What a fantastic experience performing at the Birmingham Symphony Hall last Sunday was. I’ve been to so many concerts and heard many great orchestras in this venue, including of course the wonderful CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), that walking out on to the stage and playing their beautiful Steinway D Concert Grand piano was almost quite sureal..

Thanks to the several hundred who attended the concert and also to Alice who had to stand in for our violinst at the last minute unfortunately with no time for rehearsal. I think she did a great job!

Many thanks to Artsfest for inviting Fordante to perform – we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m rather excited to report that Fordante have been confirmed to be performing on stage at the prestigious  Symphony Hall in Birmingham on 11th September at 5:00pm.  Even better news is that as we’re part of the Birmingham Artsfest Festival it’s free!  So it’s a great opportunity to come along and hear us and see if you agree with what our reviewers say!

Many thanks to everyone who came along to our concerts at Buxton Festival Fringe this year. I particuluarly appreciated the kind comments and opinions about the performances of the four new pieces we premiered. It’s always abit of a nail biting time performing music for the first time, making sure that they sound as you hope when you’re writing it and more importantly how the audience will be receive the new music. Thankfully this time I needn’t have been quite so anxious!

The icing on the cake, so to speak, was for Fordante to be nominated for the Best Small Ensemble at the Festival.

For anyone in the Buxton area Fordante are mentioned in the Buxton Advertiser ahead of the concerts this weekend.

http://www.buxtonadvertiser.co.uk/lifestyle/entertainment/film_music_1_3574511

Just returned from rehearsal after working through several of the new songs for the next two concerts.  I’m looking forwards to hearing from our Derbyshire audience when we perform them for the first time.  Roll on Saturday…

Fordante return to Buxton Festival Fringe this Saturday 16th July and will be performing two concerts at the Buxton United Reform Church following the success of last years performances.

Aswell as performing some of the best music from film soundtracks including Schindler’s List, Gabriels Oboe (from The Mission) and Glasgow Love Theme (from Love Actually) Fordante are going to world premier several new pieces at Buxton including a beautiful requiem, an Arabian track and a Spanish dance (‘Espagnante’) along with performing a mix of their more well known pieces.

Tickets are available from the Buxton Opera House on 0845 127 2190 and on the door – subject to availability.  The afternoon concert starts at 3:30pm and the evening is at 8:00pm.

Following the success of winning the Best New Music at the Buxton Festival Fringe in 2010, Fordante have been invited to perform as one of the opening acts at this years Fringe First concert.  The evening event will see Fordante perform a mix of our original music alongside a performance of Schindler’s List from the film of the same name and Glasgow Love Theme from the Love Actually.

The concert is at Buxton Opera House/Pavillion Arts Theatre in Buxton, Derbyshire at 7:30pm.

Thanks to everyone who was at our return concert last Friday evening at Harvington for making us feel so welcome and for some very thoughtful and appreciative comments.

Harvington Fordante Concert

Harvington Fordante Concert

Harvington Fordante Concert

Just a quick update to say that Fordante will be performing at Harvington Hall, Harvington, Evesham, tomorrow evening 7:30pm.

Tickets (£8.00) available on the door.

Thanks to the folks (Phil/Simon) over at CamFM (Cambridge University) Radio for the interview this weekend for their classical/film soundtrack program.

I had a slightly startling start to the recording when I accepted the call on the iPod via Skype and was greeted with my own face filling the screen but as soon as the video call was disabled the interview could continue where we talked a little about Fordante and film composing.

CamFM Fordante radio interview

The legendary film composer, John Barry, sadly passed away on the 31st January at the age of 77.

Responsible for so many of the James Bond film soundtracks including A View To A Kill and Goldfinger.  Barry’s distinctive composing style likely defined from his years with his own pop band The John Barry Seven.  He was awarded 5 Oscars for his other soundtracks including Born Free, Out Of Africa and Dances With Wolves, a personal favourite responsible for igniting my interest in film scoring.  Other soundtracks include the score to Chaplin, Zulu and Midnight Cowboy totalling over 100 filmscore credits.