Saturday, September 20th 2025 7:30 pm
Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire
The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra returns to Dorchester Abbey, Oxon on September 20, 2025 for a performance of ‘An Evening of Symphonic Prog Rock’. This follows the sell-out performance of ‘A Symphonic Tribute to Queen’ in April 2024. The 65 piece symphony orchestra with rhythm section will fill the Abbey with the sound of the music of the most iconic British prog rock bands of the 70s and 80s. The concert will feature symphonic arrangements by the legendary Dee Palmer of the music of Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Queen. Perennial favourites will be featured such as ‘Follow You, Follow Me’ (Genesis), ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ and ‘Roundabout’ (Yes), ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and ‘Wish You were Here’ (Pink Floyd), ‘Elegy’ and ‘Aqualung’ (Jethro Tull), ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘We are the Champions’ (Queen) and many more.
Conductor: Stephen Ellery
Leader: Guy Haskell
Full programme: https://thamesvalleyfestivalorchestra.org/358-2/
Concert Programme May 10 2025
An Evening of Symphonic Prog Rock:
The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra returns to Windsor, Berkshire on May 10, 2025 to perform ‘An Evening of Symphonic Prog Rock’. The 65 piece symphony orchestra with rhythm section will fill Windsor Parish Church with the sound of the music of the most iconic British prog rock bands of the 70s and 80s. The concert will feature symphonic arrangements by the legendary Dee Palmer of the music of Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Queen. Perennial favourites such as ‘Follow You, Follow Me’ (Genesis), ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ and ‘Roundabout’ (Yes), ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and ‘Wish You were Here’ (Pink Floyd), ‘Elegy’ and ‘Aqualung’ (Jethro Tull), ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘We are the Champions’ (Queen) will feature and many more.
Programme:
Jethro Tull:
Locomotive Breath Medley Ian Anderson
Elegy Dee Palmer
Aqualung Ian Anderson/Jennie Anderson
Genesis:
Follow You, Follow Me Banks/Collins/Rutherford
Los Jigos Medley formed of Duke’s Travels:Fountain of Salmacis: The Knife: Unquiet Slumbers: Los Jigos Banks/Collins/Rutherford/Hackett/Gabriel/Phillips/Palmer
Can Utility and the Coastliners Hackett/Gabriel/Rutherford/Banks
Pink Floyd:
Another Brick in the Wall Gilmour/Waters
Wish you were Here Waters/Gilmour
Money Waters
INTERVAL – 20 mins . BAR, run by Ocean Theatre Company
Yes:
Owner of a Lonely Heart Robin/Jon Anderson/Squire/Horn
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
Queen:
Prelude/Tie Your Mother May/Mercury
Somebody to Love Mercury
Keep Passing the Open Windows Mercury
We are the Champions Mercury
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 recording with 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.
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
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. Last year he performed with orchestras in Dnipro and Rivne in Ukraine as well as touring Europe, Japan and Mexico. Highlights of 2024 include concerts in Poland, Mexico, Japan and a 3 month tour of Germany, Scandinavia, Austria and Switzerland. 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 and 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 selected 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 fifth event.
Next concert: Saturday Sept 20, 2025 Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire
ORCHESTRA MEMBERS:
Violin 1
Guy Haskell, Ivanka Shana, Minor Atabek, Carolyn Nash, Kim Horwood, Anna Del Nevo, Mel Le Breuilly, Elizabeth Easton, David Amos, Sylvia Rose
Violin 2
Vanessa Kershaw,Sonja Nagle,Becky Stewardson, Karen Sercombe, Cerian Mellor, Kate Lorimer, Susie Dalrymple,
Viola
Kathryn Stephens, Angela Brennan, Linda Clark, Robert Spencer, Leonora Lang, Katie Mole, Jane Hadlow, Fergal Marsh
Cello
Neil Charlton, Hilary Plaskett, Ela Wąs, Alison Wagland, Chris Barrett, Frances Barton, Joanna Woolliscroft
Double Bass
Leo Bowsher, Andrea Caulfield-Smith
Flute
Camille Curtis + piccolo, Olivia Raven-Meadows + piccolo
Oboe
Jasmine Huxtable-Wright, Ali Bowen Davies +cor anglais
Clarinet
Anne Laney, Sarah Barrett + bass clarinet
Bassoon
Carolyn Sewell, Sandy Godfrey
French Horn
Jessica Ortony, Lucy Head, Matt Meyer, Franky Tyler
Trumpet
Gregor Spowart, Michael Bird +piccolo tpt, Alison Bell
Trombone
Nick Kershaw, Charlie Vereker
Bass Trombone
Ian Cox
Tuba
David Richards
Percussion
Lawrence Sale, Dave Lambert
Rhythm Section:
Drums: Graham Bartholomew Guitar: Alex Harris
Bass Guitar: Andrew Smith Keyboard: Tim Newbury
2024 September
Saturday Sept 14th 2024 – 7:30pm Great Hall, University of Reading
A Symphonic Tribute to the Beatles and Queen
The 65 piece orchestra will play symphonic arrangements of the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and the legendary music of Freddie Mercury and his band. The superb orchestral arrangements by Dee Palmer include perennial favourites such as Beatles hits A Day in the Life, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, When I’m 64, Lovely Rita and Queen hits such as Bicycle Race, Innuendo, We Are The Champions and many more.
Orchestra: Thames Valley Festival Orchestra
Conductor: Stephen Ellery
Leader: Guy Haskell
Henley Standard article by Natalie Aldred
Henley Standard review by Susan Edwards:
2024 April
Henley Standard Review by Jane Redley:
2023 December
2023 September
Thames Valley Festival Orchestra 