London Orchestra Will Re-Invent Mendelssohn, Berlioz, and Dukas In One-off Earl's Court Performance

In a concert featuring some of the most programmatically rich orchestral music ever written, the Academy of St Mary-le-Bow returns to Earl's Court to perform a spellbinding programme, including Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Established in 2016, the Academy of St Mary-le-Bow has developed a reputation as one of London's leading amateur orchestras. The ensemble attracts the very best of the city's non-professional musicians, who are drawn to the Academy for its inventive approach to orchestral concert production, spearheaded by its Musical Director Alex Fryer. This event will be no exception: spectacular lighting will accompany mesmerising orchestral sounds to transport the audience to an enchanted forest, filled with magic, fairies, witches and sorcerers.

Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream will be brought to life by the mischievous sprite 'Puck' (played by actress Wallis Hamilton Felton), who will narrate the story using Shakespeare's text. A fairy chorus (from the Cantus Ensemble) and superb soprano soloists Eleanor Penfold and Annabel Kennedy join the orchestra in telling the magical tale.

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is the centrepiece of the programme, telling the story of a young artist, who, enchanted by his love and under the influence of mild-altering drugs, dreams a gruesome tale where he is marched to the execution scaffold, condemned for the murder of his beloved, and sees her dancing with witches, shades and monsters at his funeral. Berlioz brings the story to life with other worldly orchestral colours, including tolling ceremonial bells and surround-sound orchestral effects.

Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, famously featured in Disney's Fantasia, opens the evening's magical programme. Its infamous bassoon melody immediately conjures up the image of Mickey Mouse's unstoppable army of enchanted brooms!