Horsham concert for award-winning cellist

As conductor Steve Dummer explains, Stane Street Sinfonietta returns to St Mary’s Church, Horsham on Friday, September 9 at 7.30pm to give the first in a series of concerts celebrating creatives connected to Sussex.

“The focus of the first concert is cellist Laura van der Heijden, winner of the BBC Young Musician 2012 and now firmly established on the world stage as a soloist having had recent engagements with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Halle Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic amongst others.

“Laura grew up in Forest Row and was a pupil at Sackville School, East Grinstead studying first with local teacher Marina Logie and subsequently with renowned British-Russian cellist Leonid Gorokhov. Her 2018 debut album 1948, featuring Russian music for cello and piano, won the 2018 Edison Klassiek Award and the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Newcomer Award. The CD has been hailed as a ‘dazzling, imaginative and impressive’ debut recording.”

On her return to Sussex, she’ll be playing CPE Bach’s A Minor Concerto.

Steve added: “Laura has been a friend and colleague of many of the players in the orchestra so we’re delighted to be bringing her back to Sussex for this concert. She was a very special musician when I first worked with her aged 14 and it’s been fantastic to see and hear how she’s developed into the international star she is now.

“The CPE Bach concerto that she’s playing with us is a great piece, full of invention and energy and a huge range of colours and expression – it’s the perfect vehicle to show all of the attributes in Laura’s playing”

Established in 2018, Stane Street Sinfonietta is a vibrant and exciting professional chamber orchestra featuring musicians who work in Britain and internationally but were either born and bred or currently live and work in Sussex.

“The players bring a huge range of experience from symphony orchestras and West End pit bands to Hollywood film soundtracks and top rock bands. The orchestra’s mission is to bring world-class music-making to Sussex in an open and friendly atmosphere and to give much needed work to local professional musicians.”

Steve added: “Also on the programme are Mozart’s evergreen Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the Adagio and Fugue in C Minor plus music by two composers connected to Sussex – Cringlemire Garden, a beautiful short tone poem by Ruth Gipps who was born in Bexhill and Amore by Robert Hanson, whose daughter, Ros Hanson, plays in the orchestra.”

Further information and tickets are available from www.stanstreetsinfonietta.com

Laura was born in England to Dutch-Swiss parents and gave her first public performance at the age of nine.

Laura plays a late 17th-century cello by Francesco Ruggieri of Cremona.