Musical Notes

Summer music in Swanage

THE second series of summer concerts at the church of St Mary in Swanage starts next week with a visit from the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble.

This internationally renowned group has visited more than 60 countries, and next Thursday 5th July comes to the Dorset coast for a concert of virtuosic music and humourous asides. The programme includes works by Handel, Walton, Maxwell Davies and Bernrstein.

The series continues on Thursday 12th July, when members of the Philharmonia Orchestra and friends give a chamber concert for flute and strings.

One of the biggest hits of 2011's inaugural series were The Opera Dudes, now back by popular demand. Their Mission Impossible tour includes operatic arias and much merriment, and you can hear them in Swanage on 19th July.

The world famous choir The Sixteen has included Swanage in the 2012 Choral Pilgrimage, giving audiences a chance to hear them in the more intimate setting of St Mary's, on Thursday 26th July.

The mood will change when tenor Simon McEnery and Dorset pianist Liz Sweetman perform an evening of cabaret and torch songs on 2nd August.

The final concert of the series, on Thursday 9th August, is an evening of Organ Fireworks, played on the fine St Mary's organ by Simon Lole, series organiser and director of music at the church. Simon was formerly organist at Salisbury Cathedral.

All concerts start at 7.30pm. For more details, phone 01929 421117, email Simon Lole at simon@simonlole.com or visit the website, www.swanagestmarys.com

Massed Coastal Voices

THE concert hall at Poole's Lighthouse is the venue for the next performance of the Dorset Olympics project Coastal Voices, next Sunday 8th July from 5pm.

Inspired by London 2012 and the Cultural Olympiad, Coastal Voices has brought hundreds of voices together for performances across Dorset and Devon, and this will be their first joint performance.

Musical director Howard Moody will take the singers through all four new commissions, created to celebrate the Jurassic Coast. There are choirs and voices from Exmouth to Bournemouth who will perform new arrangements of cult classics by Nick Cave, the geologically-inspired sound world of Marc Yeats, Songs for a Coastal Wind by John Surman and On Golden Cap by John K Miles, inspired by work with Billy Bragg, B Sharp and young people of West Dorset and East Devon.

For more information, contact the Lighthouse or visit its website.

Jazzy summer guitars

THE Southern Jazz Guitar Society gives its annual summer concert at the Abbey Hotel in Romsey next Saturday, 7th July at 2pm.

The musicians and their fans are hoping for fine weather, as the event, part of Romsey Music Festival, is scheduled to be held in the open air. If the rains come the performance will be indoors. The society was formed many years ago to satisfy the interests of amateur jazz guitarists in the south and south western area, and is the second largest organisation of its kind in the UK.

The programme encompasses various styles of jazz guitar, some accompanied by other jazz instrumentalists.

For more details phone Derek Ayling on 01425 650770.

Afternoon prom

NEXT Sunday afternoon, 8th July, in the grounds of Eastwood House at Ibsley, near Ringwood, the La Nova Singers will return to perform their summer garden concert.

The classical vocal ensemble will evoke the spirit of the proms with a medley of well-known songs from opera, musicals and operetta, side by side with pop classics by The Beatles and The Mamas and The Papas.

The audience can take a picnic and join in with the flag waving during a patriotic finale. The concert will be conducted by choir founder soprano Michelle Nova.The music starts at 3.30pm. For more details, telephone 07736 070033 or e-mail LaNovaSingers@aim.com

Musical summer

NEXT Saturday 7th July, P and P Singers return to the Layard Theatre at Canford School for their summer concert.

The programme for Musical Moments will include a variety of songs from a setting of Pachelbel's Canon to It Don't Mean a Thing, via Plaisir D'Amour and What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor, as well as medleys from A Chorus Line, Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.

The music starts at 7.30. For more information telephone 01202 580609 or email singers@pandp.org.uk

Regent Rock Choir

THE Regent Centre based branch of Rock Choir will be entertaining the home audience tomorrow, Saturday, with concerts at 2.30 and 7.30.

The choir offers teenagers and adults from in and around Christchuch the opportunity to sing pop, Motown, gospel and chart songs, without the need to audition, read music or have any previous singing experience. Described as a contemporary choir for people who love to sing, its members come from all generations and walks of life. The "nationwide phenomenon" was recently the subject of an ITV documentary, The Choir That Rocks.

Find more details of the concerts and of free taster sessions, visit the website, www.rockchoir.com

Farewell to Jane

CONDUCTOR Jane Bultz bids a fond farewell to the Westbourne Orchestral Society, which she has led for more than seven years, at a concert at St Andrew's Church in Boscombe tomorrow, Saturday.

The programme has a London/Olympic theme and the orchestra will be joined by Jack McNeill from Birmingham Conservatoire, winner of the 21+ concerto competition, who will perform Finzi's Clarinet Concerto.

The programme also includes Vaughan-Williams' London Symphony, and John Williams' Olympic Fanfare.

There will be a retiring collection for the Jigsaw Appeal for Women.

For more details visit the website www.westbourne-orchestra.co.uk