CENTRAL ENGLAND ENSEMBLE...

...music from the Heart

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2012 is the Central England Ensemble's tenth anniversary year. We are set to celebrate our first decade in style with the world premiere of Andrew Downes' Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, conducted by our Music Director Anthony Bradbury, on Sunday 21 October 2012 at Birmingham Town Hall. In this Olympic year we are pleased and honoured that legal firm Irwin Mitchell have agreed to sponsor our concert, proceeds from which will be donated to the UK Paralympic Association. We are excited to welcome as soloist Ondrej Vrabec, principal and solo horn of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, in a concert which reminds us of the Town Hall's historic place at the heart of European classical music.

We lit the torch for 2012 at 7.30 pm on Sunday 19 February with a concert at Carr's Lane Church Centre, Birmingham, performing Stravinsky's thrilling Firebird Suite and Midlands composer Tony Bridgewater's Second Piano Concerto under the baton of our conductor Lee Armstrong. Click here for details of our full programme for 2012: don't miss our next concert on Sunday 24 June at Carrs Lane Church Centre in the centre of Birmingham, featuring Andrew Downes' In the Cotswolds, Barber's Violin Concerto (with soloist Amy Littlewood), and a rarely-performed gem of the Russian classical repertoire, Kalinnikov's Symphony No. 1.

2012 sees the CEE's third CONCERTO COMPETITION. The deadline for entries is 31 May 2012. Please note that this year for the first time we are accepting Duo as well as Solo entries (Duos pay the standard entrance fee and will share the prize if successful). Click on these links for competition rules and entry form.

The prize concert for the 2010 Concerto Competition was among the highlights of 2011 for the CEE. Sadly the winner, Martyn Johannesberg, was indisposed, but we were delighted to welcome rising star Soh-Yon Kim, who stepped in at the last moment and wowed both orchestra and audience with her exhilarating performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. It was an evening none of us will forget, and we hope to see Soh-Yon in Birmingham again soon. (For a flavour of the excitement, you can catch her performing Ysaÿe's Sonata for Solo Violin Op. 27 no. 6 on Youtube here.)

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Founded in 2001 by dynamic Worcestershire violinist and pedagogue Anna Downes, CEE brings together talented musicians from across the region to perform ambitious symphonic repertoire. We take pride in showcasing new work by Midlands composers in all our concerts.

"Rewards come from ambition..." - read the Birmingham Post's review of our concert of opera favourites on 24 February 2008.

Updated NL/ EC 19.05.12