EALING SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Trustees’ report for the year 2021-22
With COVID restrictions relaxed and most members vaccinated, it was decided that it was both lawful and sufficiently safe for the orchestra to return to its rehearsal venue at Ealing Green Church. This was not large enough to allow wide spacing between players, but doors and windows were kept open, and members were instructed to test frequently, and to stay away if they felt at all ill. There were cases of COVID, but no indication that it was spreading within the orchestra. It was also both lawful and sufficiently safe for normal concert-giving to be resumed, and so a full concert season was undertaken for the orchestra’s centenary season, reinstating much which had had to be cancelled. As time went by vigilance was reduced with no obvious consequences.
Both orchestra and audience took time to recover fully to a new normal. It seems that there may be a permanent aversion to mixing in public in some quarters, although the majority are more than happy to accept the now much reduced risk for the sake of a return to social contact.
A celebration at the Royal Albert Hall in conjunction with a large chorus from Ealing schools performing a newly-commissioned work by Michael Rosen and Laura Rossi had been planned for the ESO’s centenary, but it had proved impossible to book the Royal Albert Hall for a single day with enough lead time to schedule the commission and the children’s chorus, thanks to the log-jam of deferred events in London’s major halls. Fundraising had continued, in the hope that the event could take place eventually.
Instead, the final Ealing concert, in July, was treated as the centenary event, with former conductors and past players invited, and memorabilia available, including two publications, both instigated by one dedicated member – one of reminiscences by past and present members, and intended mainly for internal use, and the other concerned with the history of the orchestra; both were very well received and covered their costs.
The orchestra met its aims by promoting five public concerts in its home borough, as well as contributing to the cost of a sixth Ealing concert promoted by the Ealing Music and Film Festival. An outdoor concert in Walpole Park was given at the invitation and expense of the London Borough of Ealing as part of the celebrations for HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee; a substantial and enthusiastic audience attended in spite of a cold and wet evening. The orchestra presented a chamber music concert for the Friends of St Mary’s Perivale, and a full-scale concert in Beverley Minster in Yorkshire. There was a small-scale Christmas concert in Ealing Green Church, where the orchestra rehearses; the proceeds of this were shared between the orchestra, which covered its costs and so did not use charitable funds, and the church, which runs a winter night shelter for the homeless.
One Saturday afternoon rehearsal on a concert day was opened without charge to families, to allow children to experience the sound of a full orchestra without having to sit – and keep quiet – through a full concert. This was much appreciated by those who came.
In addition to giving the annual chamber concert, the orchestra has a separately-funded Voice Section – a small choir which meets before its Thursday evening rehearsals under experienced vocal coach (and ESO violinist) Melanie Crompton. This non-orchestral activity does much to further members’ enjoyment and musicianship.
The orchestra’s cohesiveness is supported by social activities for which a separate, non-charitable fund is maintained. 2022 brought two Jaunts: a tour to Beverley, with a concert in the Minster, took the place of a foreign trip, and there was also a single-day outing to Great Haseley in Oxfordshire, by the kind invitation of the orchestra’s musical director John Gibbons, who lives there. Some orchestral funds were used for the concert itself in Beverley.
As usual, the orchestra programmed music which needs to be heard but tends to be played rarely by professional orchestras. In particular, the projected complete cycle of George Lloyd’s symphonies was resumed with No. 2, which was especially well received in Beverley, with many in the audience wondering why this composer’s music was not more widely heard. Other examples included the Malcolm Arnold Viola Concerto, which was video recorded for replay into the annual Malcolm Arnold Festival (still online only), the premier of David Matthews’s orchestration of Scriabin’s Vers la flamme , Grace Williams’s Violin Concerto, Latin-American music by Revueltas and Moncayo, and Paul Lewis’s delightful Seaside Concerto for organ and orchestra. Generous support from a private donor was received towards the Lloyd symphony. The need for such music to be played in public is part of the justification for the orchestra’s charitable status.
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Naturally, many better-known works were played alongside the rarities. Challenging highlights were Copland’s Third Symphony, Act 2 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde , Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini , Silvestre Reveltuas’s Sensemaya , and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. The full programme can be found on the ESO website.
The competitive Ealing Festival of Music, Dance, Speech and Drama had been cancelled in 2020, so there was no winning soloist to be offered a performance in the 2021-22 season. However, the Festival was reinstated in 2021, and Reuben Moisey will perform with the ESO in the 2022-23 season.
This successful resumption of normal activities following the COVID shut-down has shown the value of a strong social life, making it possible to keep the orchestra functioning in one way or another throughout the restrictions, with a swift return to an excellent playing standard. The orchestra owes much to its leader, Peter Nall, and especially to the personal commitment of its conductor John Gibbons. The orchestra is known for its friendliness, and the pub is once again well-patronised after rehearsals, but good players want to combine enjoyment with giving the best they can, and the orchestra currently has a fine reputation.
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