Blue Light Symphony Orchestra

Blue Light Symphony Orchestra The Blue Light Symphony Orchestra is the UK's only orchestra for all Emergency Services personnel and aims to improve blue light wellbeing through music

28/07/2026

Salacious tuba gossip.

After my last reel about the tuba’s 14 notes in Dvořák’s New World Symphony, several tuba players shared a story that has apparently been passed down through generations.

According to the legend, the tuba player was having an affair with Dvořák’s wife—so Dvořák made sure he was included in the symphony, but gave him almost nothing to do. That way, he would still have to be in rehearsal, where Dvořák could keep an eye on him.

Who knew tuba players could be so naughty!

25/07/2026

Did Dvořák hate his tuba player?

In the New World Symphony, the tuba plays just 14 notes in the entire piece.

At first, that sounds almost cruel. But those notes appear at exactly the moment when the music needs the tuba’s depth and weight most.

The cellos and double basses fall silent, leaving the tuba to provide the deep foundation beneath a short, hymn-like passage.

So perhaps the tiny part is not an insult at all.

Perhaps it proves that, for those 14 chords, no other instrument would do.

23/07/2026

Score study

23/07/2026

✏️ The quiet work behind the music

Before a rehearsal begins, there are hours spent alone with the score: listening, thinking, making decisions and covering the pages with pencil marks.

I filmed a little of that process today, including some of the sounds I love—the scratch of pencil on paper, the sharpening of a fresh point, and the turning of the pages.

The space where I prepare scores has gradually filled with objects that mean something to me: a wooden ruler that belonged to my great-uncle, who was an engineer; an old cigar box filled with pencils; my metronome; and a set of Caran d’Ache coloured pencils, which are exceptionally good for marking up scores.

They are simple things, but together they make the desk feel like a place where I can slow down, concentrate and begin turning the notes on the page into a performance.

22/07/2026

Road to the Forum day 4!

22/07/2026

🎻 Road to The Forum — Day 4
24 days to go

How do you make one string orchestra sound as though music is coming from different corners of a vast cathedral?

In his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Vaughan Williams divides the strings into three distinct groups: a large string orchestra, a smaller second orchestra and a solo string quartet.

This allows musical ideas to be passed between the different groups, creating distant echoes and the feeling that the sound is travelling through space.

It recalls a technique used in the great churches and cathedrals of Tallis’s time, when groups of singers could be positioned in different parts of the building. Voices would answer one another across the church, surrounding the congregation with sound—as though they were being sung to by angels from another world.

Vaughan Williams recreates something of that ancient, otherworldly atmosphere using strings alone. It is one of the reasons the Tallis Fantasia can feel both intimate and immense at the same time.

Hear it performed live by the Blue Light Symphony Orchestra at The Forum in Bath.

📅 Saturday 15 August
🕠 5.30pm
📍 The Forum, Bath

🎟️ Tickets: Bath Box Off or link in Bio

21/07/2026

25 days to go!

21/07/2026

🌎 Road to The Forum — Day 3
25 days to go

Why is a symphony written by a Czech composer called From the New World?

Dvořák composed his Ninth Symphony while living in America, after moving to New York in 1892 to become director of the National Conservatory of Music.

While he was there, he became fascinated by the possibility of creating a distinctively American musical style. He was particularly influenced by African American spirituals, introduced to him by students including Harry Burleigh, as well as Native American stories and musical ideas.

Dvořák didn’t simply copy existing tunes. Instead, he created original melodies inspired by the sounds and influences he encountered, combining them with the Czech musical traditions he had grown up with.

The result was his magnificent Symphony No. 9, From the New World—the final piece in our concert at The Forum in Bath.

📅 Saturday 15 August
🕠 5.30pm
📍 The Forum, Bath

🎟️ Tickets: https://www.bathforum.co.uk/whats-on/blue-light-symphony-orchestra-14tr

20/07/2026

🎻 Road to The Forum — Day 2
26 days to go

Not many people know this, but Elgar’s Cello Concerto wasn’t always famous.

Its first performance in 1919 was a disaster—not because the music wasn’t good, but because Elgar was left with barely enough time to rehearse it.

The other conductor, Albert Coates, took up most of the available rehearsal with the rest of the programme. The result was an under-rehearsed premiere and a deeply disappointing beginning for what would eventually become one of the world’s best-loved cello concertos.

Then, in 1965, everything changed.

A 20-year-old Jacqueline du Pré recorded the concerto with Sir John Barbirolli, creating a performance that captured the public imagination and transformed the work’s reputation.

At our concert in Bath, the soloist will be the wonderful Yoana Prodanova.

📅 Saturday 15 August
🕠 5.30pm
📍 The Forum, Bath
🎟️ Ticket link in our bio

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