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“…Together with Kenneth Woods, the English Symphony Orchestra presents this recording in its series of 21st century symphonies. They present themselves as an ensemble well versed in the modern musical language, which is also ideally suited to this task.” - Pizzicato This stunning recording from Zoë Beyers with the English Symphony Orchestra under direction of Kenneth Woods features world premiere recordings of Steve Elcock's Symphony No.8 and Violin Concerto. Steve Elcock, born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1957, obtained an A-Level in music and learned the violin up to grade 7. As a composer, he is otherwise self-taught, beginning to write from around age fifteen and continuing to do so ever since. He trained as a teacher of French but, once qualified in 1981, he moved to France, where he worked in language services until his retirement in 2019. From being unknown to anyone outside a small circle of his friends and family, his music has now come to the attention of music lovers, conductors and reviewers. That turnaround began with the release of his Third Symphony which was released in September 2017 and was almost immediately featured as ‘CD of the Week’ on Record Review on BBC Radio 3 – a rare feat for a work by a hitherto unknown composer. Steve Elcock has composed ten symphonies to date, five of which have been recorded. He has also written concertos, symphonic poems and much chamber music.