Brentwood Philharmonic Orchestra

NEXT CONCERTS


Saturday 8 February 2025

7.00 pm
Wessex Auditorium
Brentwood School
Middleton Hall  Lane
Brentwood
Essex CM15 8EE 

Conductor:    Florian Cooper
Trombone: David Cox 

Ralph Vaughan Williams Overture to "the Wasps"  
Derek Bourgeois Trombone Concerto
Alexander Borodin Symphony No 2

Tickets £15, Under 18 £1 (on door, card only).  Book in advance now at Brentwood Philharmonic Orchestra (wegottickets.com) or (cash only) at Shenfield Wine Company, 86 Hutton Road, Shenfield CM15 8NB.  A limited number of earlybird tickets are available for £12 until a week before the concert.

Parking on the concert day is free at Brentwood School.

Programme Notes

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Overture to “The Wasps” (1909)
The Wasps is a satirical comedy on Athenian jury trials by the fifth century BCE playwright Aristophanes. Vaughan Williams wrote the incidental music for a production of the play in its original Greek at Cambridge. We will perform the lively overture, complete with wasp effects, for which no knowledge of the plot is required. 

Derek Bourgeois (1941-2017)
Trombone Concerto (1988)
Derek Bourgeois was a prolific English composer particularly for brass and wind band. His 116 symphonies are rarely played but his trombone concerto has become a staple of the trombone repertoire. Its three movements are in a deliberately ecumenical style, starting with a nod to the pre-trombone baroque era before a romantic second theme, an alternatively contemplative and passionate second movement and a lively rondo finale.

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Symphony No 2 (1869-1877, revised 1879 and 1886)
Borodin was the illegitimate son of a Georgian nobleman who registered his birth as the son of one of his Russian serfs, one Borodin, whence his name.  His father provided generously for him and his mother and he had a good education. He became a surgeon and internationally renowned research chemist. Music was also a big part of his life. He studied composition with Balakirev and became a prolific composer.

His second symphony has a dramatic energy and lyricism despite his on and off work on it from 1869. He fitted it in around his research and teaching work, including lobbying for and founding a medical school for women, and his diversion onto other compositions, notably his opera Prince Igor.  He thought he had finished it in 1875 but when asked about performing it in 1876 couldn’t find the full score. He eventually found the score for two movements but had to re-orchestrate the others from his piano score.  After the first performance in 1877 he re-orchestrated parts of it in 1879 and again in 1886, in both cases with his friend Rimsky-Korsakov. It is in four movements.

David Cox (trombone) was born in Southend-on-Sea and took up the trombone at the age of 9. He was a student at Brentwood School from 2009 - 2016, during which time he attended the Junior Guildhall School and joined the National Youth Orchestra.

He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied with Eric Crees, Peter Gane and Simon Wills. During this time he was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Following this David moved to Europe, firstly to study with Fabrice Millischer  (Paris Conservatoire) and then with Matthias Gromer (Bayreuth Festspiele Orchester), with whom he is studying his masters degree at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf.

Since moving to Germany, David has performed with the German State Philharmonic Rhineland-Palatine, Baden Baden Philharmonic, and Freiburg Philharmonic, where he recently completed a contract as Co-Principal Trombone. David joins the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra for their 24/25 Season as Tenor/Bass Trombonist.


Saturday 17 May 2025

7.00 pm
Wessex Auditorium
Brentwood School
Middleton Hall  Lane
Brentwood
Essex CM15 8EE

Conductor        Julia Wilson-James
Bra-vissima Ladies Choir

Ralph Vaughan Williams   Folk Songs for the Four Seasons
Sue Hughes Requiem for Unsung Heroes 

Saturday 18 October 2025

7.00 pm

Bishops Hill Adult Community College

Rayleigh Road
Brentwood
Essex CM13 1BD

Conductor     Bradley Winand
Violin Elodie Chousmer-Howelles

Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto
[Other works to be decided]


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The Brentwood Philharmonic Orchestra is a leading Essex orchestra bringing together professional musicians and experienced amateurs from Brentwood and further afield to perform three main symphony concerts a year in and around Brentwood, Essex.

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If you are looking for an Essex orchestra to join, the Brentwood Philharmonic Orchestra rehearses twice a week for a month before each concert: Sundays 2.30 - 5.00 pm and Tuesdays 7.45 - 9.45 pm. With busy schedules, we recognise that not everyone can make every rehearsal. Two rehearsals are usually for strings only.

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