Category Archives: The Music

Richard Gordon-Smith

Richard Gordon-SmithRichard Gordon-Smith is a composer, music animateur and violinist. Previously a member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, he now commits himself full-time to educational and community activities in schools and elsewherework, and to serious composition.

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Ensemble Liverpool Lunchtime Trio Recital, Thursday 18 December 2008,Bootle Town Hall

Ensemble Liverpool, in association with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Sefton Council, presents a lunchtime recital on Thursday 18 December ’08 of Piano Trios by Joseph Haydn and Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, in Bootle Town Hall. Members of Ensemble Liverpool are Martin Anthony Burrage (violin), Alexander Holladay (cello) and John Peace (piano). Tickets are £3 each, obtainable in advance or on the door.
Programme:
Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) Piano Trio in G major, No. 39, Hoboken XV/25, “The Hungarian” or “GypsyTrio (1795)
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Piano Trio in A minor, Opus 50, “In memory of a Great Artist” (1882)
Martin Anthony Burrage (violin)
Alexander Hollaway (cello)
John Peace (piano)
Bootle Town Hall (Ballroom), 12 for 12.30 (start) for one hour.
Address: Bootle Town Hall, Oriel Road, Bootle, L20 7AE (Streetmap)
Tickets are available in advance from Southport Arts Centre (tel: 01704 540011) or on the door at Bootle Town Hall from midday on the day of the concert.

Contact email: Ensemble Liverpool
Read more about Ensemble Liverpool and The Musicians
www.ensembleliverpool.co.uk
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Elegant Music ‘Carols Round The Christmas Tree’ At Sudley House

The 2008 Elegant Music Carol Concert at Sudley House, by Mossley Hill Church, Liverpool, is on Sunday 7 December, from 2 – 3.30 pm. Join us after your lunch, all prepared to sing at 2.30.

It’s free and everyone’s welcome! And do leave time to explore Sudley House, too. It’s one of the great treasures of Liverpool, with wonderful art, plus a cosy tearoom open daily, 10 am till 4.30 pm.

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Spring, Four Strings And Four Seasons

Daffodils in the sunshine take on a new aspect when they’ve just been background to a performance of ‘Spring’ from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Members of Elegant Music are here (below) relaxing in a break from rehearsals for a client’s special occasion.

Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage, Donald Turnbull, David Ruby and Alexander Holladay are members of Elegant Music (which also performs more formal concerts and recitals as Ensemble Liverpool).
For more photographs please see Camera & Calendar.
Read more articles at Music, Musicians & Orchestras.

Alexander Holladay

Alexander Holladay is a cellist and a member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which he joined in 2007 aged 25.
A graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, he is also professor of ‘cello at the University of Liverpool.
Alex is a regular performer with Ensemble Liverpool and Elegant Music and has throughout his studies and career been an enthusiast for the chamber music repertoire, especially that for piano trio.
Alexander Holladay lives in Liverpool, where he is a member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, having also been for five years a member of the National Youth Orchestra. In 2005 Alex graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied with Colin Carr and Philip Sheppard.
Whilst at the Academy he received the prestigious DipRAM and various prizes, including the Thomas Fitton Prize for Strings, for best post-graduate final recital.
Alex then continued performing as a concert soloist and throughout the country with the Lawson Piano Trio. He has been invited to play with numerous professional orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the Northern Ballet orchestra.
Various tours have taken Alex to Germany, Hungary, the United States of America, South Africa and New Zealand.
Contact emails: Alexander Holladay; Ensemble Liverpool; Elegant Music.

Read more about Ensemble Liverpool and Elegant Music.
www.ensembleliverpool.co.uk
www.elegantmusic.co.uk

Carols Round The Christmas Tree At Sudley House, 2007

Sunday 23 December 2007 was the date for an occasion to remember: Carols Round the Christmas Tree at Sudley House, the historic home of a Victorian Mayor of Liverpool. The free singalong afternoon concert saw almost three hundred people came to enjoy the company and the carolling with Live-A-Music and the Children’s Choir.
This event was supported by the National Museums Liverpool and offered a warm welcome to everyone. The musicians (Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage, John Peace, Richard Gordon-Smith and Hilary Burrage) were all members of Live-A-Music, a group also known as Elegant Music. The children’s choir of Mossley Hill Parish Church also performed.
Sudley House has an excellent tearoom for refreshments throughout the afternoon, and provides full disabled access. It is set in peaceful parkland and offers spectacular views across the River Mersey to the Wirral and beyond, to Moel Famau in Wales.
Visitor information and location and travel advice for Sudley House is available here.
See also:
Sudley House: Victorian Home Of A Mayor Of Liverpool
Liverpool’s Ancient Chapel Of Toxteth, Dingle Gaumont Cinema, The Turner Nursing Home & Dingle Overhead Railway Station
Autumn Glory In Sefton Park
Sefton Park, Liverpool: Winter Solstice 2006
For more articles please visit History of Liverpool and The Music.

A Summerful Of Children’s Music Workshops In Liverpool

Summer 2007 has been a special opportunity for HOPES and Live-A-Music to provide Children’s Music Workshops, thanks to generous funding from Awards for All. The workshops, held alternately in the city centre and a close-by suburb, have focused on themes developed by the children themselves – in one case, a ‘symphony’ featuring global warming, drifting snow, salsa / jazz and a roller-coaster! Following sessions in July and mid-August, the next workshops in the series are on Saturday 8 September in Mossley Hill Parish Church Hall.
These workshops have proved a great hit with budding musicians of all sorts – players of everything from the trumpet to the triangle It’s not very often that parents and children of considerable musical experience and none can come together from all around Liverpool to sing, dance and make their very own music.
Details of the 8th September sessions follow below. Here are some photographs of the workshops at Mossley Hill Church Hall , Liverpool 18, on 30/31 July, and at St. Bride’s Church, Liverpool 8, on 13/14 August.

HOPES and the Live-A-Music workshop leaders are very grateful to Awards for All, who have substantially funded these Children’s / Family Music sessions.
The next workshops: when, where and how
The next two children’s music workshops are scheduled for Saturday 8 September at 10.30 – 12.15 and 1 – 2.45 pm. The venue is Mossley Hill Parish Church Hall, Rose Lane, L18 8DB. These sessions are part of the current series of Live-A-Music workshops organised by Richard Gordon-Smith with Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage, and supported by HOPES: the Hope Street Association with generous funding from Awards for All.
Cost and conditions
The cost per child per session is just £3. Parents and other carers are welcome to accompany children and join in at no extra cost if they so wish. We ask that any children under seven are always accompanied by a parent and / or older sibling because this helps them to feel confident and happy.
Children attending both the morning and the afternoon sessions may bring a packed lunch, subject to their parents’ written consent. (Specific details of conditions are here; but NB session timings have been revised at the request of parents.)
Booking and further information
Booking beforehand is appreciated because it helps with planning for the workshops, but children may simply turn up on Saturday 8th if they wish. Please email us to book places, or for further details. You are also welcome to use this email address to tell us you would like to go on the emailing list for notice of future workshop sessions.
And have fun
These children’s workshops are an opportunity to explore and develop imaginations and musical skills, whatever the previous experience of music. They’re for children (with their parent/s if that’s wished) to enjoy and create new musical ideas, to tell stories in sound, and to have fun.

John Peace

John Peace, educated in Yorkshire, is a Music graduate of University College, Durham University, with diplomas in piano and organ performance from the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Organists. A Senior Lecturer in Music in the Music & Drama School of Performing Arts in Liverpool, John was Head of Keyboard Studies and a course leader. In the 1980s he greatly valued artistic consultations with distinguished pianist and Royal College of Music professor Gordon Fergus-Thompson.

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Introducing Elegant Music ~ Classical Music & Easy Listening For Events

Elegant Music is a long-established, independent free-lance ensemble of fully professional classically-trained musicians who provide high quality music and easy listening for private, family and corporate events, after-dinner and soiree concerts, and special occasions. As individual players and singers we appear in our own rights with the North West’s most prestigious symphony orchestras and other performing arts organisations; and we come together as Elegant Music to offer classical music and lighter musical entertainment in venues across the region and beyond.
From Salon to Celebration, from Intimate to Corporate, we have music to suit your requirements. Please contact us, or read on…

Amongst Elegant Music‘s many previous engagements are concerts, dinners and weddings in venues as varied as Liverpool Town Hall, St. George’s Hall, Blackburne House, Croxteth Hall, Sefton Park Palm House and many hotels in the region – including the opening event of the Liverpool Crowne Plaza – as well as at numerous private parties and exclusive corporate events.
In addition to the numerous events which have been organised by private individuals and families, our clients have included the the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, the University of Liverpool, Sefton Flower Show, Liverpool’s Met Quarter and many professional and commercial organisations.
Every occasion is unique
Elegant Music treats every occasion as unique. We know that you, the client, will have particular requirements, preferences,
themes or whatever which will make the occasion special for you, and we are happy to collaborate with you to produce a tailor-made programme of music, formal or light entertainment, which will be exactly right for that specific event.
A small but flexible group
Generally, Elegant Music comprises three to five performers (perhaps a string quartet – two violinists, a violist and a ‘cello; or maybe a trio with keyboard, strings and / or a singer); but we can provide any number of performers from one (say, a pianist, singer, violinist or organist) or two up to, e.g., a whole Viennese or symphony orchestra, to suit your requirements.
Contact us early to discuss musical options
We suggest you contact us as early as possible in the preparation of your event planning, to discuss the sort of music you would
like; with notice we can usually meet a wide range of requirements. But if you prefer, we can of course offer a ready-made package, should time or other pressures make this the best option.
Jazz or classical, modern or romantic, Beethoven or Beatles, we have the music to meet your needs.
Styled to suit
And similarly with presentation – we know that how things look is also important. The style of the event is yours to choose. Jazzy waistcoats to full evening dress, day wear to black tie, your Elegant Music musicians will be pleased to perform in whatever dress code you select!
Advice to help you decide
We will happily provide information on our fees, answer any
questions and, if perhaps you are new to organising events (e.g. for a family wedding), guide you through the preparations which will ensure that the music for your special occasion is just as you want it.
We are also of course very pleased to discuss options and possibilities with the organisers of larger and / or corporate events.
No obligation discussion
For a no obligation discussion, please contact us with your phone number and information about your general requirements via this link.
We look forward to hearing from you!

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The Live-A-Music Children’s Workshops, 5 April 2007: A Fun-Packed Family Day

The Live-A-Music Children’s Workshops on 5 April in Mossley Hill Parish Church Hall, Liverpool 18 were action-packed, with much creative sparking between the children, musicians and ‘supporting cast’ of accompanying (grand) parents and younger brothers and sisters. Themes included ‘Music, Myth and Magic’, ‘Animal Samba’ and ‘Symphony’ – with the children also performing a work of their own.

These Live-A-Music workshops ran during the day on Thursday 5 April 2007, in Mossley Hill Parish Church Hall, Rose Lane, Liverpool 18. Background information about the workshops is available on this website. Further workshops are planned for the Summer school holidays.
For more details of the Summer arrangements, or to discuss how Live-A-Music can work to support your own educational / social engagement proposals, please email us.