LSO Discovery
Family Concert: Lost Things
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Today's Concert
Today’s concert was inspired by Shaun Tan’s picture book The Lost Thing. It tells the story of a young man who tries to find a home for a very sad 10-metre-tall alien.
In 2020 Paul Rissmann set this book to music for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and although it has been performed many times in Australia, today is its first performance in the UK. We’ll be joined on stage by a huge choir and we’d like to invite you to sing along with us too! Plus, you’ll get to see all of Shaun’s amazing artwork projected above the LSO during the concert.
But this isn’t the only lost thing you’ll hear. We have a selection of brilliant pieces that (for one reason or another) have been lost, forgotten or ignored. For some composers it took years, even centuries, for their masterwork to be discovered and today we are going to honour and celebrate their talents.
Lost Things
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
La tarantelle frétillante from ‘Petite Suite de Concert’
Louise Farrenc
Overture No 2
Modest Mussorgsky arr Maurice Ravel
Promenade & The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga) from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’
Paul Rissmann
The Lost Thing
John Williams arr Paul Lavender
A Tribute to John Williams
William Long conductor
Paul Rissmann presenter
Imogen Parry LSO Discovery Choirs – Choral Conductor
Emily Dickens The Lost Thing – Choral Director, LSO Discovery Choirs – Associate Choral Conductor
London Symphony Orchestra
LSO Discovery Choirs
Clerkenwell Community Choir
About the Artists
Paul Rissmann
presenter
Paul Rissmann loves writing music, talking about music and inspiring people of all ages to make their own music. His creative projects have won prizes from the Royal Philharmonic Society, Royal Television Society and he won a British Composer’s Award in 2012. Paul was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composer Award in 2020.
Paul has performed with orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The LSO recently released an album of Paul’s music inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
William Long
conductor
Conductor William Long continues to showcase his ‘masterful command of challenging, multi-stylistic works’ (Opera News) with some of the world’s premier musical institutions. Recent highlights include his Carnegie Hall debut with the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, Carmen at Washington National Opera and the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Long serves as an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.
He was awarded a Grammy for his work on the Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and is a recipient of a Career Assistance Grant from the Solti Foundation.
Imogen Parry
LSO discovery choirs – choral conductor
Imogen Parry is a singer and recording artist with experience in classical, jazz, pop and contemporary genres. While studying at the University of Glasgow, she pursued her love of musical theatre and played lead roles in numerous shows, including The Last Five Years and Urinetown, and while studying abroad in the USA played Wendla in Spring Awakening and Mistress in Evita.
After graduating, Parry joined the Grammy Award-winning vocal group, The Swingles, with whom she toured internationally and performed in prestigious venues worldwide for five years. As a session singer, she has contributed to over 100 films, TV shows, video games, and commercials. Parry has provided backing vocals for artists such as Sam Smith and Ellie Goulding, and has workshopped music with Jacob Collier and Gareth Malone, gaining her a reputation as a highly sought-after vocalist in the music industry.
Emily Dickens
The Lost Thing – choral director
LSO discovery choirs – associate choral conductor
Emily Dickens is a soprano, music director and choral specialist, in demand as a performer and choral director internationally. She read music at Trinity College, Cambridge where she was a Choral Scholar, before joining the critically acclaimed British vocal ensemble VOCES8 as their soprano for eight years. She also studied on the first Royal Opera House/National Opera Studio Women Conducting Course. Dickens is Creative Director of Gabrieli Roar, a Conductor and Chorus Master of the London Symphony Orchestra Choirs, Associate Choral Director at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and Chorus Master for Holland Baroque’s Gospel Baroque.
She directed services for BBC Radio 4 as a conductor at St Martin-in-the-Field's, conducted the National Youth Choir of Great Britain in their recent disc of contemporary commissions and was Chorus Master for Gabrieli's Gramophone Award-winning recording of The Dream of Gerontius. Dickens has run choral courses all over the world and prepared choirs for many high profile concerts, recordings as well as for film, tv and video game. She has performed in many of the world's leading concert halls and is heard regularly on international TV and radio; a Decca Classics Recording Artist, she has had four albums top the classical charts.
London Symphony Orchestra
At the London Symphony Orchestra, we strive to inspire hearts and minds through world-leading music-making. We were established in 1904 as one of the first orchestras shaped by its musicians, and today we’re ranked among the world’s top orchestras. As Resident Orchestra at the Barbican since the Centre opened in 1982, we perform some 70 concerts here every year. We also perform over 50 concerts a year to audiences throughout the UK and worldwide, and deliver a far-reaching programme of recordings, live-streams and on-demand broadcasts. Through our world-leading learning and community programme, LSO Discovery, we’re connecting people from all walks of life to the power of great music. Our musicians are at the heart of this unique programme. In 1999 we formed our own recording label, LSO Live, which has become one of the world’s most talked-about classical labels. As a leading orchestra for film, we’ve entertained millions with classic scores for Star Wars, Indiana Jones and many more.
Clerkenwell Community Choir
Clerkenwell Community Choir is about the joy of singing and community. We are an independent London community choir that has grown out of the London Symphony Orchestra Community Choir following its closure in 2022. Our choir has open access at its heart - no audition is necessary. Our charitable aim is to make music together and anyone can get involved and find their voice with us. We love variety, and so we perform a wide repertoire including classical, folk songs, opera choruses, pop, show tunes and more. Clerkenwell Community Choir is led by musical director Emily Dickens and accompanied by pianists Elizabeth Burley and Joanna Smith.
Discovery Choir
The LSO Discovery Choir is a dynamic youth choir made up of young people aged 8 to 18 years, that performs in top London concert venues with musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra. Both our Junior & Senior Choirs are led by Imogen Parry, and accompanied by Ben Smith.
The choirs meet on a weekly basis during term time at LSO St Luke’s. Being part of the LSO Discovery Choir offers the chance for young people to develop their musical and vocal skills, make friends, and perform alongside the world’s greatest professional musicians.
Formed in 2004 by Gareth Malone, past opportunities have included performing at Windsor Castle for His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, at the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay for Islington Council, and with jazz legend Dave Brubeck. With the London Symphony Orchestra, the LSO Discovery Choir gave the premiere of Edward Rushton’s oratorio Cicadas as well as, conducted by LSO Music Director Sir Simon Rattle, the UK premieres of Jonathan Dove’s children’s opera The Monster in the Maze (2015), Andrew Norman's A Trip to the Moon (2017) and the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Hogboon (2016).
To find out more, contact us at lso.choirs@lso.co.uk or visit our website.
Next Family Concert
Saturday 21 June 2025
Join presenter Rachel Leach and the LSO on a musical adventure around the solar system as they explore Gustav Holst’s celestial masterpiece The Planets. From ‘Mars’ – the piece that inspired countless film soundtracks – to the swelling majesty of ‘Jupiter’ and the mysterious atmosphere of ‘Neptune’, this is music on a truly cosmic scale.
Rachel Leach presenter
Jessica Cottis conductor
London Symphony Orchestra
The Alice Sound
Delve into the captivating world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and hear brand-new music created by composer Paul Rissmann, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
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