New London Orchestra - Adventures in Music

Carnival of the Animals

Stratford Circus, LondonSaint-Saëns - Carnival of the AnimalsRonald Corp conductorMurray Melvin narratorMatthew McCombie pianoYoon-Seok Shin piano

Following on from the gala performance of Peter and the Wolf, the New London Orchestra performed an orchestral concert at Stratford Circus to continue its theme of accessible, affordable concerts in East London. The concert included popular works such as Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals alongside some lesser known repertoire, in the tradition of New London Orchestra concerts. Local school children were also be invited to an open rehearsal in the afternoon.

At the New London Orchestra we like to interact with our audiences in new ways. During the interval we invited the audience members to take part in a live text vote and choose which piece they wanted to hear played as an encore. Out of a selection of the pieces from Carnival of the Animals and a mystery piece, the winning piece was the Fossils. You can follow the blog of this concert hereYou can also listen to the pieces we played on lastfm:

Saint-Saëns - Carnival of the Animals

Murray Melvin

Grainger - Shepherd's Hey

Holst - Morris Dance Tunes

Ravel - La Valse

Vaughan Williams - Greensleeves

Binge - The Watermill

Britten - Simple Symphony

Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik

As with all our concerts, we asked for feedback after the show. 91% of the people who responded gave the concert 5/5 and said they loved it, and 90% said they would like more classical concerts like this in East London. The favourite piece of the evening was Carnival of the Animals with 59% of the votes.