Tickets

Every Piece Tells a Story

The music of Prokofiev, Copland and Errollyn Wallen

Presented by: Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra

0	LONDON: St John's Church, Waterloo (info)
P	Sunday 15th March, 2026
N	Door time: 6:00pm Start time: 6:30pm
.	All ages
C	Music - Classical
`	Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra is a member of Making Music, an organisation that supports and champions voluntary music in the UK. Making Music helps over 2,700 amateur and semi-professional music organisations through a wide range of member services including low-cost public liability insurance, access to a dedicated development officer offering advice on marketing, fundraising and community outreach work, plus a simplified Performing Rights Society royalty scheme and many more. With everything from choirs, orchestras and festivals to samba groups, handbell ringers and world music ensembles, Making Music is here to make sure that all voluntary music groups flourish. Visit www.makingmusic.org.uk to find out more.

Event information

Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra presents:

Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kije
Copland - Billy the kid
Errollyn Wallen - Mighty River

In our March concert of programmatic music, each piece tells a story.

Errollyn Wallen’s Mighty River was written in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The composer said, “It is an innate human instinct to be free just as it is for the river to rush headlong to the sea. It is as if the perpetual motion of the music, like water, like time, through its sheer momentum, comes across the cries and echoes of human hearts and voices, singing out of suffering, repentance, humility and hope.”

Lieutenant Kijé by Prokofiev is the story of an imaginary soldier, created by a clerical error on a list of Russian soldiers. Too afraid to admit to the error, the people around the Tsar invent an entire life for Kijé. When the Tsar finally demands to meet Kijé, a fictious funeral takes place.

Copland’s exciting ballet music for Billy the Kid charts the exploits of the infamous Wild West outlaw including a lively gun battle.