Trips & Adventures – 15 June 2019

Jim celebrated his 90th birthday with a wonderful party upstairs at the Mustard Tree. There was plenty of food, drink and laughter and we were treated to an exhibition of Jim’s artistic works – see self portrait:

There was music, speeches, birthday cake, champagne and more. Photos can be seen here

Trips & Adventures – 16 June 2019

We had a busy weekend as we also ventured to the Bridgewater Hall to hear Chineke! Orchestra, the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up of majority black and minority ethnic musicians. The orchestra was founded by musician Chi-chi Nwanoku and their debut concert was in 2015 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

The concert featured live music in the stalls bar, a pre-concert talk with Chi-chi Nwanoku and Wayne Marshall (conductor) about the orchestra’s work and aspirations and an afternoon concert. This included an attractively lyrical work by neglected black composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a lively new work by American pianist Stewart Goodyear and a stalwart symphony, Dvořák’s magnificent Seventh.

Dvořák himself was so impressed with the brilliantly successful performance that he climbed on stage and shouted “Bravo!”