Sunderland Symphony Orchestra back on song with Christmas concert

Sunderland Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has announced a Welcome Back Christmas Concert, its first since before the pandemic.

The orchestra has been rehearsing since September for the concert, which will take place at West Park Church, Stockton Road, on Saturday, December 11 at 4pm.

Ged McCormack, SSO chairperson, said: “This will be our first concert for 18 months and we are really looking forward to playing publicly after such a gap.

"We have managed to hold ourselves together as a musical organisation by the use of virtual rehearsals during lockdown but nothing beats the joy of performing live orchestral music.”

The concert will feature varied arrangements of festive music by Leroy Anderson, Harold Walters, Gustav Holst and Irving Berlin along a few

Christmas carols.

Also being premiered in this concert is a new music composition Celebration March 21, commissioned to mark the occasion of the Orchestra’s 21st Birthday and in celebration of the city’s special twinning relationships with Saint-Nazaire in France and Essen in Germany.

Celebration March 21 has been composed by one of Sunderland Symphony Orchestral trumpet players and music composer who also composed a much acclaimed composition Sunderland in 2019, which explored Sunderland’s rich history in narrative, choral and orchestral evocations.

Sunderland Symphony Orchestra’s Welcome Back concert will be a free ticket event, but donations are welcome. To help keep everyone safe, there will be no interval or refreshments.

Doors will open at 3.40pm for the 4pm concert.

Free tickets from here

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