The Seaton Music “Rising Stars” concert at the Gateway Theatre (Thursday July 16th 2026, 6:30pm) did not disappoint with six highly talented young people ably compared and accompanied by well regarded local pianist Alex Wilson, who also played for us. With 23 pieces of music from 21 differing and varied composers the audience were treated to a magnificent evening of high class music. There were three other instruments played during the evening as well as the piano, these were Bassoon, Clarinet and Violin.
The young performers were in programme order; Eric Nan – Piano; Joh Fujita – Clarinet; Ashleigh Turley – Piano; Samuel Gleave – Bassoon; Rachel Mi – Piano and Alma Dobrescu – Violin, all mentored and introduced by Alex Wilson who the encouraged each performer to introduce the pieces they were about to play, so gaining experience of talking to and performing in front of an audience. Alex then went on to accompany Joh, Samuel and Alma with their pieces on the Clarinet, Bassoon and Violin. He interspersed the evening with four sessions of magnificent piano playing in between the three soloist sections and showed what a prodigious and talented pianist we have locally.
The concert demonstrated that all the performers were accomplished, talented and confident players of their chosen instrument and Seaton Music is very grateful to Alex Wilson for all the work he puts into this project, from defining the programme and coaching the students to hosting and comparing the concerts themselves. We plan further “Rising Stars” events in the future.