BBC Young Musician of the Year 2022 string final winner Jaren Ziegler to perform with Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia

Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia kicks off its new season on November 5 with a bang.

The orchestra will be joined for its opening concert of 2023-24 at Bishop’s Stortford College by the winner of the 2022 BBC Young Musician of the Year string final.

Jaren Ziegler will perform Walton’s Viola Concerto, considered one of the great viola concertos, as the centrepiece of a concert giving a ‘spotlight’ to the instrument.

The afternoon concert starts with the Sinfonia performing the overture from ‘The Rock’, by Dorothy Howell, a celebrated Birmingham-born composer and pianist for much of the 20th century who started studies at the Royal Academy of Music just before the start of the First World War, when she was 15.

Howell achieved fame with her symphonic poem Lamia, inspired by the Keats poem, which Sir Henry Wood premiered at the Proms in September 1919, when she was 21.

The concert will be closing with Edward Elgar’s well-loved Enigma Variations. Coincidentally, Dorothy Howell tended Elgar’s grave in the churchyard of St Wulstan’s Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern, Worcestershire, for several years and herself is buried near him.

Elgar’s orchestral work, comprising 14 variations on an original theme, was composed between October 1898 and February 1899. It achieved immediate popularity which continues to this day and established his international reputation.

This beautiful work will bring a majestic finish to the afternoon, in perfect time to go out and watch the Guy Fawkes fireworks!

Rebecca Miller, the Sinfonia’s principal conductor, will return to the podium, bringing her passion and enthusiasm which inspires musicians and audience alike.

Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia’s concert is at 4pm on Sunday November 5 in the Memorial Hall at Bishop’s Stortford College in Maze Green Road.

Tickets can be bought online at www.bishopsstortfordsinfonia.com or at the door by cash or card.