The Fanfares were excellent, so congratulations go to the arranger, and your central performance was mesmerising.... read more ... >

The Fanfares were excellent, so congratulations go to the arranger, and your central performance was mesmerising....our clients at Jaguar Land Rover were also impressed with the performances and believe along with us that this was one of the best events so far in its nine years of sponsoring our annual event.

Arts and Business, West Midlands

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I can't think of a better way to spend an evening than listening to fine music. read more ... >

I can't think of a better way to spend an evening than listening to fine music. I was transported by the performance, it was absolutley magic.

Mayor Of Stratford Upon Avon, Cllr. Joyce Taylor

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We wanted to write and say a very big thank you for the wonderful contribution Masquerade made to our day. read more ... >

We wanted to write and say a very big thankyou for the wonderful contribution Masquerade made to our day. The music was beautiful and created a lovely atmosphere. So many of our guests remarked on how much they enjoyed listening to you throughout the afternoon.

Thankyou also for being so patient with all our requests and especially for arranging and playing "Local Hero" and "Nimrod". We thought they were both fantastic. The only downside of the beautiful weather was missing some of the music!!

We very much appreciated you travelling all the way to the Lake District and all the hard work that went into such a lovely performance. It certainly is something we will remember for a very long time.

with many many thanks,

Alison and Charles Sheppard

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Anyone who can come up with arrangements as stylish as these deserves to be taken very seriously indeed, read more ... >

Anyone who can come up with arrangements as stylish as these deserves to be taken very seriously indeed, and Mark Chivers, violist with Orchestra of the Swan, has created marvels here.

These jewels of easy listening, whether as background to a social event or as undemanding foreground, cover well-known numbers from stage and screen, as well as a couple of light classics. My particular favourite is the theme from "Moonraker", one of John Barry's many masterpieces for the movies.

Performances from the Masquerade String Quartet are given with infectious, obvious enjoyment, production by David le Page (like the Masquerade players, part of the OOTS complement) is clear and natural, and the insert-booklet is charmingly presented. Certainly a disc for all seasons.

Christopher Morley, Chief Music Critic, Birmingham Post (14th August 2008)

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With the Vienna New Year's Day concert still very much in the recent memory, read more ... >

With the Vienna New Year’s Day concert still very much in the recent memory, thanks to an inspired Barenboim, it was intriguing to watch Swan Unbuttoned going Viennese in front of a full house at the Town Hall.

Flushed with the success of the debut CD, "Everything’s Coming Up Roses", the four contributors to Swan Unbuttoned, plucked from the string section of the Swan Orchestra, took every opportunity to engage their audience – led in the main by Simon Chalk (violin) - in question and answer sessions involving questions about who was the originator of pizzicato playing (Monteverdi 1638, we are told) and which Johann Strauss II waltz begins with a strong march – answer The Emperor Waltz!!

The clever innovative arrangements by Mark Chivers (viola) enabled the quartet to do justice to The Blue Danube Waltz, Pizzicato Polka and the instantly recognisable and Vienna favourite, The Radetzky March, plus a couple of Franz Lehar compositions including The Merry Widow Waltz.

Chalk's confidence as raconteur increased as the evening progressed and during the second half of the programme, advertised as a 'tantalising taste of string arrangements from stage and screen', he paid tribute tothe enormous amount of work by colleagues and their enthusiasm for developing the quartet's widened repertoire.

Chivers has been very busy with his arrangements and has created clever interpretations of Bond film scores, Matt Munro standards and works by Karl Suessdorf (Moonlight in Vermont) and Henry Mancini (It had better be Tonight), originally composed for the 1963 film, The Pink Panther. This evening was an upbeat start to the year by four outstanding representatives of the very special Orchestra of the Swan As Nick Stringfellow (cello) described it…"we have a great passion for this orchestra and the work we do".

Clive Peacock (Music Critic, Leamington Courier)

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