Recent reviews: The Glory of Venice
Wed 18 Jan 2012
Friday 13 January wasn’t an unlucky day for the OAE, as we had some great audience feedback following our concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with Robert Howarth directing a programme celebrating the music of Giovanni Gabrieli on the 400th anniversary of his death.
Read More
Highpoints to Torpoint!
Tue 17 Jan 2012
It’s now the middle of January and a team of us from the OAE have already worked with 16 primary schools from Plymouth to London on our Anthem for a Child project. Top quotes so far include: ‘That was fantastic, I love singing, I sing everyday!’ Pupil from High Street Primary ‘What an amazing day!…
Read MoreStar in our new brochure – final call for entries!
Mon 16 Jan 2012
As you may have seen, for our upcoming marketing campaign for our 2012-2013 season of concerts we’re putting audience members centre stage. We’re looking for people with an unusual or strong ‘look’ to star alongside OAE musicians in the ‘oae and me’ photographs for the season, and we’re now in the final few days of…
Read MoreCeri Jones
Projects Director
Hi, I’m Ceri and I’ve worked at the OAE since 2004 (from Intern, via office admin, and right through the Projects team!). Amongst a gazillion different tasks my role as Projects Director mainly involves managing the projects team to get the OAE show on the road, specifically managing the relationship with our visiting artists to…
Read MoreOboe
“Majestical and Stately, and not much Inferior to the Trumpet.” So wrote Henry Playford of the oboe in The Sprightly Companion, an oboe ‘how to’ published in 1695. Handel’s ‘favourite’ instrument, Tomaso Albinoni’s vehicle to fame (listen to his Opus. 7 oboe concertos) and the lucky recipient of some of Vivaldi’s most technical writing (he…
Read MoreA thousand twangling instruments…the first Anthem workshops
Mon 9 Jan 2012
Not wanting to waste any time in OAE Education, we have already had the first sessions of the year with Anthem workshops in Plymouth and London this week. For the first few months of 2012 OAE players will go into schools and start to teach the Anthem songs ‘Twangling Instruments’ and ‘My Cry’. OAE Education…
Read MoreFancy starring in our next marketing campaign?
Fri 6 Jan 2012
Followers of the OAE will know that we like to have a distinct ‘look’ to the marketing of each of our seasons, with every year’s campaign starring the people that make the OAE special – the musicians. For our 2012-2013 season campaign though we want to try something a little different. We want our audience…
Read MoreNew Year Sale: 20% off (almost) everything
Thu 5 Jan 2012
Yep. Now we have our nice new shop we can do stuff like sales. Very exciting. So for one week only we’re offering you 20% off everything in our online Shop. This excludes memberships (sorry). So you can pick up our new Beethoven 9 CD for only £7.99, Monteverdi’s Vespers for just £12, get your…
Read MoreMendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony
Wed 4 Jan 2012
Here’s the latest of our OAE Extras events to go online, a pre-concert talk from back in September in which OAE Chief Executive and Mendelssohn enthusiast Stephen Carpenter talked about the composer and his Scottish Symphony.
Read MoreOur top moments of 2011…
Tue 3 Jan 2012
It’s time for our yearly feature where we ask OAE staff and musicians what their top moments of the past year were, so here we go – and feel free to add your top moments to the comments! “As always with OAE events when you think back over the year it’s SO difficult to pick…
Read MoreCanary Competition (win tickets!)
Thu 22 Dec 2011
This New Year we’re at our Kings Place base, performing two concerts to mark the end of 2011 (on 31 Dec at 6pm and 1 Jan at 1pm). The programme contains Vivaldi’s evergreen Four Seasons, but also one real curiosity, Telemann’s Canary Cantata. The piece was written as a tribute to Telemann’s pet song-bird, and…
Read MoreAnthem for a Child…a resolution
Wed 21 Dec 2011
So it might be a little early for this seeing as it isn’t quite Christmas yet, but, looking ahead to the New Year, here is my OAE New Year resolution: I will be a better blogger.
Read MoreMissa Solemnis audience reaction
Tue 20 Dec 2011
Back at the start of November we performed Beethoven’s epic Missa Solemnis, together with conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the Philharmonia Chorus. In this video we catch up with audience members after the concert to ask what they made of it – and there’s also some short extracts from the performance too.
Read MoreMessiah in rehearsal
Tue 20 Dec 2011
Here’s a clip we posted online on Facebook a little while back but it’s only just made it onto our website, we’ve had such a backlog of things to blog about! Anyway, it’s some rather rough and ready footage from the rehearsal of Handel’s Messiah, which we performed at the Royal Festival Hall a few…
Read MoreYou’re hired! New Melgaard OAE Young Conductor announced
Mon 19 Dec 2011
Following a stringent audition process, Belgian David Reiland, 31, has been appointed the Melgaard OAE Young Conductor for the 2012-2013 season. He fought off competition from over 60 applicants from across the world to make it to our auditions (Which Projects Director Ceri blogged about) where he and four other finalists rehearsed and conducted the…
Read MoreRecent reviews: 1700s London & Messiah
Wed 14 Dec 2011
Here’s a brief round-up of reviews. First up, two from our concert of Abel, Arne, J C bach and Haydn, with violinist Rachel Podger, 1700s London and the Fab Four. Edward Seckerson Blog Bach Track And here’s some from our Messiah directed by Laurence Cummings, including a less than complimentary one in the Financial Times. …
Read MoreSir Mark Elder announced as a Principal Artist of the OAE
Mon 12 Dec 2011
We are thrilled to be able to announce that Sir Mark Elder has today been appointed a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, joining our three other Principal Artists Iván Fischer, Vladimir Jurowski and Sir Simon Rattle. Sir Mark’s association with the Orchestra dates back to 1992 and has included landmark…
Read MoreOAE Christmas cards
New for 2011, you can now buy specially designed OAE Christmas cards. Cards are blank for your own message, with the OAE logo on rear. A great way to support your favourite Orchestra and also spread the word about us! Christmas cards are sold individually.
Read MoreGeorge Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Composer
His times: Handel’s Europe was ruled by what must have seemed like a clique of wealthy cronies, especially as the composer’s one-time boss the Elector of Hanover later became his new boss as King of England. It was to this land that Handel committed the greatest part of his life, settling here in 1712 and…
Read MoreRemembering Sir Charles
Tue 6 Dec 2011
Back in May at the Queen Elizabeth Hall we performed a concert dedicated to Sir Charles Mackerras – who had worked with us almost since the Orchestras foundation and in latter years had been one of our Emeritus Conductors. At the pre-concert talk writer and journalist David Nice talked to OAE players about Sir Charles,…
Read More