On Saturday night, Xenophon Kelsey will step on a podium in Ripon Cathedral and conduct St Cecilia Orchestra in front of hundreds of people.

It’s something he’s done about 140 times, having co-founded the orchestra 30 years ago and conducted it ever since.

The thrill of conducting remains but what has changed since the 1990s is the esteem in which St Cecilia’s is held.

It is now regarded as one of the leading orchestras in northern England, which means local classical music lovers can enjoy work by Mahler and Elgar on their doorstep this weekend, performed by some of the best musicians in northern England accompanied by professional mezzo soprano Beth Taylor

This is in no small part due to Ripon-born Xen, as he’s known, for whom music has been a major part of life for seven decades.

A native of Ripon who attended Ripon Grammar School, he studied horn, double bass, piano and conducting in Manchester and was principal horn and conducting student on the European Summer Schools for Young Musicians in Vienna, Salzburg and Montreux from 1967-71.

He returned to Ripon in the early 1990s and recalls:

St Cecilia Orchestra, which is named after the patron saint of music and musicians, was subsequently formed in 1995.

It now performs four concerts a year — two big ones at the cathedral and two smaller chamber concerts at the city's Holy Trinity Church.

The orchestra also occasionally works alongside the cathedral choir, which musical director Ronny Krippner has elevated to new levels.

Full orchestra concerts in the cathedral can involve more than 100 musicians, and because of St Cecilia’s reputation it is able to call on talent from as far as Sheffield, Manchester and Durham, as well as Ripon and Harrogate.

A committee of about half a dozen people meet three times a year to decide what to programme and juggling lesser-known works with blockbuster symphonies by the likes of Beethoven or Mozart is always a thorny issue.

Xen, who was awarded an MBE for services to music and music education in 2009, says: "First and foremost, we have to put music on that people want to listen to. The other deciding factor is we have to play what the orchestra wants to play.”

Besides St Cecilia’s, other local orchestras include Harrogate Symphony Orchestra, Harrogate Philharmonic Orchestra, Nidderdale Community Orchestra and Ripon Community Orchestra, which Xen also conducts. But the long-term outlook perhaps isn’t as rosy as these riches suggest.

Xen, who is passionate about music and education, says: 

Popular classics

Arts funding is another concern. St Cecilia’s benefits from sponsors Trevor and Elizabeth Ingham but isn't immune to financial pressures.

Many orchestras have experimented by performing pop music to pull in more punters. Is Pink Floyd set to candlelight on the cards in Ripon?

Xen, who played guitar in a rock band at school, says flatly: “We are not planning to go down the pop avenue and do tribute acts.” That will probably come as a relief to those who like to hear great music live without having to trek to nearby cities like Leeds and York.

Asked to name his favourite composer, Xen says it would be either Mozart or Schubert, and nominates the latter’s Shepherd on the Rock as the best song written.

Now aged 75, he says he is “winding down”. But it’s hard to imagine the Ripon music scene without somebody who has been such a towering figure for so long.

The city — and the cathedral in particular — remain special to him. “Ripon Cathedral is still one of the best concert venues to play in,” says. "The acoustics are fantastic.”

You can find out for yourself this weekend.

Tickets are still available for Saturday's concerts. More information is availabe here.