Stephen Fry supports Ensemble Reza’s concert

By Hannah Carter

Poster: Anna Jarvis

We are very excited to announce that Stephen Fry recently agreed to narrate and record Richard Dehmel’s poem Transfigured Night (Verklärte Nacht) for our first ticketed concert of the year at Holy Trinity Church in Cuckfield on Sunday 18th October at 6pm.

I heard Stephen talking about the work Verklarte Nacht several years ago and I had always thought it would be amazing to have him narrate the poem for us. After a chat with a publishing friend and a few emails to his agent, he kindly agreed.

The recording is magical and brings the whole poem Transfigured Night (Verklärte Nacht) to life and makes the music even more special. Schoenberg wrote this piece when he was still influenced by the great German romantics like Brahms and Wagner, and it is beautifully melodic. The programme will also include Mozart’s brilliant Quintet in G Minor.

We have been running weekly live streamed concerts on the Ensemble Reza YouTube channel since March. Although nothing will ever beat the experience of being at a concert in person, we have mastered both the sound and picture for live events as our audience would agree: ‘Lovely sound! Feels like we are in the church too’.

We will be live streaming this concert from Holy Trinity Church in Cuckfield via a private link from our YouTube channel. Tickets cost £10 per household and available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/ensemble-reza. I hope you will be able to join us!

Ensemble Reza - Midday Music YouTube series a success

By Hannah Carter, MD, Ensemble Reza

We have been completely overwhelmed with the support for our Midday Music series.  We had 119 people watch our concert live last Tuesday and our YouTube Channel has now had over 3.5k viewings! It's really great to catch-up with people in the chat and it has given us a real buzz to welcome people from all over the country from Scotland to Cornwall! Thank you for watching and for all the generous donations. 

Today we had Andrew Thurgood (violin) and his son Jeremy (guitar) running the concert from their home.  Jeremy is off to BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) in Brighton in September and has recently purchased some new microphones.  I have to say they sounded amazing at our soundcheck last week. 

Unfortunately, however not all our musicians have access to such amazing kit.  So we need your help!!! If we can reach 1000 subscribers on our YouTube channel we will be able to film the live concerts using our mobile phones.  Surprisingly the sound quality on a mobile phone is superior to laptops and of course much easier to set up! 

Hannah Carter shows you how to create a Google Account so that you can subscribe to support the Reza channel.

Andrew Thurgood - Village People

Andrew Thurgood, Cuckfield Village People feature, March 2017

When seven year old Andrew Thurgood was told he was too young to start trumpet lessons as he had no front teeth, he was undeterred.

He picked up the violin instead, unwittingly making a decision that would shape his life.

Andrew turned out to be a natural violinist, excelling through the grades and eventually travelling the world as part of the prestigious London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Now teaching at local schools and at his home in Cuckfield, Andrew looks back on his career as a professional musician, his roles in television, film and on stage and how joining local classical music group Ensemble Reza provided a lifeline following a family tragedy.

Full article - by Claire Cooper - printed on page 24, Cuckfield Life magazine, March 2017 - available to pick up in shops now...