Featured
Bardi Wind celebrate 200 Years of RNLI at De Montfort hall
10th June 2024
Thank you to all who joined us for what was a very successful Bardi Wind Orchestra concert on Sunday afternoon celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
There was a real buzz of anticipation in the De Montfort Hall for an afternoon of ‘Fantasy and Adventure’, with music from Disney, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean featuring prominently, and the feet were soon tapping!
The Wind Orchestra, in association with Oadby and Wigston Lions Club, were under the baton of guest conductor Dan Watson making his debut appearance, together with local favourites David Morris and Jenny Saunders joining them for several vocal items. Presenting the concert in a last-minute change to the programme, the Wind Orchestra were also fortunate to be able to secure the services of well-known local broadcaster Dave Andrews, who was able to talk to representatives of the RNLI about the amazing and invaluable work that they have been doing over the last 200 years.
Final totals for the charity collections are still being tallied, but those collection buckets were certainly very heavy following another successful summer charity concert.
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason stars in Bardi season finale
20th May 2024
A large and appreciative audience was at De Montfort Hall on Sunday for the last concert in Bardi’s 2023-24 season.
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason’s outstanding performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 set the bar high in the first half, and to the obvious delight of the audience she played a contrasting and unusual encore in the form of little-known Spanish composer Federico Mompou’s Jeunes filles au jardin from his piano suite Scènes d’enfants.
An enlarged Bardi Orchestra filled the stage for the second half of the concert for Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 appropriately subtitled ‘Titan’. Fine playing on the part of the orchestra was overlaid with visual excitement in the form of various special effects from the large brass and woodwind sections demanded by the score including wind players raising their instruments above their stands and the large horn section raising the bells of their instruments whilst standing as the piece reached its spectacularly triumphant conclusion.
As well as the season finale, this concert marked the final appearance of Claus Efland as the Orchestra’s Music Director. Associated with the Orchestra since 2005 and Music Director since 2008, Claus gave a short speech to the audience thanking them for their support over 19 years and urging them to continue to support classical music in Leicester.
He then went on to introduce a special encore the Oriental Festival March from the Aladdin Suite by his fellow countryman Carl Nielsen. He went on to explain that his first ever concert with the Orchestra had included an encore by Nielsen, so this was a fitting end to his final concert. The orchestra is grateful to Claus Efland for his immense contribution to the development of the Orchestra over the years.
The Bardi say goodbye to Music Director Claus Efland after 16 years as Maestro
18th April 2024
The Bardi’s concert on 19th May will be Claus Efland’s last appearance with the Orchestra as Music Director.
Since his appointment to the post in 2008 his inspirational leadership has taken the Orchestra to what one reviewer described as ‘levels of performance rare in an orchestra of this kind’. There have been many notable performances over the years and soloists of the highest calibre have performed with the Orchestra – including Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performing with the Orchestra in Claus’ final concert next month. In addition there have been performances with a range of choruses over the years including the Leicestershire Chorale, Leicester Bach Choir, Leicester Philharmonic Choir, London Philharmonic Choir and the Choristers of Leicester Cathedral.
There have been many memorable orchestral concerts over the period in De Montfort Hall, with others including one to a capacity audience in the open air at De Montfort Hall, and collaborations with the young dancers of Dance Activate in ballet programmes. Innovative orchestral programmes have played to Claus’ strength in Scandinavian music with a memorable series of Nielsen symphonies rarely heard in Leicester, as well as a fresh approach to favourite classics. The Orchestra would like to thank Claus for everything he has done for the orchestra over the years he has been with us, and we wish him very well for the future.
Going forward the Orchestra intend to pursue a different style of programming with four concerts next season at De Montfort Hall each conducted by high calibre conductors with international reputations. Programmes are planned to both entertain with well-loved favourites and be challenging with one or two perhaps less familiar works. Equally high-profile soloists will join the Orchestra on the stage. Full details of the 2024-25 season will be published in May.
You can book tickets for Claus’ final concert here. Featuring Mahler’s First Symphony and star soloist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performing Mozart Piano Concerto No.23, it is going to be a memorable concert for Leicester audiences.
Claus conducting film music at open air DMH concert; conducting Britten’s War Requiem in 2018; Claus rehearsing with the orchestra.
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.
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.
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.
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