On Sunday, October 1 the English Symphony Orchestra will return to the Shirehall stage for a new season of their highly popular and engaging Shirehall Sunday concerts with a diverse international programme celebrating folk music and humour.

The concert features a star turn for the ESO’s recently appointed leader, violinist Zoë Beyers, who will perform Darius Milhaud’s ballet-concerto “Le boeuf sur le toit” or “The Ox on the Roof.”

“The title is a pretty clear indication that we’re not dealing with the deadly serious side of music in this piece,” says Kenneth Woods, the ESO’s Artistic Director, who will be conducting the concert.

The programme opens with Haydn’s Symphony no. 60 “Il distratto” or “The Absent-Minded Gentleman” a work Woods calls “possibly the funniest and most modern symphony ever written.

Complementing the Milhaud are a selection of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and the final work on the programme, Mozart’s Symphony no. 39, will see the ESO joined again by young musicians from their “Orchestral Scholars” programme, which offers aspiring players from Hereford Youth Orchestra and Hereford Sixth Form College a chance to perform in a professional orchestra under the guidance of an ESO mentor.

The English Symphony Orchestra will be in concert at the Shirehall on Sunday, October 1 at 3.30pm. To book, visit eso.co.uk, or call Worcester Live on 01905 611427.