MUSIC FROM DISNEY'S FANTASIA SET TO MAKE ITS NORTH WALES PREMIERE AT WREXHAM CONCERT

Music which featured in a classic Oscar-winning Disney film is set for a landmark North Wales performance as Wrexham Symphony Orchestra launches its new season of concerts.

Wrexham Symphony Orchestra will perform the North Wales debut of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" at William Aston Hall on Sunday 8^th November at 3.30pm.

Renowned for its revolutionary rhythms and vivid orchestral colour, it is best known as part of the soundtrack to Disney's 1940 masterpiece "Fantasia" when it was used for a series of scenes about dinosaurs. The film earned Disney an honorary Oscar in 1942 for its "outstanding contribution to the advancement of sound in motion pictures ". When "The Rite of Spring" was first performed in Paris in 1913, such was the audience's excited response that it caused a near riot.

Conducted by Mark Lansom, the concert will also include a performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.4 featuring star guest soloist Adam Davies, and "Jubilee Dances" by William Mathias.

The orchestra's guest soloist, pianist Adam Davies is a piano teacher at Chetham’s School of Music and Rossall School. He is also an examiner for ABRSM and director of St. John’s Festival Orchestra in Chester. As a recital and concerto soloist, Adam is active throughout the UK and has played at a number of the country's finest venues. With a vast repertoire spanning the Renaissance to the present day, he enjoys promoting the music of lesser-known and contemporary composers as well as the great standard works, including music by Orlando Gibbons, York Bowen and Thomas Adès. In 2019, he commissioned and gave the world première of Tom Harrold’s Crux, and in 2025 he recorded the first volume of the complete piano works of Anthony Hedges, to be released over three volumes on Divine Art over the next few years. Aside from his solo activity, Adam manages and regularly conducts St. John’s Festival Orchestra, . He has also played as orchestral pianist under the batons of Clark Rundell and Sir Mark Elder at Bridgewater Hall, and as duo partner with Kathryn Stott as part of Chetham’s International Piano Summer School.

Speaking about the concert, Matthew Ellis, the Chair of Wrexham Symphony Orchestra said:

" As we begin our brand-new season of concerts, we are proud in Wrexham Symphony Orchestra to be bringing "The Rite of Spring" to the stage in what may well be its North Wales premiere. It promises to be a landmark occasion in our near sixty year history. In the first half is an opportunity to hear Rachmaninoff's fourth piano concerto, in which we welcome Adam Davies to the platform as soloist. For our final work, and opening our concert, we come much closer to home in a performance of William Mathias's "Jubilee Dances". These dances were written and performed as part of the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee of 1977. Though originally composed for brass band, we are performing the engaging orchestral version, arranged relatively recently by Philip Lane. We look forward to welcoming everyone to William Aston Hall on November 8^th for what promised to be a very special afternoon of live music."

The orchestra's season will continue with a Christmas concert on Sunday 13^th December at 3.30pm when there will be a special festive performance of "The Nutcracker". Most recently staged by the orchestra to great acclaim in 2024, "The Nutcracker" returns to William Aston Hall by popular demand and will be narrated by Amanda Northwood with musical direction by Bedwyn Phillips. 

Full details of Wrexham Symphony Orchestra's new season of concerts can be found at: 

www.wrexhamorch.co.uk 

...where tickets can be booked.