Featured

18th May 2026

The afternoon of Sunday 17^th May saw the Bardi Symphony Orchestra end their 2025/26 season at De Montfort Hall with a spectacular concert of West End blockbusters.

A large audience of over a thousand attended and heard many of their favourite songs and music from the Golden Age musicals through to the more contemporary shows vividly brought to life.

The full symphony orchestra was joined on stage by West End superstars soprano Shona Lindsay and baritone Stephen John Davis making a welcome return to the Bardi and Maestro Ben Crick, with the orchestra for the first time, keeping everything under control throughout. Ben also compèred the concert entertaining the enthusiastic audience with his infectious sense of humour and anecdotes about the songs and comments about Shona’s many costume changes!

The concert showcased the talents of both singers well with standards from Shona including Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from Evita, Memory from Cats and The Winner Takes it All from Mamma Mia. Her animated rendition of Defying Gravity from the smash hit Wicked was a real favourite with the younger members of the audience! Not to be out done, Stephen’s classics included I Won’t Send Roses from Mack & Mabel, and a fantastic show-stopping performance of You’ll Be Back from Hamilton with the audience singing along to the chorus. The Golden Age was represented by Shona and Stephen singing classic songs from My Fair Lady and the wonderful Balcony Scene duet from West Side Story.

The second half saw the soloists in three numbers from The Phantom of the Opera with the De Montfort Hall organ sounding suitably loud and menacing for the title song. The organ was played by talented Bardi Young Musician, Easher Austin. Stephen’s rendition of Music of the Night and Shona’s of Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again were sublime and brought to the De Montfort stage two singers who have played the Phantom and Christine in the actual show!

The Orchestra was on top form throughout accompanying the soloists but had time to show off on their own in the Overture to Beauty and the Beast, Send in the Clowns and a suite from The Greatest Showman.

The concert drew to a stirring close with three numbers from Les Misérables; Stars from Stephen, I Dreamed a Dream from Shona and the grand finale Do You Hear the People Sing? from both. With a standing ovation the soloists returned to the delight of the audience to sing Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better from Annie Get Your Gun.

A memorable afternoon to finish a brilliant season of music making and a concert to remember!

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23rd February 2026

The Bardi Symphony Orchestra hosted its annual Workshop on Saturday 21st  February, an event that has become a significant highlight in their calendar.  

The idea of the Workshop Day is to allow players to rehearse a challenging work that the Orchestra has not done before and conclude with an exciting complete run through of the chosen work at the end to which friends and family are invited. The workshop was held in Holy Trinity Church on Regent Road in Leicester, a familiar venue to the Bardi where the staff are most helpful.

The Orchestra was conducted by Jack Lovell-Huckle, a young assistant conductor from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and players enjoyed a very rewarding day addressing the challenges (many!) in Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp.  

Another important feature of Workshop days is that it presents an opportunity for players to enjoy time together outside the constraints of busy concert rehearsals.  A generous sandwich lunch was provided in the hall before returning to more rehearsal and the playthrough at the end of the day. 

Instruments packed away, players had an opportunity to revisit some video highlights of the Orchestra’s recent concerts and relax with a glass of fizz before tucking into a delicious early evening meal.  

Jack Lovell-Huckle said ‘Today was something rather special. For an orchestra to be brave enough to tackle this symphony in just a day is remarkable, and what makes it even more remarkable is just how brilliant they all were. The energy was phenomenal, the playing was brilliant, and the organisation of the day was second to none. The Bardi Symphony Orchestra should be very proud of all their work today, it was pleasure to work with them, and I hope to work with them again soon’ 

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2nd December 2025

Large numbers of bookings for the Bardi Dvořák New World Symphony concert on Sunday 30^th November gave rise to mounting excitement that the afternoon was going to be something special.  

Conductor José Salazar was appearing for the first time in Leicester and conducting the Bardi for the first time too.  During rehearsals, he had already established himself as a firm favourite with the players. The concert was an eclectic mix of the very familiar, including the New World Symphony and the Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland which was played with great panache by the brass of the Orchestra.

Also included was the suite from Copland’s ballet Appalachian Spring Suite which included the famous ‘Simple Gifts’ Shaker melody (Lord of the Dance) and a real showstopper by the less well-known (to the Leicester audience at least) Danzon No.2 by Arturo Marquez. This premiered in 1994 with catchy infectious rhythms that soon had the audience tapping their feet and giving warm applause to the Orchestra.  This piece was played by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel on a European tour at the BBC Proms in 2007 and has gained a new level of popularity.  Who better to conduct it than José who grew up in the famous El Sistema system, has served as an assistant to Dudamel and Christian Vasquez and has now worked internationally as a guest conductor.

José introduced the programme at the beginning of each half which was greeted with warm applause. The end of the concert saw loud appreciation and three curtain calls, with much enthusiastic chat in the foyers from the departing audience.

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10th November 2025

The annual Leicester Grammar School concert in early November is a special date in the orchestra’s concert calendar.

These concerts are part of a unique association between the Orchestra and the school providing opportunities for talented students to play alongside Bardi players with some also performing as soloists with the full orchestra. Parents and other guests are treated to a real cornucopia of Music ranging from Bach to the theme from Superman and have the opportunity to hear some of the top players in the school perform movements on a range of instruments from, in this year’s concert, the euphonium to the saxophone and a Mozart duet from two very talented young singers.

Detailed notes about each piece, in addition to a well-produced concert programme, were displayed on large screen at the front of St Nicholas Hall. There was a real buzz in the foyer in the interval and after the concert and the Orchestra received a number of messages afterwards saying how good the concert was. 

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