Spring into the new season with jazz concert in Sunderland

The Sunderland Symphony Orchestra will be holding its spring concert, Spring into Jazz, on March 23 at 7.30pm.
Sunderland Symphony OrchestraSunderland Symphony Orchestra
Sunderland Symphony Orchestra

It will take place at West Park Church, in Stockton Road, and represents a new venture for the orchestra, in that it will include jazz themed music for the first time in the orchestra’s history.

The concert programme will include some familiar and instantly recognisable jazz standards such as George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, Tom Sawyer’s Saturday by Johnny Dankworth, Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing and music by Shostakovich and Bizet.

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The programme also includes an arrangement in Salute to the Big Band era.

The orchestra will also perform Louis Prima’s Sing, Sing, Sing, popularised by one of the all-time jazz greats, Benny Goodman.

It is hoped this will attract a newer and wider range of music lovers to the group’s concerts.

The programme will also feature a soloist performance by Sunderland Symphony Orchestral player, 18-year-old flautist Megan Robinson, from Sunderland, who will play Carnival of Venice by Gulio Briccialdi.

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Megan joined the Sunderland Symphony Orchestra in 2014 playing violin. She is principle flautist with the Tees Valley Youth Orchestra and has performed in prominent venues worldwide including Vidado Hall in Budapest; Parque Botanico El Majuelo in Granada; Birmingham Symphony Hall and The Sage Gateshead.

This July she will be performing with The Tees Valley Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York, USA.

Sunderland City Council has supported the orchestra since its formation, and the mayor, who is the honorary patron, will be present at the concert.

The church is right beside the Park Lane Interchange and Metro station.

•Tickets are £8 including refreshments (under 16 and students £5) and are available at the door or can be purchased online by visiting the Sunderland Symphony website – www.sunderlandso.org.uk