Concert Programme:

Thames Valley Festival Orchestra – Saturday September 20, 2025

An Evening of Symphonic Prog Rock, arrangements by Dee Palmer

Jethro Tull:

Locomotive Breath Medley Ian Anderson

*Locomotive Breath: Teacher: Bungle in the Jungle: Rainbow Blues’*

Aqualung Ian Anderson/Jennie Anderson

Elegy Dee Palmer

Genesis:

Los Jigos Medley Banks/Collins/RutherfordHackett/Gabriel/Phillips/Palmer

*Duke’s Travels: Fountain of Salmacis: The Knife: Unquiet Slumbers: Los Jigos*

Follow You, Follow Me Banks/Collins/Rutherford

Can Utility and the Coastliners Hackett/Gabriel/Rutherford/Banks

Yes:

Roundabout J Anderson/Howe

Close to the Edge J Anderson/Howe

*i) Solid Time of Change ii) Total Mass Retain iii) I Get Up, I Get Down iv) Seasons of Man*

Owner of a Lonely Heart Rabin/J Anderson/Squire/Horn

INTERVAL: 20 mins : BAR in support of Henley Music Trust

Pink Floyd:

Money Waters

Another Brick in the Wall Gilmour/Waters

Wish you were Here Waters/Gilmour

Queen:

Prelude/Tie Your Mother Down Palmer/May/Mercury

Somebody to Love Mercury

Bohemian Rhapsody Mercury

We are the Champions Mercury

The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra:

Conductor and Saxophone – Stephen Ellery

Violin 1 – Guy Haskell, Minor Atabek, Kim Horwood, Ivanka Shana, Sylvia Rose, Mike Jessop, Carolyn Nash, Sasha Mackay, Elizabeth Easton, Wendy Clark

Violin 2 – Vanessa Kershaw, Becky Stewardson, Cerian Mellor, Eli O’Hare, Susie Dalrymple, Claire Clay, Kim Austen, Brenda de Souza

Viola – Kathryn Stephens, Kat Hatton, Leonora Lang, Katie Mole, Linda Clark, Robert Spencer, Claire Papple, Jane Hadlow

Cello – Neil Charlton, Anna Galloway, Joanna Woolliscroft, Alison Wagland, Frances Barton, Fiona Thompson, Anna Wagstaff, Philip Wells

Double Bass – Leo Bowsher, Abi Saxton, John Baugh

Flute – Camille Curtis +piccolo, Miriam Tohătan +piccolo

Oboe – Jasmine Huxtable-Wright, Ali Bowen-Davies +cor anglais

Clarinet – Jeremy Gouldstone, Emily Goodman +bass clarinet

Bassoon – Geoff Rousell, Sandy Godfrey

French Horn – Jessica Ortony, Lucy Head, Matt Meyer, Franky Tyler

Trumpet – Michael Bird, Alison Bell, Alison Davidson

Trombone – Chris Urwin, John Deane

Bass Trombone – Ian Cox

Tuba – David Richards

Percussion -Andy Spiceley, Dave Lambert

Drums -Graham Bartholomew

Guitar – Alex Harris

Bass Guitar – Louise Lloyd

Keyboard – Tim Newbury

Biographies:

Dee Palmer – arranger and composer

Dee Palmer was born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. A late starter at music, almost twenty years of age, she studied composition at The Royal Academy of Music in the 1960s with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Originally a clarinet student, she won the coveted Boosey and Hawkes Woodwind Prize and later was appointed Junior Professor of Clarinet at the RAM, but had already decided to give up the instrument in favour of the piano and composition. In her final year she was awarded the prestigious Eric Coates Prize for composition which led to being invited to become ghost writer to a highly respected English film composer, which led to an entry into the rarefied world of session music. She claims in her time as a Session Music Writer to have written enough music for TV, gramophone records and Film to paper the M1, hard shoulder included!

She began writing arrangements for the English rock group Jethro Tull in 1968, joining the group playing keyboards a few years later. On leaving Jethro Tull she returned to the world of session music and in 1984, embarked upon a project to arrange and record with the major London orchestras a series of albums featuring the music of the leading English Progressive Rock groups.

Tonight’s concert will feature Dee’s arrangements from all of these albums, namely:

A Classic Case – Jethro Tull – 1985

We Know What We Like – Genesis – 1987

Objects of Fantasy – Pink Floyd – 1989

Symphonic Yes – 1993

Passing Open Windows: A Symphonic Tribute to Queen – 1996

Stephen Ellery – conductor and saxophone

Stephen Dominic Ellery is a musician based in London. He has conducted orchestras in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He learnt conducting from Ilya Musin in Saint Petersburg and grew up playing jazz, funk and other styles with his mother. Stephen has worked for many years with Polish musicians and was recently awarded a medal by the Polish Government for his work promoting Polish music outside of Poland. Recently he has conducted and performed with orchestras in Ukraine as well as touring Europe, Japan and Mexico. As a saxophone player he has performed at music festivals and made recordings. As the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 he happened to be in Berlin and climbed up and played – the image was captured by many photographers.

The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra

The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra was founded in January 2023 by Jasmine Huxtable-Wright. The orchestra consists of invited local players who come together to rehearse and perform on a project by project basis. The first concert programme was the full ‘Passing Open Windows: A Symphonic Tribute to Queen’ set of arrangments by Dee Palmer. It was performed in September 2023. Tonight’s concert is our sixth event.

Next concerts:

Saturday May 2, 2026 Windsor Parish Church, Berks SYMPHONIC ABBA

Saturday May 9, 2026 Dorchester Abbey Music Festival SYMPHONIC ABBA