New season for SeatonMusic set for a great start.

This year, the series gets off to a brilliant start with a visit from the highly regarded Orchestra of St. Paul’s in London.

Resident at the famous Actors’ Church in Covent Garden, the Orchestra of St Paul’s (OSP) brings together some of the finest professional musicians in London, under the baton of their conductor and musical director Ben Palmer. In addition to a thriving concert series in Covent Garden, OSP gives regular performances at festivals and other venues around the UK, including annual visits to Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room and St John’s, Smith Square.

OSP is unique among modern instrument chamber orchestras in playing music of the baroque, classical and even romantic periods entirely without vibrato - a playing style that has long been championed by their patron, Sir Roger Norrington. This pure tone is complemented by the orchestra’s employment of authentic articulation, phrasing and style.

The programme is predominantly one of modern music, including Tippet’s Little Music for Strings and Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss, which is generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the string repertoire. This performance will be in septet form (in a realisation by Rudolf Leopold) and contains one of Strauss’s most sustained outpourings of tragic emotion. The programme will continue with Britten’s diverting and very accessible Simple Symphony and conclude with Shostakovich’s Symphony for Strings Op118a.

The concert will be preceded by a workshop (sponsored by SeatonMusic), in which members of the orchestra will provide an insight into the work of the ensemble for a group of local secondary students from the area.

The concert takes place on Thursday, October 7, at Seaton Town Hall, beginning at 7.30pm. Tickets for the concert are priced at �12 on the door, subject to availability, and are free if you are a student. They are also available from Eve Gallery, Fore Street, Seaton, tel.(01297) 21482, if you wish to book in advance. Either way, you are, as always, assured of a warm welcome at what will undoubtedly be a memorable launch of the 2010/11 concert season.