Worthing Symphony Orchestra joined by The Kosmos Ensemble

They will be joined by the Kosmos Ensemble in the Assembly Hall, Worthing on Sunday, March 3 at 2.45pm when the soloist will be Miloš Milivojević (accordion) under conductor John Gibbons. The programme will be: Parry – Lady Radnor’s Suite; Walton – Touch her soft lips (Henry V); Igor Shamo – Accordion Concerto; Grace Williams – Sea Sketches; Errolyn Wallen – Triple Concerto; and Astor Piazolla – Libertango.

Conductor John is delighted with the way the year is going: “(At the February concert) we had just a couple shy of 700 in the audience. Our numbers are going up and up and up. I think it's got a lot to do with the soloists. For February we had Jeneba Kanneh-Mason who is obviously a member of a really well-known musical family but we also had a very attractive programme.

“And now for the next programme we've got a concert I really want to shout about because in a way it's our International Women's Day concert, a celebration of the great women composers that we really should be playing and that we really should be celebrating. For us the programme is a bit unusual and a bit off the wall but it's about celebrating some of the women composers who have been ignored because of their gender. I suppose it's just the way that society was. We can recognise now that we're all human beings and that we should judge music solely on the music itself but so often it can be judged by connections or by who you are. But also familiarity with the composer makes people think ‘Oh I'll go along because I think I would like that’ but with this concert we're inviting people to try something new. I think the trick is trust. I think we've all got to take a risk occasionally and I would just say ‘Come on, come and try this.’

“For us it is great to work with the Kosmos Ensemble again. We did a concert with them in Chichester pre-pandemic and it was a great occasion. We did the (Errolyn Wallen) Triple Concerto, and we have done it again with them. I think what they bring to the stage is that they are almost like a rock band in classical music. It feels like you are really getting the vibe. That's the thing that comes over and it's going to be really exciting, really visual and really great to listen to.”

The Kosmos Ensemble have helped redefine the relationship between classical and world music. They share a passion for improvisation which thrives in the Errolyn Wallen’s piece which was composed especially for the trio – violinist Harriet Mackenzie, violist ​Meg-Rosaleen Hamilton and accordion player Miloš Milivojević.

Miloš also stars as soloist in the Accordion Concerto by Ukrainian composer Igor Shamo, who was born in Kiev in 1925 and served as a medical orderly in WW2. He was a member of the Union of Soviet Composers from 1948 until his death in 1982.