Welcome!
With music from Bizet to Zimmermann, via Bernstein, Haydn, Mahler and Shostakovich, it gives me great pleasure to introduce this season's wide-ranging programme.
We start and finish the 2007/08 season in the distinguished company of two sensational EMI artists. Alison Balsom and Natalie Clein have captivated audiences all over the world and we are thrilled to welcome them to the Cambridge Philharmonic. We are also delighted to welcome back Andrew Watts and Anna Burford, who made such an impression when they sang with us last season.
Last year Paul Patterson joined us as our first composer-in-focus. The venture was a great success with audience and performers alike, and we are very happy that Jonathan Dove will join us this season in a similar role. Jonathan's vast experience writing for the stage has given his music a fabulously theatrical and engaging style and I look forward to introducing some of his most recent works to West Road.
Our sell-out children's concerts are now a popular fixture in the diaries of Cambridge's under-elevens. For our musical adventures in February, we are joined by Simon Butteriss, star of stage and screen, who narrates The Crocodiamond - a fabulous introduction to the orchestra by Anthony Horowitz (of Alex Rider fame) and Jonathan Dove.
With Mahler in King's, Duruflé in St John's, Elgar in Ely and a fabulous variety of music at West Road, the only problem with this season is not which concert to go to, but how many! Whichever you choose, we look forward to welcoming you.
Timothy Redmond