|
|
 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
The EMA and the ESO
|
![]() |
|
The Essex Symphony Orchestra was born out of the EMA.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Essex Symphony Orchestra
The Essex Symphony Orchestra and the EMA
The Essex Symphony Orchestra was born out of the EMA. Over the years, the EMA choral concerts had been supported by a variety of orchestras, formed from musicians from the Essex area, and brought together for the event. William Bush, who founded the Chelmsford Singers in 1927, created a local orchestra to accompany the choirs at EMA choral concerts and to work with the Chelmsford Singers. The first recorded purely orchestral concert given by this orchestra, then called the 'Chelmsford Festival Orchestra', was in 1949, and this is accepted as the year of the ESO's birth.
In 1950, Dr. Stanley Vann, the ESO president today, became organist at Chelmsford Cathedral, and he also took over as conductor of the Chelmsford Singers and, in 1951, the Chelmsford Festival Orchestra. Under his leadership, the ESO expanded from what was essentially a string orchestra into a full orchestra and was renamed the Essex Symphony Orchestra. With a new professional leader, Arthur Davison, it started to perform an ambitious programme of orchestral concerts, whilst still working with the EMA. When Stanley Vann moved on to Peterborough in 1953 , conductorship of the ESO stayed with Masters of Music at the Cathedral, first with Derrick Cantrell and then with Philip Ledger who also conducted and adjudicated for the EMA.
It would be nice to chronicle continuous co-operation between the ESO and the EMA over the whole lifetime of the ESO, but there was a breakdown in 1971. For the reason of difficulty in finding a suitable set of support players, the ESO pulled out of the 1971 Festival in the February before the event in May, which left the EMA in a fix and no doubt very displeased. The relationship was happily re-established in 1988, after 17 years, due in no small part to the initiative of Antoine Mitchell, the ESO's star conductor, who had revitalised the orchestra following his appointment in 1984. In 1992 Antoine himself conducted Verdi's Requiem with the ESO and from that time on the ESO has been the chosen EMA orchestra, supporting the combined choirs and sometimes performing their own pieces at EMA concerts.
Unfortunately the concert on the 2nd May 2009 was the last ever EMA event.
4th May 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
