bred and is currently Head Boy at Ratcliffe College. Both of his parents have a scientific background but several members of his extended family are instrumentalists. He began playing the clarinet at the age of seven and has since studied piano and saxophone. He started orchestral playing in the Soar Valley Youth Orchestra and then began playing, composing and arranging for a variety of ensembles at school. Further orchestral experience was gained in the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra and he was delighted to play as a guest with the Bardi Symphony Orchestra in October 2022. He currently studies with Christine Taylor.

Ewan is currently studying for A levels in biology, chemistry and music and hopes to go on to study biochemistry at University. He is planning to make a career in that field but music is very important in his choice of university so a good music department is top of his list.

In between his academic studies, musical activities and responsibilities as a school prefect at Ratcliffe College he doesn’t have much time left in the week but enjoys spending time with friends before they all go their separate ways to university.  

To see Ewan’s concerto performance, as well as other classical favourites from Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart, click here to book your tickets today.

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

Bardi Wind Christmas Festival the perfect festive treat!

18th December 2023

Bardi Wind Orchestra’s annual Christmas Festival was a big success at the weekend!

Holy Trinity Leicester, was beautifully dressed in a great array of Christmas Trees and lights, and made a wonderful setting for the concert. Once Conductor David Calow’s baton was raised for the title piece, Leroy Anderson’s evergreen ‘A Christmas Festival’, and the BWO sounded the first chords, the audience (many of who have been coming since the series started over 20 years ago) knew that Christmas 2023 was underway.  

A programme of seasonal favourites, serious and more light-hearted, followed. These were interspersed with readings by Leicester’s own John Florance. Amongst other items, John read the perennial favourite ‘Christmas at Lewis’s’ and John Betjeman’s 1954 poem ‘Christmas’. He confessed to the audience that he once left the poem out of a BWO Christmas programme and was told in no uncertain terms by audience members afterwards that he should not do that again.  

In a colourful array of Christmas outfits for the second half the BWO players ended by commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1973 Slade Christmas hit ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ which had the audience singing lustily with some enthusiastically waving arms in the air.

Merry Christmas all from the Bardi!


Latest News

Bardi Wind’s Festive Tradition Returns to Holy Trinity on Saturday

11th December 2023

Christmas gets off to a flying start on Saturday 16th December with the Bardi Wind Orchestra’s annual Christmas blockbuster at Holy Trinity Church!

Many in Leicester now say that their Christmas starts when they hear the Bardi Wind sound the first notes of Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival!

The programme contains all the best loved Christmas music from festive songs like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy, through carols such as In the Bleak Midwinter and the Carol of the Bells to film music from Frozen and The Polar Express

Seasonal readings are once again provided by popular local presenter John Florance, formerly of BBC Radio Leicester, and the concert is hosted by Colin Blackler. And there are, of course, items for the audience to sing along to – and last but not least in the traditional finale we’ll all join in, raise the roof, and celebrate the 50th anniversary this year of Slade’s greatest Christmas hit, Merry Christmas Everybody

The concert proves to be a popular one each year, so be sure to book your tickets online in advance to avoid disappointment.

Bardi Wind Christmas Festival

Saturday 16 December at 7.30pm – Holy Trinity Church, Regent Road, Leicester

It’s not quite Christmas until this annual Bardi festive tradition!

Latest News

Ewan Metcalfe – Bardi Young Musician 2024

6th November 2023

The Bardi are delighted to announce that the winner of Bardi Young Musician 2024 is 17 year old clarinettist, Ewan Metcalfe.

An audition panel consisting of Robert Calow, Bardi Orchestra Manager, Lois Clark Principal Second Violin and Paul Hilliam, Guest Conductor, met at the end of October to hear four selected candidates to decide who would become Bardi Young Musician 2024. The standard was once again very high with a range of orchestral instruments and the panel had some lengthy deliberations to make before deciding on the winner. 

In the event they made a unanimous choice, the clear winner was clarinetist Ewan Metcalfe from Rearsby who is in the Sixth Form at Ratcliffe College. Ewan has been playing the clarinet for ten years and he currently studies with Christine Taylor. He is the third clarinetist to have won the Young Musician accolade since the competition was first held in 2012. 

The audition panel always give feedback to all the competing candidates and Ewan was told ‘The technical demands [of his chosen audition piece] are considerable and you have obviously worked hard to get on top of that. You also have a really nice tone and a good range of dynamics. Best of all, you invested lots of personality in your performance

Concert goers are in for a real treat when Ewan performs with the Orchestra on Saturday 27th January, at Holy Trinity Church, Leicester.  He will be playing Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in a programme which also includes a performance of Beethoven Symphony No 2. You can book tickets for the concert here.

Ewan Metcalfe, clarinet; the audition panel


Latest News

John Williams a hit at De Montfort Hall

10th October 2023

The Force really was with the Bardi Symphony Orchestra on Sunday afternoon when they played to the largest Bardi concert audience seen for ten years.

The Bardi’s Celebration of John Williams ‘a film music extravaganza’ attracted an enthusiastic audience aged 5 to 90! Listeners were treated to the full range of Williams’ critically acclaimed film music from well-known favourites such as Jaws and E.T. to more reflective pieces such as Dartmoor 1912 from War Horse, Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan and the haunting main theme from Schindler’s List which featured the exquisite solo violin playing of the Orchestra’s leader Adam Summerhayes.  

All the sections of the Orchestra had an opportunity to shine at one point or another and the whole concert experience was enhanced by subtle lighting from the De Montfort Hall’s newly improved lighting system.  A selection of music from the Star Wars films which ended the concert had conductor Claus Efland directing the orchestra with a splendid red Lightsaber (narrowly avoiding poking out the eyes of the cellists) and enthusiastic applause at the end of the concert was rewarded by the encore which everyone had been waiting for – Indiana Jones – in which Maestro Efland was transformed into Harrison Ford with the addition of the trademark battered leather jacket and Fedora hat. 

A happy audience went off into the late afternoon eagerly asking the front of house team ‘when will the next one be?’

You can find out about the orchestra’s upcoming concerts here.


Latest News

Are you ready for a film music extravaganza with the Bardi?

2nd October 2023

The power of The Force has certainly attracted a large audience to the Bardi’s Celebration of John Williams concert on Sunday afternoon with over 1,100 seats already sold.  

The concert will feature many of your favourite themes from Williams’ best-loved soundtracks including no fewer than 11 Oscar nominated scores: Star Wars, Jaws, Harry Potter, E.T., Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A.I., The Patriot, War Horse, Saving Private Ryan and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Orchestra rehearsals have been in progress for over ten days with quiet smiles on the faces of players as their particular favourite comes in for attention. With 19 pieces on the programme the Orchestra Manager and the Librarian have had their hands full organising the music and players are always on their toes as the fast-moving programme proceeds. 

We are particularly looking forward to welcoming some new, younger members of the audience with some, we’ve heard, attending an orchestral concert for the first time ever. John Williams music now features on the GCSE music syllabus being followed by some schools, and students are keen for a rare opportunity to hear some of this music played live. Other members of the audience are keen to hear live performances of the music which they have hitherto heard only on the radio or heard in the cinema. But all are in for a treat with the recently refurbished lighting in De Montfort Hall adding to the spectacle.

Join the Bardi on Sunday 8th October at De Montfort Hall for A Celebration of John Williams. Tickets are selling fast so make sure to book yours here.

Orchestra in rehearsal; a selection of scores from the concert; John Williams conducting Saving Private Ryan in 1998 ©Alamy


Latest News