Trust brings in players

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 1

Trust brings in players

The Canterbury Orchestra Trust, with the help of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, has imported seven extra players for its first concert to build its numbers to 41.

Helen Holmes, secretarymanager of the orchestra, said last evening that the council was aware of the difficulty the orchestra was having assembling enough players for the concert on October 8 and had agreed to help bring players from other centres. William Hennessy, an Australian violinist, will be the guest leader of the orchestra and the soloist in Beethoven’s Romance in F Major. Two violinists from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, two cellists from the Wellington Regional .Orchestra, and two bass players, one from Wellington and the other from Dunedin, will also join local players. Mrs Holmes said that some Christchurch musicians, including five members of the National Youth Orchestra, were not available for the concert out would be playing with the orchestra in Novcm ber.

The orchestra has had four rehearsals in the Christchurch Arts Centre. Mrs Holmes said they were going well and that there was a secure, good feeling among the players. She said that full ensemble playing, usually took months to achieve, but already good progress was being made under the direction of William Southgate.