Dame Judi Dench becomes patron of Mid-Sussex based Ensemble Reza

Dame Judi said: “I’m a real fan of Ensemble Reza, having attended several concerts over the last year. The passion and virtuosity of the musicians are evident in every note they play, and their shared sense of musicianship results in outstanding performances which leave audiences cheering for more! In addition to its many and varied concerts, Ensemble Reza also runs a very inclusive community orchestra and a wide-ranging education programme, taking music into schools, often allowing school children access to live music for the very first time and hopefully sparking in them a lifelong passion for music and the arts. Given what an integral part music has played throughout my life, I am honoured to be a patron to Ensemble Reza in its tenth anniversary year and I wholly endorse its unstinting efforts to make music accessible to an ever-growing and increasingly diverse audience in Sussex and beyond.”

Hannah Carter, managing director with Ensemble Reza, added: “It’s been a real privilege to meet Dame Judi at our concerts over the last year. She understands the vital role small arts organisations like ourselves have in taking live music to our local community and the funding pressures we face. We are delighted Dame Judi has agreed to be our patron and are grateful for her support in this special year.

“Dame Judi has been coming to our concerts at The Hawth on and off for quite a while and at the spring concert I sat next to her and I asked her. To have someone of her stature is really fantastic for us. It's a real honour and it really does seem to add to our credibility.”

The timing is perfect given the anniversary. Ensemble Reza’s tenth anniversary concert will be a special candlelit event on Saturday, November 25 at 7pm at Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield. Tickets are available at https://www.ensemblereza.com/

“Cuckfield feels like a bit of a home for us so it is lovely to be there for the anniversary concert. What we have achieved over the years is ten years of fantastic music making. We've explored nearly every sextet there is in the repertoire to the point where we're beginning to write our own. But we haven't just explored. We have pushed the boundaries of the sextet and we are adding different colours with different instruments. Our repertoire is becoming broader. We have not stuck to the traditional sextet. We're happy to include bits of jazz and bits of folk and a whole range of different types of music and I think that's what makes us so very accessible. In those ten years we've grown our audiences and we've reached out to so many different types of audiences.”

Ensemble Reza is at its core a sextet (two violins, two violas and two cellos) but it can include any combination of string players from soloist to sextet and occasionally a few extra instruments (also performed by members of the group) including accordion, bouzouki, guitar, ukulele, banjo, double bass and piano. Individually members have performed worldwide with globally-renowned orchestras, theatre groups and ensembles. Ensemble Reza offers welcoming and friendly virtuoso concerts including evening events, informal free lunchtime concerts, family concerts and school tours plus a fun and accessible education programme for both mainstream and special needs students from primary to sixth-form and a ground-breaking community programme including a community orchestra for all ages and abilities.