Date: Saturday 21st March 2015 
START TIME: 7:30 pm
Venue: Newnham Church
Programme:
Conductor: Jack Lovell
Leader: Ros Taunton
Soloist: Richard Tattam
Tickets: £8 (concessions £6) on door
Free entry to those still at school.
Retiring Collection: Newnham St. Peter’s School
Great concert with great new conductor Jack Lovell, great audience and great support for our chosen charity – Sean Gane from The Warrior Programme for soldiers with post traumatic stress.
A rather prickly customer turned up at Thursday night’s brilliant rehearsal of the Royal Forest of Dean Orchestra – along with a few others! Bass players Gordon Bailey and Vernon Godden spotted the hedgehog having a slug feast on the steps of Newnham St Peter’s Primary School where we rehearse. If you’re not prickly and you want to join us visit out website www.rfdo.org.uk
Promising young conductor Jack Lovell has started on a high note as he takes up the baton with the Royal Forest of Dean Orchestra. He has just gained his Master’s Degree in conducting from Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is already putting members through their paces with works such as Suite from Nais by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which he has edited himself. The 23-year-old, whose dream is to become a professional conductor, has chosen an ambitious programme with a French theme for the orchestra’s Christmas concert on December 6 at Coleford Baptist Church. He will be combining Rameau with Ravel’s popular Mother Goose Suite. And to finish the evening he will be conducting Bizet’s First Symphony for his debut in the Dean. Jack, who hails from Somerset, fell in love with music as a child, although he doesn’t come from an inherently musical family. He played piano and tenor horn from a young age and later added cello and French horn. He became hooked on conducting after being given the chance to take up the baton at Richard Huish College in Taunton, where he studied in the sixth form. Jack currently works at the Birmingham Conservatoire and is busy honing his skills, learning repertoire and developing his musicianship. He has taken over from another rising star Thomas Payne, who has conducted the Forest orchestra for the past four years. “I am really looking forward to working with and developing the orchestra,” said Jack. “It will certainly keep me on my toes and motivated.” If you are interested in joining the orchestra, which rehearses at Newnham St Peter’s Primary School every Thursday from 7.30-9.30pm, contact the chairman Liz Pritchard on liz@gl14.net or ring 01594 510604 or visit the website at www.rfdo.org.uk
