Mid Somerset Orchestra, Hannah Mitchell

Welcome to MSO’s 2017/18 concert season which commences with a wonderful programme of Rossini, Chopin and Brahms.

Following the recent retirement of Steven Smith after seven years as their Musical Director, the orchestra will be engaging different guest conductors for each of the concerts this season. The first of these, Tim Pithers, who gained a double first in Music and French at Exeter University, has a fine reputation and is currently working with a number of orchestras and ensembles based in the South West.

The soloist in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 is Hannah Mitchell who also studied at Exeter University and then at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Hannah is now a very established performer, teacher and examiner based in South Wales where she is also half of the musical piano/flute duo 'Tranquillo'.

The concert begins with arguably one of Rossini’s finest overtures Semiramide, followed by the evening’s highlight, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No2, which was premiered in 1830 and has been a firm concert favourite ever since. After the interval, the orchestra plays Brahms’ masterful, light and airy second symphony, which some critics have likened in character to Beethoven’s Pastoral.