Thank you to all our Friends
These are challenging times for the arts. Nevertheless, as our Artistic Director Marc Corbett-Weaver explains, Firebird plans to resume its concert season later this year…
Dear Friends
London Firebird Orchestra & The Pandemic
As the UK went into lockdown in March, we had engaged our players in two projects – our concert at Kings Place and an engagement concert with Middlesex University. Both had to be cancelled because of venue closures and the lockdown. Fortunately, we were in a position to support our players with payments for both projects. We are grateful for the generosity of our Friends & Benefactors, and the University, for this.
At present I am working with our conductors, George Jackson and Michael Thrift, and colleagues at St George’s to adapt our autumn programme. Orchestras are now performing on the continent with safety measures in place and we are watching developments closely.
Our home venue, St George’s Hanover Square, is currently closed but plans to reopen in time for the autumn.
As things stand therefore, we aim to proceed with our two orchestral concerts, Firebird for Schools Concert and Firebird Young Composer of the Year Competition, with our audience socially distanced. We also plan to bring these performances to a wider audience via online streaming.
This is a desperate time for young musicians, many of whom have had all their concerts cancelled. We look forward to announcing more details of our 2020/21 Season soon. Once again, all the musicians and the Board of Trustees would like to say a big thank you for your continued support. We look forward to having you with us for the journey ahead.
Meanwhile we would like to share the wonderful video performance below created by one of our regular soloists.
With our very best wishes at this challenging time,
Marc Corbett-Weaver
Artistic Director & Chief Executive, London Firebird Orchestra
We hope you will enjoy this video clip featuring part of the marvellous Finale from Sibelius Symphony no. 5, performed by our orchestra in June 2019 at St George’s Hanover Square.
The resplendent horn theme came into the composer’s mind while he was climbing mountains in Finland and suddenly saw the amazing spectacle of sixteen swans in flight above him – he wrote in his diary ‘This was the greatest day of my life!.
We hope our performance offers a little inspiration to our Friends at this challenging time.
If you are not already one of our donors, please do support us by joining the Friends & Benefactors Society.
To find out about the benefits of being a Friend and to join online, go to our Friends page.
