The Dart Orchestra

The Dart Orchestra Formerly known as Giovane Ensemble. Exploring both the greats and the unknown.

An exciting new chamber orchestra made up of some of London's finest young musicians, founded and directed by Theo Bently Curtin.

Today’s the day! 🤘🏻A few tickets are still remaining for our concert in St. Mary’s Primrose Hill! Featuring Beethoven’s ...
17/07/2021

Today’s the day! 🤘🏻A few tickets are still remaining for our concert in St. Mary’s Primrose Hill! Featuring Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, William Grant Still, Debussy and Finzi. Link in bio! 😍

INTRODUCING OUR PROGRAMME 💥💥💥 With only FIVE DAYS to go until our summer concert, we come to our showpiece that really n...
12/07/2021

INTRODUCING OUR PROGRAMME 💥💥💥 With only FIVE DAYS to go until our summer concert, we come to our showpiece that really needs no introduction – Beethoven’s monstrous, groundbreaking “Eroica” Symphony no. 3. Composed at the beginning of the composer’s “middle” period of output between 1802-1805, the symphony was first dedicated to Napoleon with the title “Bonaparte”, but later Beethoven abandoned this, allegedly in a great rage, when he learnt of Napoleon’s imperialistic ambitions. Hence, the title “eroica” (heroic) then appeared, and its attribution remains a great mystery to us since the final published title reads “Sinfonia eroica…composed to celebrate the memory of a great Man” [trans. It.]. Yet the piece was officially dedicated to Beethoven’s sponsor, Prince Lobkowitz of Bohemia, leaving a confusing grey area as to the composer’s dedicatee, with the posthumous implication even more baffling. (In true “Heldenleben” fashion – i.e. Richard Strauss’s autobiographical tone poem composed 95 years later – perhaps Beethoven is eventually referring to himself…?)
Needless to say, the work was controversial at first, with the all-too-famous “too difficult, too long [for the public]” quote. (We’re sure you’ll disagree 😉.)
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Such is the smoke and mirrors that surround its conception, let alone its extreme musical content, that the Eroica symphony developed a cult following, and over time has become one of the most revered, celebrated and often-played symphonies of the main orchestral repertoire.
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Come and watch the wonderful Dart musicians perform this Saturday in Primrose Hill, conducted by Theo Bently Curtin! Tickets in bio and also here: bit.ly/dartorch
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Sources: Senner, Wayne M.; Wallace, Robin, and Meredith, William, The Critical Reception of Beethoven's Compositions by His German Contemporaries, volume 2 (2001).
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"On Permanent Concerts in Leipzig during the Previous Semiannual Winter Season" (1807), reprinted in translation in Senner et al. vol. 2.

INTRODUCING OUT PROGRAMME 💥•William Grant Still (1895-1975) was a Black composer from the United States whose musical ac...
28/06/2021

INTRODUCING OUT PROGRAMME 💥
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William Grant Still (1895-1975) was a Black composer from the United States whose musical achievement and prowess was remarkable for a man of his position at the time. He composed symphonies, ballets, chamber, solo and commercially, and studied with Edgar Varèse at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Still was possibly the first African-American composer to have his work taken seriously by the United States’ classical music establishment:
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“Still was the first Afro-American in the United States to have a symphony performed by a major symphony orchestra. He was the first to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States […] He was the first Afro-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the Deep South in 1955, when he directed the New Orleans Philharmonic at Southern University. He was the first of his race to conduct a White radio orchestra in New York City. He was the first to have an opera produced by a major company in the United States, when in 1949, his Troubled Island was done […] in New York City. He was the first to have an opera televised over a national network.”
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Due to the huge number of “firsts” attributed to him, Still is known colloquially as “the Dean of Afro-American composers”. His miniature, “Phantom Chapel”, is arranged for strings and piano from a larger work, “Bells”, and is unusually disturbing and macabre in character. Within its c.6 minutes you will hear the deeply developed sense of tone, harmony and orchestration for which Still was so admired, and for which he today deserves a great deal more credit.

Hear it live at our concert on 17th July! We can’t wait to perform this little-heard work for you. Tickets here: bit.ly/dartorch

Source: William Grant Still Music - Biographical Notes: http://www.williamgrantstillmusic.com/BiographicalNotes.htm

Not long to go now - tickets selling fast for our upcoming July concert!! 🎶 Tickets: bit.ly/dartorch
24/06/2021

Not long to go now - tickets selling fast for our upcoming July concert!! 🎶

Tickets: bit.ly/dartorch

12/05/2021

3 DAYS TO GO before our online concert premiere!! Link to tickets in bio 🎫 😊 We are immensely grateful to Ronan Given and Beastly Studios for their efforts in producing this concert.
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Here is a short extract from our performance of Schubert’s Andante from Piano Sonata D.664. Hope you enjoy! 😋 Tune in to hear the full movement alongside Tchaikovsky’s masterful Souvenir de Florence, op. 70.
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Sound unmastered/raw footage. Artistic director Theo Bently Curtin. Filmed at University of Surrey, 14th April 2021.

• We’re changing our name! From now on, we will be known as the Dart Orchestra. The name was inspired by the River Dar...
28/12/2020

• We’re changing our name! From now on, we will be known as the Dart Orchestra. The name was inspired by the River Dart, in south-west England, where I was fortunate to have grown up. It also evokes the idea of quickness and transience, which in turn relates to the wild, changing times we are living in. More to come!
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26/03/2020

If you need something to brighten up your quarantine, here is one of our fab bassoonists, Flo Plane, duetting with her dad 🤩 we hope everyone is well, and looking forward to better times when we can make music together 😊

Creds and a massive thank you to for capturing some of our wonderful musicians so well during rehearsals this week! We ...
15/10/2019

Creds and a massive thank you to for capturing some of our wonderful musicians so well during rehearsals this week! We can’t wait for our concert of Brahms and Prokofiev this Friday 🧡 link in bio! @ Royal Academy of Music

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