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in
Kensington. Head’s original concept was that this would be a repertoire orchestra, one that provided conservatoire students with the opportunity to read through pieces they might not have otherwise set eyes on before professional auditions. He stated, "When I was a student we had three hours of
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were introduced to UK audiences by KSO. As the orchestra for Opera Viva, another of Head’s brainchildren, KSO (in all but name—the sponsoring Fulham council insisted they dropped the "Kensington") performed in exhumations of early Wagner, Verdi and
Donizetti operas with distinguished singers
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have also featured in recent years, often in their London or UK premières."An amateur orchestra can be simply there for the indulgence of its members, or it can try to do things that professional orchestras either can’t or don’t want to," says Keable. "It can try to make a difference."
540:, received its UK premiere in a concert performance by Kensington Symphony Orchestra conducted by Russell Keable at Queen Elizabeth Hall, with Ian Caley (Paul) and Christine Teare (Marie/Marietta), thirteen years before the first UK staged performance at the
242:. The huge forces this required put it way beyond the capacity and budget of most groups employing professionals. This, Head thought, was exactly where KSO should be coming in. Not everyone agreed. "I wrote to the
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orchestra a week, the same amount that the college were doing in 1850—and look what had happened to music in those 100 years!" The first
Saturday-morning session in May 1956 was spent tackling works including
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and other venues in the city. Its concerts are financed through ticket sales, charitable donations and corporate support, and through subscription fees paid by members of the orchestra.
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A début programme was scheduled for 5 December 1956. However, KSO’s first appearance actually came a couple of days earlier, when Head was asked to put on a last-minute performance at
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In the 1983-4 season, Head retired as KSO’s music director and handed over to
Russell Keable. The 30th anniversary concert in 1986 was celebrated with an all-British programme of
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on 21 May 2018 took place at St John's Smith Square, the latter with Monica McGhee as MimĂ, Nico
Darmanin as Rodolfo, Hazel McBain as Musetta and Nicholas Morris as Marcello.
323:. This marked KSO’s South Bank début. “It was,” says Keable, “also a milestone in terms of performance quality.” At around this time the orchestra began to give concerts in
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Head was a 33-year-old freelance horn player and part-time conductor when he first assembled
Kensington Symphony Orchestra at Queen Alexandra House, next door to the
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Head’s longstanding tradition of programming unusual or neglected works by
British composers has been maintained—perhaps most obviously in the premiere recording of
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327:. “It was a really happy orchestra, and that was absolutely key in its development. If an orchestra is happy socialising it will play better,” said Keable.
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All the main orchestras in those days were doing very boring programmes, really, rarely anything unusual—and in a way I think we helped to change that.
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to ask for an extra £100," he remembers. “And they answered saying that I shouldn’t even be attempting a work like this, and that they had told the
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alumni, people who chose not to turn professional as players, and many are employed in the music industry in other capacities.
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Kensington
Symphony Orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary on 18 October 2006 with a concert at London's
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Today, around half of the orchestra's six concerts each year are at St John's Smith Square, with visits to
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in support of the
Hungarian Relief Fund. The clarinet section for the first concert consisted of
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KSO has only had two principal conductors — its founder, Leslie Head, and the current conductor,
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and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. That performance won the BBC 3 Listeners’ Award in 2005.
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is a non-professional orchestra in
Britain. It attracts non-professional players from around
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Other contemporary composers performed in recent years by the orchestra include
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not to give us anything either.” The performance went ahead regardless.
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and Paul Harvey—both familiar names to today’s clarinettists—and a young
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In 1961 KSO performed the UK premiere of the original 1901 version of
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Magazine's Editor’s Choice in February 2005. In 2007, at
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in 2007. Also in 2004, the orchestra together with the
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received an early UK performance from KSO at the 1963
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411:, which he then incorporated into the ballet
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160:who has been with the orchestra since 1983.
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352:National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
108:Learn how and when to remove this message
291:including Pauline Tinsley and the young
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403:In 2004 KSO commissioned and premiered
266:; several now-standard works including
248:National Association of Music Societies
796:"Sir Henry Walford Davies - Everyman"
272:Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
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750:. The Classical Source. October 2006
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46:adding citations to reliable sources
924:Musical groups established in 1956
672:. The Independent. 27 October 2013
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390:'s Symphony no.2 "Resurrection".
370:'s cantata Alexander Nevsky and
199:Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
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867:. Kensington Symphony Orchestra
837:. February 2005. Archived from
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646:. Kensington Symphony Orchestra
57:"Kensington Symphony Orchestra"
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610:Concert performances of
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618:on 14 May 2012 and
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919:London orchestras
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