Simon Allen

Author's posts

SASO seeks biggest-ever audiences for a classic new season

  • 20th August 2019

St Albans Symphony Orchestra has plans to attract its biggest-ever audience for classical music in its 2019-2020 season, with three of its six concerts taking place in the city’s cathedral.   The orchestra’s New Year Concert regularly fills the Abbey for a programme of entertaining classics. Wednesday January 1st 2020 should prove no exception, with the …

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Leader Jenny Wigram prepares to leave SASO after an amazing 40 years

  • 19th June 2019

 SASO’s much-loved Leader, Jenny Wigram, is leaving SASO at the end of the current 2018-19 season. Here, she looks back on a remarkable 40 years with the orchestra, all but two of them in the Leader’s chair. Anyone who has ever attended a St Albans Symphony Orchestra New Year Concert in the Cathedral knows Jenny …

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Conductor Tom Hammond talks about SASO’s July 6 summer concert – and teaching James Corden how to conduct!

  • 11th June 2019

Listen to our Principal Conductor Tom Hammond as he recently talked to Radio Verulam presenter Jill Burridge about SASO’s summer concert on July 6. This features celebrated Scandinavian works: Norwegian Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto (with soloist Veronika Shoot) and the ‘Inextinguishable’ Symphony No 4 by Danish composer Carl Nielsen. Tom also describes how he came …

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Vacancy for a Leader / Guest Leaders (2019-20 Season)

  • 23rd May 2019

We are seeking a replacement for our leader who will be retiring from the post at the end of this season after a remarkable 38 years…

“…the evening was a huge success for the orchestra…”

  • 16th May 2019

SASO’s spring concert of English classics by Elgar and Vaughan Williams found the orchestra playing at the top of its form, according to critic John Manning, writing in the Herts Advertiser. Describing the performance of Elgar’s Symphony No 1, he writes: “Once more the orchestra produced a very fine performance for the work which, by …

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“In all the evening was a huge success for the orchestra…”

  • 16th May 2019

Herts Advertiser critic John Manning heard the orchestra ‘at the top of its form’ in a spring programme of English classics. Between them Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar are the two finest English composers from the 20th century and any concert featuring the music of both becomes a must for many concert-goers.It proved just …

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Epoch-making Elgar and Vaughan Williams at SASO’s spring concert

  • 22nd April 2019

Two epoch-making works by English composers are brought together in the St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s spring concert on Saturday 11 May (7.30pm, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans AL1 4DF).   Premiered within thirty months of each other, the Symphony No 1 by Edward Elgar (pictured, left) and the Fantasia on a Theme by …

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“Clare Howick’s performance was completely outstanding…”

  • 14th March 2019

Clare Howick, the leading British violinist who performed Brahms Violin Concerto with SASO on March 9, was ‘completely outstanding’ according to John Manning, music reviewer for the Herts Advertiser: “Brahms’ Violin Concerto is a huge and powerful work which is demanding for both soloist and orchestra, but neither flagged in the performance. Indeed, Clare Howick’s …

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“Clare Howick’s performance was completely outstanding…”

  • 14th March 2019

Herts Advertiser critic John Manning was impressed by SASO’s March 9 concert with the leading British violinist Clare Howick. When both major works in St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s latest programme were first performed artists complained that they were virtually unplayable, writes John Manning. But at Saturdays concert at St Saviour’s Church, St Albans, the orchestra …

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SASO welcomes internationally-acclaimed violinist Clare Howick as soloist

  • 22nd February 2019

  A leading British violinist will appear with SASO on Saturday 9 March playing one of the greatest of all concertos written for her instrument (7.30pm St Saviour’s, Sandpit Lane, AL1 4DF)   Clare Howick, whose reputation has soared following a series of internationally-praised recordings, will join St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) to perform the …

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