Wrexham Symphony Orchestra preparing for celebratory “Music From Home” concert

Final rehearsals are underway as a local orchestra prepares to stage a concert featuring music which celebrates the British Isles.

“Music From Home”, staged by Wrexham Symphony Orchestra, will take place at The William Aston Hall at Wrexham University on Saturday 20 July at 7.30pm.

Conducted by acclaimed Conductor Katherine Stonham, the concert will take the audience on a musical journey around the British Isles with a programme including Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture” composed in 1830 and inspired by the composers visit to Fingal’s Cave on the Island of Staffa.

Performances will also include “Penillion” by Welsh composer Grace Williams, Dame Ethel Smyth’s “The Wreckers’ Overture” an opera considered by some critics to be “the most important English Opera to be composed during the period between Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten”; Morfydd Llwyn Owen’s “Morfa Rhuddlan”, “Irish Tune from County Derry” by Percy Grainger, an adaptation of Londonderry Air, the tune most famously known as “Danny Boy; Sir Malcom Arnold’s “Scottish Dances” and Sir Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches No 2, and No 4 which has been featured at numerous state occasions including most recently, the Coronation of King Charles III.

Joining Wrexham Symphony Orchestra for the concert will be guest Conductor Katherine Stonham.

Originally from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Katherine is a graduate of a joint course run by the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester, where she studied violin with Julia Hanson and conducting with Robert Guy.

She graduated from the University of Manchester with a first-class honours degree in July 2020 and was awarded the GRNCM diploma in July 2021.

Through her work as a conductor, Katherine aims to cultivate a stimulating musical environment which inspires musicians to perform with commitment and energy, and therefore create engaging performances that have a powerful impact on audiences.

She also works regularly as a guest conductor with groups including the Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra, Wrexham Symphony Orchestra, Solway Sinfonia and Orchestra of Square Chapel in Halifax.

Since September 2023 she has been the conducting tutor for South West Music School and South West Youth Orchestra.

Katherine is the founder and principal conductor of the Manchester Philharmonic Orchestra, a dynamic new amateur orchestra based in south Manchester.

Speaking about the special concert, Matthew Ellis, the Chairman of Wrexham Symphony Orchestra said “We are delighted to be back at the William Aston Hall” for this celebration of the music of the British Isles under the baton of our guest conductor Katherine Stonham, it promises to be one the highlights of our 2023/24 season of concerts”.

Full details of “Music from Home” can be found at www.wrexhamorch.co.uk where tickets can be booked online.

Photo credit: Stephen Cain Photography