Chichester Symphony Orchestra join the Festival of Chichester

The joy for tonight’s compere Kate Mosse is that it’s definitely a concert she would have gone to anyway.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers and also

00:06Chairman of the Festival of Chichester. Lovely to speak to our Festival President, Kate Moss,

00:11who's doing plenty of things at this year's Festival, as always, and one of them, one

00:15of the most intriguing, is the fact that you are the Compare for Chichester Symphony Orchestra.

00:20And you were saying, this is a particular concert you would have gone to anyway, so

00:25even better that you are actually comparing it. Now, what appealed about this concert

00:29for you? Well, it's, yes, this is absolutely, it's on the 13th of June in St Paul's, July

00:35in St Paul's Church in Chichester, and it's a concert that has, is showcasing the work

00:42of many female composers. Now, anybody who knows me will know that I love Chichester,

00:48I love classical music, I'm very interested in women's history and the ways in which women's

00:52work is forgotten or overlooked, and there are many female composers, but their work

00:57is almost unheard of. If you ask anybody to name a female composer, mostly the only one

01:02anybody can name is Ethel Smythe, and rightly so, she's a genius. But so when the Chairman

01:07of Chichester Symphony Orchestra was in touch, Greg Slay, and said, we're doing a concert

01:12and we're going to be doing a lot of local composers, but we're going to be doing a lot

01:16of female composers, I thought, I jumped at the chance to compare it, because I've spent

01:21quite a lot of money on tickets for classical music concerts during the Festival of Chichester,

01:26between June and July, but this time, finally, I get to go for free, and I get the best seat

01:31in the house by sitting on the stage. So I'm really looking forward to it, and being introduced

01:36to the work of some composers that I've never heard before either. So it's going to be a

01:40very special evening, and it's right at the end of the Festival of Chichester, so for

01:44me, it will feel very much like the sundowner of all the events that I'm doing during the

01:48month. Absolutely, and the Symphony Orchestra are special, aren't they? They really are.

01:52They're fantastic. I mean, it's again, one of those extraordinary things about Chichester

01:55that the local town symphony orchestra, as it were, is of such high quality. There are

02:01many other extraordinary classical music organisations within Chichester as well, of course, the

02:06Concert of Twelve is another, but the Symphony Orchestra, you know, I used to play the violin,

02:11and I used to love being in an orchestra, and that camaraderie, and that working together,

02:16and the way that everybody has their own role to play, and that it's everybody working together

02:21that makes it perfect. I just love the idea of being involved in a concert, even though I no

02:26longer play. So I think it's going to, for me, be one of the highlights of the Festival of Chichester.

02:31Fantastic, a lovely way to finish it. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you ever so much.

02:36My pleasure.