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The Symphony Orchestra comprises professional and amateur musicians of a high standard from throughout Hertfordshire and beyond. Its members include professionally trained musicians, teachers and music college students. The orchestra is developing into one of the UK's leading non-professional ensembles.
We present a full season of large-scale concerts in St Albans and the surrounding region. These include major symphonic repertoire, concertos with leading soloists, an annual New Year's Day concert in St Albans Abbey and chamber orchestra programmes. Please see our Press Reviews
Specialist coaching is provided by members of the City of London Sinfonia, with which the Orchestra is associated.
In May 2006, thanks to generous financial support from the Arts Council, the Eastern Orchestral Board and St Albans Council, St Albans Symphony Orchestra held a Composer Day, when composers not currently under professional representation heard their work performed by a talented combination of our own amateur players and professional musicians from the City of London Sinfonia. Roxanna Panufnik, who lead the adjudication panel, is one of the most successful contemporary composers of accessible, classical music. The event was such a success that it was repeated in 2007 with Paul Patterson, Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, leading the adjudication panel.
On 6 November 2003, the Orchestra gave its first concert in London, playing the Elgar 'Cello Concerto and Sibelius' Symphony No.5 at St. John's Smith Square.
The Orchestra was founded in 1932 as the St Albans Orchestral Society. It has performed continuously ever since, including throughout the Second World War when many orchestras ceased working. Its former conductors are Robert Lindsay, Geoffrey Barker and Andrew Parnell (1983 - 2001), who all made an outstanding contribution to its development. Our current conductor, appointed in 2001, is Dr James Ross.
In recent years performances have been given of some of the landmark works including Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No.2, Tippett’s Child of our Time, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6, Elgar’s Symphony No.1 and many more.
The orchestra is affiliated to, and is supported by,
Making Music.
Click here
to explore the history of the orchestra
and view the gallery of archived pictures. |
