Libraries and leisure

Date: Sunday 5th October

Chinese theme to celebrate the Essex Jiangsu Festival. Chinese Folklore and culture.

Tickets: £7 adults, £5 child, £25 family ticket (2 adults + 3 children).

Dates: Tuesday 7th October, Wednesday 8th October, Thursday 9th October and Saturday 11th October

Time: 8.00pm to 10.00pm

Tickets: £7.00/£8.00

Potters Bar Theatre Company present Our first production this season a farce “When did you last see your Trousers?” by Ray Galton and John Antrobus. Lucky Howard Swerling has it all – a good job, a lovely home and a wealthy wife, not to mention Penny, his exciting mistress. Everything goes wrong for poor Howard though because one evening, whilst he and Penny are asleep, a burglar steals Howard’s clothes. Howard has to go home to his wife, but how can he in only his vest and pants? Howard’s attempts to find some suitable clothes so that he can return home before being ‘found out’ lead to hilarious and hysterical situations.

Date / Time: Friday 10th to 19th October 2008 from 8.00pm

Little Missenden festival consists of fifteen events from 10th -19th October. The programme ranges from classical masterworks to lesserknown music, jazz,children's workshops, an art lecture and a poetry reading. Programme details on website : www.little -missenden.org

Postal booking opens on 6th September.

Date: Sunday 12th October.

Time: 7.30pm-10.00pm.

Overture Leonore No.3 Beethoven
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Piano Concerto) Rachmaninov Symphony No.4 Brahms Soloist, piano Richard Uttley
The de Havilland Philharmonic (formerly the Philharmonic at UH) opens its 2008-2009 season with Beethoven’s greatest overture, Leonore No.3. The deep, rich harmonies of this piece pave the way for Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - the orchestral variations on the popular melody originally by Paganini - with highly acclaimed soloist Richard Uttley, a 2008 graduate of Clare College, Cambridge (with a double first in Music) and winner of the British Contemporary Piano Competition (2006) who has recently released an album recorded by the University’s own record label UHR.
The concert is completed with Brahms’ reflective and dark Symphony No.4, the fourth movement of which many commentators believe was written in the knowledge that it would be his last.

About Richard Uttley:
Uttley, a 2008 graduate of Clare College, Cambridge with a double first in Music, studies piano at he Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Martin Roscoe following a ten year period of study with Ian Buckle. In 2006 he won the British Contemporary Piano Competition that led to a recording with the University of Hertfordshire’s record label UHR which, upon release, led one critic to state ‘it’s a fascinating disc with which I cannot find fault’; Gramophone to call it an ‘auspicious debut’, and the BBC Music Magazine to say ‘contemporary piano music has some fine young interpreters right now; Richard Uttley’s is a name to add to the distinguished litany’.

Price: £15 full price / £12 concessions / £6 children and students
Age Suitability: All ages

Date: Monday 13th October.

Times: 6.30pm-10.30pm.

La Vendedora de Rosas (The Rose Seller) is Colombian poet and film-maker V�or Gaviria’s second film, centering around lost origins and real and symbolic orphanhood. Set over two nights at Christmas time the story follows the fortunes of a group of girls in their early teens, all separated from their families and making a living for themselves in the rough: selling roses in late night clubs, selling themselves to the drug-vending teenage boys, stealing money to buy new clothes, and sniffing glue to fill the desperate emptiness with passing visions of lost family and friends.

This FREE presentation will include a clip led introduction to the film by Dr Debbie Martin (Cambridge University) who will highlight the representation of women and femininity in Gaviria’s trilogy of films.

Price: FREE
Age Suitability: 15+ (film contains violent and sexual scenes with drug use)

Date: Saturday 18th October.

Time: 2.00pm-6.00pm.

In 1995, in response to the dearth of serious contemporary music playable by good amateur and student pianists, pianist Thalia Myers commissioned the first of the enormously successful, award-winning spectrum anthologies. Growing to encompass one hundred and forty one pieces in four volumes the anthologies have been set for competitions and examinations, used as reference works and entered the repertoire of student, amateur and professional pianists around the world.

Musician and University Lecturer Philip Mead has co ordinated a number of events where pianists have come together to each play one piece of the collection.

This event will be the first performance of the complete series in the South of England and the biggest yet, bringing together one hundred and forty one pianists from all over the country to play for a total of four hours whilst being recorded by the University’s own record label UHR.

The event will be an experience for all involved, with pianists from first term beginner to concert artist taking part and receiving a certificate and CD of the performance on completion.
You can find out more about Mead’s work by going to www.philipmead.com.
Price: FREE
Age Suitability: All ages.

Date: Sunday 26th October

Time: 7.30pm to 9.30pm

Simon Desbruslais will be the soloist in Hadyn's Trumpet Concerto, with the Welwyn Garden City Orchestra. The concert will be in the historic and intimate setting of the 17th century Tythe Barn at Tewin Bury Farm and promises to be a memorable occasion.

Simon has recently performed at the Aldeburgh Festival and at St. Paul's Cathedral amongst other prestigious venues. Simon graduated with a first-class honours degree in music from Kings College London in 2005 and has been taught by some of the world's greatest trumpeters, including Ian Balmain (principal trumpet, Royal Opera House).

Other music in the evening's programme will be Schubert's Overture in the Italian Style, and Beethoven's Symphony No.8.
The orchestra, lead by Christos Kokkinos, will be under the baton of its regular conductor James Ross.

Tickets: £12 (which include a glass of wine in the interval) available from City Sounds, WGC; Hill & Co, Welwyn; email tickets@wgcms.org.uk; on the door, or call 01707 322324.

Date: Wednesday 29th October.

Time: 7.30pm-9.05pm.

Enjoy a night of laughter at The Weston Auditorium with Slaughterhouse Live (that’s “laughterhouse” with an “S”), a character-cabaret team who have sold out at the prestigious Lowry theatre and various student union events numerous times and enjoyed a successful residency at The Comedy Store since July 2003.

In 2005 Slaughterhouse Live received the 'Best Comedy Show' Award at the Brighton Fringe Festival and were runners-up in the ‘Best Touring Show’ category at the Manchester Comedy Awards 2004. They have also made their mark at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with acclaimed runs at the Gilded Balloon (2003-2005 inc.) and at the Pleasance Courtyard where they scored a hit in 2006 with their show TV Spazzatura.

“Pulsates with enough anarchic energy to power a small European principality” - The List (Edinburgh)

“The hottest talent around” - The Sun

Price: £10 full price / £8 concessions / £4 students
Age Suitability: 18+