MUSIC of Winter, a concert by the Coffs Harbour City Orchestra, comes to Bellingen Memorial Hall on Sunday 16 July at 2pm presenting a “wonderful” concert of winter-inspired music.

Themed concerts are a new idea for the orchestra, and being wintertime now, they felt it was fitting.

Creative director, Tim Egan and secretary, Pam Fayle, found a huge treasure trove of wintry music across many genres.

Together they have curated an adventure of music through the winter season from a range of composers such as Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Sibelius.

The concert also offers a few surprises with a wintery theme and some fantasy pieces such as a medley of music from the movies Frozen and the Polar Express.

“Frozen is really popular with the children, they love singing along ‘Let it go, let it go…” trumpeter Cathie McIntyre told News Of The Area.

For those who enjoy Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the strings will feature an inspiring version of ‘Winter’.

“It sounds so good.

“Hearing it gives me goosebumps,” said Cathie.

This is the first time the orchestra has played in Bellingen for three years.

“It’s been so long since we’ve played in Bello,” she said.

“Covid stopped us and then the Memorial Hall closed for renovations, but now it’s reopened, and we’ll be back.”

There are fifty-five members of the orchestra across a good balance of instruments.

“We have two bassoon players, a bassoonist being quite rare, and an oboe player, also rare.”

While the oboe player will be away for the Music of Winter concert, the French horn player doubles as an oboist.

“That’s Kerrie McInnes, she’s very clever being able to go from brass to reed,” said Cathie.

“Our other French horn player is Frank Leitch, who came to the orchestra following recovery from a terrible motorcycle accident where he lost an arm.”

Frank’s wife helped him a lot through his recovery and found out that if he took up music and learned a musical instrument it would support his mental health journey.

She discovered that the French horn was one of the most suitable instruments for someone with only one arm to play.

“Frank is so thankful that his wife ‘pushed’ him into learning the French horn because he’s now enjoying playing in our orchestra,” said Cathie.

“Coffs City Orchestra is like family,” she said.

“We all turn up each week for rehearsals, coming from rural properties, from the city, from as far out as Urunga, and even from Grafton.

“A few weeks ago, the cello player brought in about 50 bits of cut-up pumpkin after they’d harvested them.

“The violinist works in a community garden and brought in some bush lemons and cos lettuce . . . we swap food and swap music, it’s lovely,” said Cathie.

To find out more about Coffs City Orchestra and the Music of Winter concert see: www.coffsorchestra.or.au

By Andrea FERRARI