Greek Theater Concert, Thursday, July 16, 2026, 9:00 PM - Sinfonia Smith Square (United Kingdom)

A concert dedicated to Lady Susana Walton on the centenary of her birth, and to the musical ties between Argentina and England.

The season of the Youth Orchestra Festival continues at the La Mortella Gardens with an event of particular significance, scheduled for Thursday 16 July at the Greek Theatre. The protagonists of the evening will be the British conductor Simon Over, the Sinfonia Smith Square orchestra and the soprano Ana Beard Fernández, performers of a program that intertwines English and Argentine music, in the name of the personal history of Lady Susana Walton and Sir William Walton.

Sinfonia Smith Square (United Kingdom) è The presence of Simon Over at the Mortella is now a consolidated tradition. In fact, the English conductor returns to the Festival stage for the ninth time, renewing a relationship of friendship and collaboration which over the years has contributed to making numerous events of the concert season memorable. A musician of great sensitivity and profound knowledge of the British repertoire, Over has established a relationship with the William Walton Foundation that goes far beyond simple artistic collaboration, fully sharing the educational and cultural mission that has characterized the Festival for almost thirty years.

The evening's program takes on a particularly symbolic value this year. Through the music of Astor Piazzolla, Carlos Guastavino and William Walton, the concert ideally retraces the meeting between two worlds that profoundly marked the lives of the Waltons. On the one hand, Argentina, Lady Susana's birthplace, with its melodies imbued with nostalgia, elegance and passion; on the other, the England of William Walton, one of the greatest composers of the British twentieth century, who found the ideal place in which to live and create in Mortella.

The dialogue between these two musical cultures gives the public an intimate portrait of the couple who gave life to Giardini La Mortella, evoking that sound universe that accompanied the daily life of their home and which still today represents one of the most authentic elements of its identity. It is therefore not just a concert, but a musical journey that tells a story of encounters, affections and artistic inspirations.

It will be performed by the Smith Square Symphony, one of the most dynamic groups on the British musical scene. The Orchestra was born in 2021 from the union between the Southbank Sinfonia and the historic St John's Smith Square venue, with the aim of combining a prestigious concert tradition with an innovative professional training project. The Orchestra's headquarters, the Smith Square Hall, in the Westminster district of London, was created from the Church of Saint John, considered one of the most beautiful works of English baroque, seriously damaged during the bombings of the Second World War and subsequently restored and transformed into one of the most prestigious concert halls in the British capital. The heart of Sinfonia Smith Square's activity is the Fellowship Programme, which every year selects thirty-four young musicians from the best conservatories in the world through international auditions, offering them an intense orchestral experience and a fundamental start to their career. Alongside symphony concerts, the institution promotes festivals, educational activities, initiatives dedicated to families and numerous productions broadcast by BBC Radio 3, confirming its leading role in the diffusion of classical music in the United Kingdom.

Simon Over studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Oxford. Throughout his career he was a member of the musical staff of Westminster Abbey and musical director of St Margaret's Church and the Chapel of St, Mary Undercroft at the Palace of Westminster. Founder of the Parliament Choir and the Southbank Sinfonia, he has conducted concerts at some of the UK's most prestigious venues, including Westminster Abbey, the Royal Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall and St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The British-Spanish soprano Ana Beard Fernández will perform alongside her, a performer appreciated for her musical refinement and the versatility of her repertoire, which ranges from opera to chamber music to contemporary productions. Trained at the Royal College of Music and the University of York, she has collaborated with leading ensembles such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and I Fagiolini. She is also the founder of the La Locura ensemble, with which she develops projects dedicated to the encounter between different musical traditions and artistic languages.

Inserted in the evocative setting of the Greek Theater of Mortella, the concert represents a tribute not only to great music, but also to the spirit of the place desired by William and Susana Walton: a house in which art, nature and music have always. 

Fondazione William Walton e La Mortella
Via Francesco Calise 45, 80075, Forio (NA)
tel.: 081-986220, 081-986237