Here’s the latest letter to Friends of St Mewan Sinfonia. If you would like to become a Friend, email us by clicking on this link.

Reg. Charity No. 1021171Friends’ letter Spring 2023 Dear Valued Friend of the Orchestra, It is a privilege to write to you once again in the Spring of 2023, and update you on all the orchestra’s news: However, at this point I should perhaps repeat what I normally say in my ‘Annual Christmas Message to the Nation’ which is that you are an adult and if you don’t want to read this message for whatever reason, then, of course, you don’t have to. What we would really like is for you to come along to one of our warm fuzzy friendly concerts and say hello. That would be most welcome, and the most supportive thing you could do. Well, this season has been our first full year back after you know what, and we have made the most of it. We are still rehearsing in Ladock village Hall, but in November, we were evicted by a pantomime company who were involved in the original fundraising for the hall, and so had ‘droit du seigneur’ or so they told us, and they wouldn’t let us back in until February. What to do? Well Thursdays appear to be a peak night for use of village halls in our neck of the woods, and we needed somewhere central to rehearse as orchestral members come from both the far west and east of the county in relatively equal numbers, but eventually we found ourselves being warmly welcomed into the Indian Queens hall at the Pit, off the aptly named Pocahontas Drive. It is very dark and quite spooky at times there, but warm and bright, and fortunately no one fell down the pit. In fact we were unable to locate it, but are assured that it does exist. Come February we returned to Ladock, and shall remain until next November’s eviction. So that was issue number 1 for the orchestra to solve. Then issue number 2 emerged when Nigel Wicken our conductor for 10 years told us that he could no longer continue to travel to us from his home beyond Penzance in the dark at night etc. We totally understand his reasons, sad to lose him though we were, and gave him a good send off at an Xmas meal in a pub in Truro, which turned into our own little Covid super spreader event, which was a seasonal gift we could have all done without. So, this left us with no conductor at short notice. What to do? Luckily for us two orchestral members are experienced conductors: Laura Parfitt our lead Viola is studying conducting at the George Hurst conducting schools and Stephen Brown, a prominent Cellist in the orchestra, is also a seasoned conductor. Our plan is for Stephen and Laura to conduct half of the concert programmes during the coming summer concerts and then we will audition for a new conductor in September, and Laura and Stephen are more than welcome to apply. It will be a secret ballot. That seems the best way to proceed, as we can’t follow the practice that professional orchestras use when auditioning new payers which is for them to be screened behind a large black sheet to avoid visual prejudice, as for obvious reasons that won’t work with a conductor. I suppose we could ask them to stick their hands through a hole in a sheet but keep their body hidden. But we probably won’t. So, what else have we been up to? Well, we managed a concert back in December in St Clement Church in a village close to Truro which was very well attended, and made poignant for us as it was Nigel’s last stint on the podium with us. Looking to the future we are playing a series of two summer concerts on 18th June in St Tudy Church at 3.30 and our usual final concert at St Winnow Church on 24th June at 7.30. The Programme includes Handel (a rarely heard and out of print concerto grosso which Stephen Brown has arranged for us) Bach Brandenburg Number 3, Albinoni Oboe concerto number 2 with soloist Naomi Stevens, Mozart Divertimento number 1, Tchaikovsky Andante Cantabile and Lullaby by George Gershwin. There will be more concerts in the Autumn including another in St Clement we hope, and the best way to keep in touch is via our website www.stmewansinfonia.org.uk, an easy one to remember, or you can ‘like’ our Facebook page. Lastly, once again, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you on behalf of all the orchestra for your continued support for our activities. Music hire has become very expensive, so we do need people like you, our valued friends, to support us, even if you can’t make it to the concerts, although you have two chances coming up. This is especially important if we want to continue grass roots music performance at local venues in Cornwall. We don’t receive funding from any other source, and around half the proceeds from concerts go to the venue as we are a charity whose aim is to support other charities. So please do continue to support us if you can, the best way to do so of course, is to come to one of the concerts, bring some friends, and say hello and/or give us some feedback on repertoire and performance, or just talk to us. Otherwise, any help you can give us financially is much appreciated, our online banking details are: St Mewan Sinfonia, Treasurers Account Sort 30-98-97 Account 797 659 62 With many thanks and appreciation Martin White (Leader) On behalf of St Mewan Sinfonia.