ONE of the country’s leading orchestras will play alongside apprentices at a concert to be held in the Alban Arena next Monday, July 25.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be playing a popular repertoire including Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain together with a selection from Pictures at an Exhibition and Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance.

It will then join forces with the apprentices to perform a brand-new work which has come out of the Apprentice Arts and Music Leaders training course which has offered local artists the chance to develop skills in leading arts workshops with groups such as schools and disabled adults.

The programme has been funded by the district council, Orchestras Live and Arts Council England and managed by St Albans Arts, Sports and Health.

The work by the apprentices, which will be showcased at the concert, has been inspired by Sibelius’ Finlandia and includes dance, sculpture, poetry and a short opera.

All the art work which has emerged will be displayed around the Arena for the audience to see before the performance and at the interval.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham and enjoys an international reputation for bringing audiences worldwide first-class performances across a wide musical repertoire.

Stephen Bell, regarded as a world-class conductor of orchestral music, will conduct the concert which starts at 7pm.

Tickets are �10 and �7.50 for under 16s, available from the box office on 01727 844488 or go to www.alban-arena.co.uk

n Three films are being shown at the Arena next week, starting with The Beaver on Tuesday, July 26.

Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with Mel Gibson in an emotional story about a man on a journey to re-discover his family and re-start his life. But he struggles to get himself back on track until a beaver hand puppet comes into his life.

Oranges and Sunshine, the story of a social worker from Nottingham who discovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the UK – is being shown as both a matinee and in the evening next Wednesday, July 27.

Emily Watson as the social worker, Margaret Humphreys, reunites thousands of families, brings authorities to account and draws worldwide attention to their plight against overwhelming odds and with little regard to her own well-being.

The Hangover Part II is next Friday night’s movie as Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug travel to exotic Thailand for Stu’s wedding.

But what should have been a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch after the unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas does not turn out as planned.

Evening performances start at 7.30pm and the matinee at 1.30pm Admission is �6 with concessions �2 off for the evening showings and �4 for the matinee.

Next Saturday, July 30, the Arena is showing Rio, from the makers of the hit movie Ice Age. A comedy adventure for children, Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a domesticated macaw who has never learned to fly and lives a comfortable life in the small town of Moose Lake.

He thinks he is the last of his kind until he and his owner Linda learn about another Macaw who lives in Rio de Janeiro and they head off to find her. The film can be seen at 11am and admission is �4.