Sinfonia Viva, the East Midlands’ Grammy-nominated professional orchestra, has released tickets for its first online New Year’s Eve performance.

 

The Orchestra has performed an early-evening gala concert at The Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, on December 31^st for more than 25 years which has obviously had to be cancelled due to the pandemic this year.

 

Thanks to support from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF), a Chamber Orchestra of 13 players has been able to pre-record an hour-long performance from the rehearsal room at Nottingham’s Lakeside Arts.

 

The intimate performance will premiere online at 6pm on Thursday December 31 2020 for every household who has bought a £10 ticket and will then be available to either watch later or again for the following seven days.

 

In time-honoured gala concert tradition, well-known dance tunes by the world-renowned ‘Waltz King’ - J Strauss II will take centre stage including ‘Blue Danube,’ ‘Roses From The South,’ ‘Champagne Polka’ and much more.

 

The New Year’s Eve programme will also include Monti’s ‘Czardas’ which is a well-known folkloric piece based on a Hungarian csárdás featuring soloist Sophie Rosa and the beautiful ‘Waltz No.3 Valse de la Reine’ by celebrated musician and composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

 

 

The performance will finish with the traditional closing piece of music at Viva’s NYE gala concert - ‘Radetzky’ by J Strauss I - to perfectly set the tone for celebrations to welcome in the New Year.

 

The concert is conducted by Benjamin Pope who most recently worked with Sinfonia Viva on a pre-recorded programme for Darley Park At Home. 

 

A critically-acclaimed conductor for dance, he has worked with orchestras across the world and is also one of a select group authorised by John Williams to conduct the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy.

 

The soloist is Sophie Rosa who was appointed Orchestral Leader in 2019 having appeared as soloist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Manchester Camerata to name a few. She has broadcast for BBC Radio Three and has released CDs on Champs Hill and EM Records labels to critical acclaim.

 

Benjamin Pope said: “After such a traumatic year for everyone, we were keen to bring some familiarity back to this time of year - particularly for our loyal New Year’s Eve audiences.

 

“Although we would have all loved to have been playing in front of a packed auditorium at The Royal Concert Hall, I am delighted that we have been able to pre-record this intimate performance for people to enjoy from the comfort of their own homes.

 

“We thoroughly enjoyed coming together – socially distanced of course – in our best gowns and tails to record this programme of wonderful music.

 

“This has been expertly filmed to offer a unique look of the Orchestra away from the concert hall and in the more personal environment of the Lakeside Arts rehearsal space.

 

“I hope that our New Year’s Eve stalwarts and newcomers alike will support the Orchestra by buying tickets for the online performance to either enjoy on New Year’s Eve itself, over the following days – or indeed on several occasions.

 

“I am sure we will all be glad to see the back of 2020 and I think that enjoying a lovely hour of classical music is the perfect way to bring beauty and positivity into our lives.

 

“Sinfonia Viva look forward to returning to the stage on New Year’s Eve 2021 when all of this will hopefully be a distant memory.”