Sinfonia's gala spectacular

5:22pm Wednesday 25th April 2007

Apart from rehearsals there is more to staging orchestral concerts than the public might suppose.

For example, when the Sinfonia of Leeds makes its first visit to Ilkley for 15 years for Sunday night's Opera Gala with the Bradford Festival Choral Society, it will be the culmination of much work and a lot of travelling for David Greed and Jeff and Elizabeth Goddard.

Mr Greed, the Sinfonia's musical director and conductor, arranges the soloists and plots the rehearsal schedule. For Jeff, the orchestra's manager for 14 years, the run-up to a concert is reminiscent of a military exercise - in fact he used to be a bandsman in the Coldstream Guards in the late 1950s.

"The overall planning is a complex exercise that takes into consideration David's commitments as leader of the Orchestra of Opera North as well as those of our associate conductor Dougie Scarfe.

"School holidays affect our access to our rehearsal room at Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes tasks that must be finalised before we can even think of printing the annual brochure," he said.

Jeff's wife Elizabeth, a violinist, has been making 30-mile round trips to Leeds. She trained as a pianist at London's Royal Academy of Music. She was teaching on a course in the Cotswolds when she and Jeff met.

They moved to Ilkley from Henley-on-Thames in 1988. Seven years ago Elizabeth obtained her masters degree for teachers in private practice.

"We chose Ilkley for its good communications and cultural activities. We built a house in Old Lane where I could take private piano pupils," she said.

Sunday's concert in the Kings Hall, which starts at 7.30pm, will be the orchestra's first collaboration with Bradford Festival Choral Society, which is currently celebrating its 150th anniversary.

The programme features soloists Joanne Dexter, soprano, Ben Kerslake, tenor and Paul Gibson, baritone, from Opera North.

There will be rousing choruses, popular arias and orchestral pieces from La Boheme, The Pearl Fishers, Tosca, Nabucco, The Marriage of Figaro, ll Trovatore and La Traviata.

Tickets on the door or in advance from Ilkley Tourist Centre on (01943) 602319.

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