This Is London - 31 January 2020

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Andre J Thomas.
Photo: Lisa Kohler.
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
FULL SYMPHONIC GOSPEL CONCERT
On Sunday 1 March, leading American
gospel music specialist André J Thomas
will conduct the London Symphony
Orchestra in their first ever full concert of
gospel symphonic music. The evening
will bring together the full orchestra, a
400-strong choir comprising the London
Adventist Chorale, with LSO Community
Choir, Hannah Brine Choirs, Hackney
Empire Community Choir, and Milton
Keynes Community Choir with guest
soloists, NaGuanda Nobles, Jason
Dungee and Brandon Boyd.
André J Thomas said: ‘This concert
brings together two forms of music that
are indigenous to African Americans: the
slave song as spiritual and the gospel
song which came after emancipation and
grew out of the spiritual. Now we’re
putting that in symphonic setting, with
full orchestra and choir. This is music of
the soul, of a people who were so close
to music. It’s music about their lives. As
Africans, that’s a crucial part of our
expression – in the African village
everyone dances and sings. That
extended itself to the time of slavery; add
the religious element on top, and it
creates something incredibly powerful.’
Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director
of the LSO added: ‘Every year, LSO Sing,
the umbrella title for our range of singing
projects for vocal enthusiasts of all ages,
gets stronger and stronger, with an everbroadening
repertoire. For our Christmas
Concert in 2018 we added a gospel
element, and received such a wonderful
warm response from our audiences and
had a great time performing the music that
the Orchestra decided it was time to
present a full evening with gospel music
at the heart. I am delighted that this has
come to fruition. It’s a pleasure to
welcome André J Thomas to conduct, and
a thrill that on stage we have the
wonderful London Adventist Chorale
under the leadership of Ken Burton, and
most of all, that we will be bringing
together four community choirs to raise
the roof of the Barbican Hall.’
The programme for the evening will
be in two parts: opening the evening will
be selection of well-known and less
familiar spirituals, with André J Thomas’
own composition Gospel Mass – A
Celebration of Love and Joy forming the
second part of the evening.
CELEBRATING WITH BEETHOVEN
In 1971, a twenty-one-year-old
pianist burst onto the classical music
scene with a hugely acclaimed debut
recital. He was no stranger to public
performance having performed on stage
at the Royal Festival Hall aged 10, and
on TV aged 11 and, fresh out of the
Royal College of Music where he had
not only gained entry on a scholarship
but had been awarded the premier prize
in his first year, he made quite an
impression. His debut was quickly
followed by a blistering performance
with the London Symphony Orchestra in
the BBC Proms under the baton of
Michael Tilson Thomas.
Fast forward forty-eight years and
piano virtuoso Howard Shelley OBE is
about to celebrate his seventieth birthday
– at the piano, naturally – with a
performance at St John’s Smith Square
of all Beethoven’s five piano concertos in
a single afternoon, conducting the
London Mozart Players from the
keyboard, the orchestra he has
performed with for forty-five years.
‘Celebrating with Beethoven’ marks an
important milestone in Howard’s
extraordinary career that has seen him
perform at the piano with all the leading
orchestras and conductors.
London Symphony Orchestra. Photo: Mark Allan.
T H I S I S L O N D O N M A G A Z I N E • T H I S I S L O N D O N O N L I N E