Worthing Symphony Orchestra continues to go from strength to strength as it heads towards its March concert.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts, Edita and Sussex Newspapers. Always
00:06 fantastic to speak to John Gibbons, who is the conductor of Worthing Symphony Orchestra,
00:10 and you are on a roll at the moment with the orchestra. We're speaking the day after your
00:15 most recent concert, where you had fabulous numbers. Why is it going so well for the orchestra
00:21 at the moment, do you think?
00:24 I think key things are that we are providing concerts that are about joy and uplift. So
00:31 we're trying to give everybody an experience that's a very, very positive experience. I
00:35 think there's a lot of people in this country and also in the world who are feeling very
00:40 down about how the world is at the moment. So it's almost like a World War Two type way
00:45 of programming. You've got to lift everybody's spirits. We've got to be the Mayra Hesses
00:49 of this generation. And Sunday's concert was just a perfect example of that. All the pieces
00:55 were buoyant, particularly the Mozart Piano Concerto with Gineva Canemason, and then finishing
01:00 with Mellison's Italian Symphony, which is just such joy and dance vivacity. And I think
01:07 people are really responding to that, and that followed up from the beginning of the
01:10 concert.
01:11 Does that add up to a momentum? Do you take that into account?
01:13 Yes, I think definitely. And I think I really challenge the audience, as everybody knows,
01:17 I talk to the audience. I will talk you through the pieces. I will tell you what's going on.
01:21 I didn't actually relay the football result, because it hadn't been confirmed by the end
01:25 of the programme. But people know which team I support.
01:28 We all rub our cross to bear.
01:31 Oh, yeah, yeah. So we have a rapport, and I challenge the audience for the next concert.
01:39 I said the next concert is a celebration of female composers. And actually, we haven't
01:45 done this in Worthing. This is a real, real brave move, because actually, just by the
01:51 sheer nature of the fact that we've not given female composers enough exposure, therefore
01:56 the audiences don't know them. So you're in a chicken and egg situation. So I've challenged
02:00 everybody. I said, you've all got to turn out for this. You've got to support the female
02:03 composers. Otherwise, it will be back to all male composers for next season. So the challenge
02:09 is out there.
02:10 And we played a piece of music on Sunday, which is by a Dutch female composer, Dina
02:14 Appeldorn. And it was probably, we think, the first professional performance of Bastereau,
02:21 certainly in the last, since her death, post-war. And there was a lot of favourable comment.
02:27 People were really, wow, that was a real surprise. Why have we not heard this piece? And that's
02:32 it. And I think it's challenging people to say the music is going to, you're going to,
02:37 you might not like every piece we play. Of course you won't. But at the same time, we're
02:42 encouraging you that actually you might find some pieces that you think, yeah, that was
02:45 really a good experience to hear that.
02:47 Fantastic. And the concert, as it says behind you, beautifully positioned, Sunday, March
02:53 the 3rd in the Assembly Hall at 2.45.
02:55 The amazing Cosmos Ensemble, who are just so brilliant.
02:59 Who we saw with you in Chichester a few years ago.
03:01 Yeah, we did in Chichester.
03:02 They're quite something, aren't they?
03:03 They're almost like a rock band. The way they generate with the audience and with the orchestra
03:09 and everything. You like it a live gig. And I think that's something that actually people
03:14 will really relish and enjoy. So it should be an incredibly exciting concert.
03:18 It sounds a fabulous concert, John. Lovely to speak to you again.
03:21 Thanks for the moment.
03:22 All the best.
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