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Bardi Wind Orchestra concert planned for RNLI as charity celebrates 200 years

Lifeboats News Release

Bardi Wind Orchestra is to support the Royal National Lifeboat Institution at Leicester De Montfort Hall for the second year running, this time with a special bicentenary concert to mark 200 years of saving lives at sea.

Bardi Wind Orchestra

The Bardi Wind Orchestra is celebrating 200 years of the RNLI with a concert.

The event, at 3pm on Sunday 9 June, has been organised by the orchestra in association with Oadby & Wigston Lions Club. The programme theme is Fantasy and Adventure from the Movies, featuring music from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Disney at the Movies, How to Train your Dragon and Pirates of the Caribbean. Music will be expertly conducted by Guest Conductor Dan Watson with compère Martin Ballard (ex BBC Radio Leicester), soprano Jenny Saunders and tenor David Morris. There will also be a talk from a serving volunteer lifeboat crew member.

Bardi Wind Orchestra Orchestra Manager Robert Calow said: 'The Bardi are looking forward to this year’s Charity Gala Concert at De Montfort Hall, here in Leicester which is again in association with the Orchestra’s long-standing partner Oadby and Wigston Lions Club. The Bardi are also proud to be supporting the RNLI in their special 200th anniversary year performing a concert of exciting music with a “Fantasy & Adventure” theme. It’s a concert for all the family!'

It comes as the organisation celebrated 200 years of lifesaving on Monday 4th March 2024 – thanks to volunteers giving their time to save others, all funded by voluntary public donations.

Founded in a London tavern on 4 March 1824 following an appeal from Sir William Hillary, who lived on the Isle of Man and witnessed many shipwrecks, the RNLI has continued saving lives at sea throughout the tests of its history, including tragic disasters, funding challenges and two World Wars.

Two centuries have seen vast developments in the lifeboats and kit used by the charity’s lifesavers at 238 lifeboat stations and 240 lifeguarded beaches – from the early oar-powered vessels to today’s technology-packed boats, which are now built in-house by the charity; and from the rudimentary cork lifejackets of the 1850s to the full protective kit each crew member is now issued with. The RNLI also designs and builds its own lifeboats and runs domestic and international water safety programmes.

While much has changed in 200 years, two things have remained the same – the charity’s dependence on volunteers, who give their time and commitment to save others, and the voluntary contributions from the public which have funded the service for the past two centuries.

Anjie Rook, RNLI Associate Director, who is overseeing the RNLI’s 200th anniversary programmes, said: ‘We are incredibly grateful to Bardi Wind Orchestra and Oadby & Wigston Lions for supporting the RNLI with a concert for a second year, particularly as we celebrate our bicentenary in 2024.

‘For 200 years, it is people who have made the RNLI what it is – from our brave volunteer lifesavers who risk their lives to save others, to the committed fundraisers and generous event organisers and donors – events like these are crucial to funding our 24/7 lifesaving service.’

Leicester’s nearest RNLI lifeboat stations are Cleethorpes, Mablethorpe, Skegness, Hunstanton, Wells, Sherringham and Cromer.

The nearest fundraising branches are Leicester and Rutland & Melton, both welcome new members.

Tickets £5 for under 18s and students, and family tickets from £24 available from demontforthall.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

Photos can be downloaded from this online collection: https://source.rnli.org.uk/share/DBCEF3A2-C4D1-48CF-816A820A98770CDA/

The Bardi Wind Orchestra

The Orchestra was founded by Robert and David Calow from the extended wind, brass and percussion of the Bardi Symphony Orchestra in 1992. David Calow has been Music Director and conductor from 1994 to the present day. The Bardi Wind Orchestra now has an enviable reputation as one of the finest wind ensembles of its kind in the Midlands. The Wind Orchestra concerts include the high-profile Charity Gala Concerts at De Montfort Hall, Christmas Festival Concerts at Holy Trinity Church on Regent Road and the sell-out Bradgate Park and Hinckley Proms concerts.

Dan Watson Guest Conductor

Dan is a freelance UK based conductor, directing orchestral, chamber work, opera and musical theatre. He completed a Masters in orchestral conducting at Birmingham Conservatoire. Dan currently conducts with Stratford-Upon-Avon Symphony Orchestra, Djanogly Community Orchestra, Blackwood Clarinet Choir, Thumb contemporary music ensemble, the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and Nova Orchestra Classica.

Martin Ballard Compère
Martin is the host of various podcast series for companies like CURVE and Imagine Theatre in Leicester and has been the stadium announcer for Leicester Tigers for twenty years. Previously, he was a familiar voice on BBC Radio Leicester where he presented every programme on the station in a thirty-seven-year BBC career which took him all over the UK. As an actor, Martin has appeared as Dame in thirty-two pantomime seasons including ten at the De Montfort Hall.

Jenny Saunders Soprano
Jenny was awarded a Scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music to study with Mary Thomas and now studies with Michelle Wegwart and has a busy and varied performing career. Concert engagements have included Messiah and Carmina Burana at the Royal Albert Hall conducted by Sir David Willcocks and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Sir Neville Marriner. Her operatic successes include leading roles in most of the well known operas at prestigious venues including the Royal Opera House and Royal Albert Hall.

David Morris Tenor

David was awarded a scholarship to The Royal Academy of Music where he studied with John Kitchiner. In 1992 David joined the Swingle Singers and travelled all over the world working with such people as Monserrat Caballe, Pierre Boullez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He then joined the English National Opera where he understudied several major roles. David is now the singing co-ordinator at the Loughborough Endowed Schools

Bardi Wind Orchestra

Bardi Wind Orchestra guest conductor Dan Watson

Bardi Wind Orchestra

Concert Compere Martin Ballard.

Bardi Wind Orchestra

Soprano Jenny Saunders will be performing

Bardi Wind Orchestra

Tenor David Morris

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

Learn more about the RNLI

For more information please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the News Centre.

Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries

Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.

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