A CONCERT marking the 30th anniversary of a orchestra will be held at the end of the month at Reading University.

West Forest Sinfonia will host the performance at 4.30pm at the university’s Great Hall, with the concert to be conducted by Philip Ellis and the orchestra led by Giles Wade.

Since 1986 the orchestra has followed its aim to provide concerts of ‘professional quality’ for the country’s residents and visitors from further afield.

The group has always decided to ‘champion’ lesser known works that merit a performance rather than simply choose popular options.

Programmes have had an eclectic quality and the first concert this season demonstrates exactly this imaginative approach.

Well known music by Mozart (his 38th symphony) starts the concert.

The work was written for performance in Prague and is often referred to as The Prague Symphony. Mozart was subject to cult status in the Czech capital where his opera, The Marriage of Figaro, was received with great acclaim.

Audiences proved to be equally delighted with this new work that bore the name of their city.

Another symphony follows, this time by Stravinsky, his Symphony in Three Movements. Written in America in 1943-4, Stravinsky was undoubtedly influenced by the events taking place in Europe and Asia at that time.

Louise Turner, from Wokingham, is the soprano soloist in Three Orchestral Songs by Henri Duparc.

Louise has sung with the orchestra on a number of occasions, The concert’s finale will be La Mer, written in Jersey and Eastbourne in the early 20th century.

The West Forest Sinfonia draws its membership from the talent that exists in Berkshire.

As well as a regular series of concerts at St Paul’s Church in Wokingham, alongside concerts performed in Reading University’s Great Hall, the Sinfonia orchestra is regularly hired to accompany local Choral Societies across neighbouring counties.

Some of their most recent appearances include performances with High Wycombe, Wokingham and Fleet Choral Societies, and Aliquando.

The event will start at 4.30pm.

Tickets are £15 and £14 concessions and will be £2.50 for under 18s and students.

Email tickets@westforestsinfonia.org, visit www.wegottickets.com or call 0118 978 6189.

Tickets are available on the door.