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Orchestra |
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"We
are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams".
Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Music and Moonlight (1874)
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It was the dream of a group of West Devon music lovers to create a professional chamber orchestra. In 1998, the volunteer Steering Group appointed conductor Simon Ible to spearhead the launch of the new Ten Tors Orchestra, and with public funding from South Devon & Dartmoor LEADER II, the South West of England Regional Development Agency, South West Arts, West Devon Borough Council and South Hams District Council, a project called 'Music for the Millennium', was made possible. This was a series of ten concerts performed between September 1999 and December 2000 in small towns around Dartmoor.
The rapid growth in quality and success led the Ten Tors Orchestra to appear alongside the Philharmonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras in the Plymouth Orchestral Concert Series launched in 2006.
www.plymouthpavilions.com |
About the orchestra |
The Ten Tors is a chamber orchestra of up to 50 professional players. A 17-piece string ensemble plus flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, percussion and harpsichord. On some occasions the orchestra is just 15 players - often that is as many as a small church venue can accommodate and on occasion it can extend to perhaps 50 players according to the demands of a particular event.
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Who are they? |
All the members are recruited from the South West region of Britain. Many of them play with leading national ensembles including the Academy of St Martin-in-the Fields and the English Chamber Orchestra. Just two examples. Senior members bring with them a wealth of experience and younger player’s energy and enthusiasm.
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The Repertoire - Simon Ible, Artistic Director |
"I am passionate about British music and I am committed to commissioning and promoting new music. That's not to say I avoid all those wonderful Europeans - Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel (almost English!), Scarlatti, Albinoni, Haydn
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but you will find in most programmes several centuries of British composers represented from Purcell, Boyce & Arne to Elgar, Ireland, Finzi and Delius.
New music is important for the good musical health of both performer and audience. So I am not looking for music which leaves your head spinning … with anything other than inspiration and delight. New music can be challenging, exciting, moving, exhilarating … and we have been fortunate to have performed new works by three composers: Roger Bolton, Ben Bartlett, Jonathan Pitkin, Stevie Wishart, Karen Wimhurst and Eduardo Miranda".
see NEW COMMISSIONS.
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The Soloists |
Many of the soloists who appear with the orchestra are at the beginning of their careers. We have been fortunate to have received stunning performances from young performers who already appear amongst the top names in British and international concert halls and opera houses: flautists Juliet Bausor. Jonathan Lemalu, Jean Rigby, Stephen Varcoe, Alan Opie, Piers Adams Loise Cannon, Carlos Bonnell, , Jonathan Gunthorpe, Alwynn Mellor and Denis Leigh. We have also been honoured to receive such acclaimed artists such as oboist John Anderson, violinist Nona Liddell and pianist Nikolai Demidenko.
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The Venues |
The orchestra performs in churches and concert halls in Plymouth, Devon & Cornwall.
The first ten concerts served five towns around Dartmoor, but mainly in West Devon, an area which is not favoured with professional orchestra provision: Yelverton, Okehampton, North Tawton, Tavistock and Totnes. Additional invitation concerts have included a debut at Dartington Hall and a Christmas Concert in Kingsbridge - filling a gap created by the recently dissolved Bournemouth Sinfonietta and a Gala Summer Concert with the Buckland Abbey Festival Chorus for the National Trust at Buckland Abbey. The Orchestra made its Cornwall debut at the Central Methodist Church, Launceston and Plymouth debut at St Andrew's Church in 2001.
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The Board of Management’s Policy for the Ten Tors Orchestra |
The aim is to give the communities of rural Plymouth, Devon & Cornwall access to live music events only previously available in the regions larger towns and cities - Exeter, Barnstaple, Truro, Bath and Bristol; to reach new audiences who for the first time have the opportunity to attend and enjoy concerts performed by their very own professional orchestra.
In the longer term the organisation would play a role in keeping musicians resident in the region through providing stimulating opportunities to perform regularly with a fully professional ensemble and developing a musical infrastructure which would enhance music learning and smaller scale music making; strengthening the aim of reaching new audiences.
See FUTURE PLANS
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