The Review - CLASSICAL & JAZZ - with TONY KIELY Published: 8 January 2009
Chris Pyne
The Lighter way to a more musical you for the new year
PREVIEW: CAMDEN LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Kentish Town Congregational Town Hall
SO, here we are: one week into the new year and you haven’t quit smoking, the only jogging you’ve done is to the kettle between episodes of your new Peep Show box set, you’ve given up on that Tolstoy novel you bought in a semi-drunken haze of self-improvement on Christmas Eve – you’ve even started in on that weird bottle of sherry that someone brought around, some time...
New Year’s resolutions rarely work, largely because we’re an overwhelmingly lazy species, but also because the things we resolve to do are rarely any fun.
But here’s one for those of you who once played – or sort of half thought about and therefore bought and quickly abandoned – an instrument.
On Monday next at 7.30pm, in the Congregational Church Hall in Kelly Street, Kentish Town, the Camden Light Orchestra (CLO) will hold their first open rehearsal.
Open to all ages, abilities and instruments, the CLO will be playing everything from jazz to pop and world music under the baton of professional saxophonist Chris Pyne.
Chris runs a similar project in Hertfordshire – the Hitchin Light Orchestra – and the group has performed extensively around England and Europe since it formed in 1992.
While the emphasis will be on having fun, Chris tells me he aims to help guide all musicians to a high standard of playing. His daughter Charlie, who lives in Camden, will also be on hand to tutor members of the orchestra.
If the Hitchin model is anything to go by, Chris expects around 15 members to join up straight away, with the orchestra growing to number around 80 as news of the group spreads. Membership costs £60 for a 10-week term, though Chris encourages everyone to come along on Monday for a free taster of what the CLO can offer.
So go on – dig out that long-neglected clarinet, put a new set of strings on your old guitar or just establish once and for all whether or not you’re supposed to blow into those scroll-shaped holes in your violin.
You might even consider jogging to the rehearsal...