Waltz into the new year with a little light magic

A singer with the Royal Ballet and Opera will perform in Morecambe this January at the town’s popular New Year Viennese Concert.

Andrés Presno will join the award-winning Promenade Concert Orchestra at their lively annual concert on January 26.

He performs in Morecambe after appearing at the Royal Ballet and Opera in Covent Garden and returns there during 2025. He has also sung with Welsh National Opera and Opera North, among others.

The award-winning Uruguayan tenor will perform a selection of Lehar and Puccini arias as well as Turandot’s famous Nessun Dorma to raise the roof of The Platform which is home to the Promenade Concert Orchestra throughout the year.

Music from the Strauss family is a major feature of the New Year Viennese Concert and the waltzing theme is reflected in appearances by the skilful Turning Point Theatre Arts dancers from Lancaster who will perform to the Bulgarian March from The Chocolate Soldier, the Thunder and Lightning Polka and the Radetzsky March.

Also included in the concert will be the Hansel and Gretel Waltz by Engelbert Humperdinck, a ‘hidden gem’ from 1895 discovered  in the Blackpool Winter Gardens collection by Morecambe’s Howard Rogerson, the orchestra’s founder and conductor, who owns more than 3,000 sheet music sets of mainly light music dating from the 1850s-1950s.

Established in 2007, the Promenade Concert Orchestra give Morecambe Bay residents and visitors from further afield the chance to hear light orchestral music played by professional, semi-professional and excellent amateur musicians from the Lancaster, Morecambe and Kendal area.

Future concerts during their 18^th season include Music FromThe Palm Court on March 23 and Music From The Shows on May 18.

The New Year Viennese Concert takes place at 3pm on Sunday, January 26 and tickets are priced £17, accompanied children can attend for free. To book, phone The Platform box office on 01524 582803; email platformboxoffice@lancaster.gov.uk or visit www.lancaster.gov.uk/platform