December 2024

Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra’s
New Year Concert

7:30 pm on Sunday 5th January
At Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill
London N6 5HG
Nearest tube Archway
Tickets £10, Concessions £9, Children £5:
www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk/aspidistra

Celebrate the New Year in style with the Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra. That is in palm court style. The Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra is an ensemble of string quartet, piano, flute and oboe and has been praised for their joyous interpretation of unjustly neglected Palm Court music.

The programme will include The Hampden Roar by Fred Hartley, Rhythm on Rails by Charles Williams, The Black Cat Rag by Frank Wooster, Illusions Perdue by Jacob Gade, the Gold Diggers Song by Harry Warren amongst others.

December 2024

Click above to visit the website
and open the Christmas Cracker!

November 2024

For information about past and upcoming episodes of Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 3 you can follow this link: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001xmxc/episodes/player

It shows previous episodes which are still available for replay via BBC Sounds (for up to 30 days after broadcast).

13th December 2024 at 7.30pm
Opera Gala
Soraya Mafi and Nicky Spence join conductor John Andrews and the BBC Concert Orchestra in an evening at the opera, recorded at West Green Opera in July. Presented by Petroc Trelawny.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025llf

20th December 2024 at 7.30pm
Sounds of Christmas
Celebrate Christmas with the BBC Concert Orchestra & BBC Singers live from Snape Maltings.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025t7n

10th January 2025 at 7.30pm
From Saffron Hall (repeat)
Gabriella Teychenné and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Saffron Hall in a Spanish-flavoured concert. Thibaut Garcia plays Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto and Felicity Buckland sings Carmen.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y9df

November 2024

(tap flyer to enlarge)

Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/robin-white-promotion

November 2024

Troxy
490 Commercial Road
London, E1 0HX

www.troxy-wurlitzer.org/shop/

October 2024

Ernest Tomlinson
1924 - 2015
A life in music with pictures and ...
a little light music!

The presentation by Hilary Ashton (daughter of light music maestro, Ernest Tomlinson) which featured at our most recent meeting in October was recorded by Jonathan Burns and can be viewed here.

A full report on the meeting can be found here

October 2024

Sergio Mendes
(1941-2024)

The Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes, who with his band Brasil '66 introduced Bossa Nova to a worldwide audience in the 1960s, has died aged 83.

An obituary by Anthony Wills can be found in our Obituaries section, HERE

September 2024

The Story of Light Music

Sunday 22nd September 2024 at 7:15pm on BBC Radio 3

Marking the centenary of composer Ernest Tomlinson’s birth (whose 'Little Serenade' – 1955 - is one of the treasures of British light music) and exploring the sound-world of pioneering light composers Eric Coates, Robert Farnon, Frederic Curzon, Ronald Binge, Peter Hope and others – presenter and singer Catherine Bott takes a look at what light music means today and its deep legacy for radio, television and film scores as well as its re-emergence on digital platforms like Tik Tok. Contributors include composer Peter Hope, conductor John Wilson, Ernest Tomlinson's daughter Hilary Ashton, modern day light music composer Thomas Hewitt-Jones and organist Richard Hills.

The programnme is available here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002383y

September 2024

BBC Proms

Sunday 1st September at 1.00 pm

On Radio 3 there was a repeat of a programme, first broadcast in March, looking at Henry Mancini's life and career including archive interviews.

Monday 2nd September at 7.30 pm

BBC Proms presented Ultra Lounge - Henry Mancini & Beyond.

Henry Mancini was more than one of the greatest composers in the history of film music. He was also one of the most versatile musicians of his or any time. Marking a century since the flautist, composer and conductor’s birth in Ohio, Edwin Outwater and the BBC Concert Orchestra celebrate the man and his music in styles ranging from jazz to light classical and film music.

Among the classics are the slinky 'Lujon' and themes from The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn, joined by gems from the lounge music and space-age pop genres Mancini helped inspire, including easy-going tracks by Burt Bacharach, Les Baxter and Juan García Esquivel.

Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 2. It is now available on BBC iPlayer for 11 months here: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0022njg

Anthony Wills

August 2024

A Centenary Celebration - Three Musical Luminaries –
Trevor Duncan, Ernest Tomlinson and Angela Morley

On Bank Holiday Monday, August 26th 2024 Serenade Radio presented a special feature to commemorate the centenaries of these famous composers, who made a great contribution to world of British Light Music in the years after World War Two.

Compiled and introduced by André Leon and produced by Tony Clayden, the programme features some of the trio's most prominent compositions.

You can catch up on our LLMMG streaming service.

August 2024

THE BIG INTERVIEW - John Wilson

There is a new item in the Articles section of the website reproducing an in-depth interview with John Wilson by George Hall which appeared in 'The Stage' during June.

June 2024

Mark Fitz-Gerald Orchestra
concert at The British Home

A report on this event can be found in the Reports section of the website - here

Click here for archived news items