Thames Valley Festival Orchestra – Saturday May 2 2026

An Evening of Symphonic ABBA – arrangements by Louis Clark. Original compositions by B. Anderson and B. Ulvaeus

Overture

SOS

Mamma Mia

Super Trouper

Eagle

Voulez Vous

I have a Dream

Does your Mother Know

Interval – 20 minutes – Bar in support of Ocean Theatre Company, Ascot

Intermezzo – arr Matthew Freeman

Money Money Money

Knowing Me Knowing You

One of Us

Gimme Gimme Gimme, Summer Night City

Fernando

Chiquitita:

Finale

The Thames Valley Festival Orchestra:

Conductor Stephen Ellery

Violin 1 – Guy Haskell, Kim Horwood, ,Sasha Mackay, Mike Jessop, David Amos, Hamish Overend, Emma Butcher, Michelle James, Jules Cook, Minor Atabek,

Violin 2 – Vanessa Kershaw, Ivanka Shana, Becky Stewardson, Claire Clay, Sarah Ghosh, Angela Jessopp, Ellie Khan, Rachel Colbourne

Viola – Kathryn Stephens, Linda Clark, Robert Spencer, Rowena Overend, Jane Hadlow, Katie Mole, Adam Lloyd, Claire Papple

Cello – Neil Charlton, Phillipa Curtis, Ela Wąs, Chris Barrett, Max Greengrass, Philip Wells, Claire Fawkes, Fiona Thompson

Double Bass – Leo Bowsher, Andrea Caulfield-Smith

Flute – Camille Curtis +piccolo, Cathy Laney+piccolo

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

Clarinet – Anne Laney, Sarah Barrett

Bassoon – Geoff Rousell, David Pether

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

Trumpet – Gregor Spowart, Michael Bird, Alison Croxon

Trombone – Nick Kershaw, Chris Urwin

Bass Trombone – Ian Cox

Tuba – David Richards

Percussion -Dave Lambert

Drums -Graham Bartholomew

Guitar – Alex Harris

Bass Guitar – Louise Lloyd

Keyboard – Joe English

Biographies:

Louis Clark – arranger of tonight’s music

Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player. He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and Hooked on Classics.

Clark was the conductor and arranger of the orchestra and choir hired to back Electric Light Orchestra’s sound, introduced on their album Eldorado  in 1974. He assisted Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy in writing the string arrangements for the studio albums Eldorado, Face The Music, A New World Record, Out of the Blue, Discovery and Xanadu. He later played synthesizers for ELO during their Time tour. In 1983 he returned to arranging and conducting the strings on the Secret Messages  album, and in 1986 he played keyboards again with the band on their small number of live dates.

Clark was likewise an affiliate of the ELO spinoff band ELO Part II for much of its lifespan, contributing string arrangements to both of the group’s studio albums during the 1990s and participating in its live performances as a keyboardist and orchestral conductor. Upon Part II’s rebranding as The Orchestra in 2000, Clark (now a full-time member) remained with the group, his involvement continuing until his death in 2021. His son, Louis Clark Jr., continues to perform with The Orchestra into the present day.

In the early 1980s, Louis Clark conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on a series of records under the title Hooked on Classics. In 1982, he released the album The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays the Queen Collection, recorded by the Solid Rock Foundation. In 1983, he released the album The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Beatles Collection, recorded by the Solid Rock Foundation, at the 20th Concerto Anniversary of The Beatles. In 1987 he arranged and conducted and recorded The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays ABBA Classic album, which you will hear the TVFO play tonight . The orchestra will repeat this programme on May 9, 2026.

Matthew Freeman: arranger – Intermezzo

Matthew Freeman is a Platinum and Gold Award winning producer and arranger. His association with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra began in 2004 with the highly successful album Symphonic Rock. This led to him conducting and arranging the CDs ABBAphonic and Symphonic Queen, which have been performed with the RPO at the Royal Albert Hall on numerous occasions.

He has conducted all European premiere tours of BBC’s Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II. In 2022, he premiered Seven Worlds, One Planet at London’s O2 Arena and in 2024, Planet Earth III at Wembley Arena. In 2025 he represented the UK at Osaka Expo performing Planet Earth III with the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra. 

Matthew has supervised and conducted the compositions of Sir Anthony Hopkins for Riyadh Season 2025/26 with the RPO.  

Matthew’s music was recorded by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to promote the Blue Jays baseball team in the 2025 World Series. 

Intermezzo was the only purely instrumental piece that ABBA wrote/performed. Matthew Freeman orchestrated this work and has kindly made the parts available for the orchestra to perform it tonight.

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. Recently he has conducted and performed with orchestras in Ukraine as well as touring Europe, Japan and Mexico. Earlier this year he was appointed as conductor of the Dnipro Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine. 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 in September 2023 featured Dee Palmer’s ‘Passing Open Windows: A Symphonic Tribute to Queen’. The orchestra performed this several times as well as Dee Palmer’s Beatles/Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band arrangements. In 2025, 2 performances of ‘Symphonic Prog Rock’ took place which featured Dee Palmer’s arrangements of the music of Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd and Queen. Tonight’s concert is the orchestra’s seventh event and we are most grateful to Louis Clark Jr for making tonight’s arrangements available to the TVFO to perform.

Next concert : Symphonic ABBA – May 9 2026 – Dorchester Abbey, Oxon.