Emma Johnson MBE is a clarinettist who has made a name as a best selling soloist and recording artist. She won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition when she was 17 and has since recorded over 30 albums and given concerts all over the world.

Johnson is a published composer too and during lockdown she wrote a clarinet concerto, Tree of Life, inspired by a need to express something in music about the climate crisis. Its first performance with a handpicked team of like-minded musicians, the Orchestra for the Environment, was a triumph and has led to many more performances throughout the UK.

Evoking birdsong and the natural world, the music is accompanied by striking images by Edward Hutchison. It ends on an optimistic note that by working together we can effect change.

Music by Holst, Vaughan Williams and Paul Reade helps to complete this musical celebration of the natural world. We also mark  the 100th anniversary of Puccini with his exquisite Crisantemi inspired by flowers. The concert ends with music that comes straight from the heart, Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, the Serenade for Strings.

Programme:

Gustav Holst Brook Green Suite

Prelude-Air-Dance

Giacomo Puccini Crisantemi

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves

Emma Johnson Tree of Life for Clarinet, Harp, Percussion and strings

In the Beginning-Bacchanalia-The Truth of Things-Resolution

Interval

Paul Reade Suite from the Victorian Kitchen Garden for clarinet and harp

Prelude-Spring-Mists-Exotica-Summer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in C Major

Pezzo in forma di sonatina-Valse-Elegie-Finale Tema Russo