About the Orchestra
The orchestra was founded in 1975 by musicians in the Sutton Coldfield area who wanted to play together. The name chosen originally was Sutton Coldfield Chamber Orchestra. Some of the original members are still ascociated with the orchestra today, and recently we held a 30th anniversary dinner.
These days the orchestra plays up to five different concerts per year, starting with a Young Soloists concert with members of the Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra playing concerto movements (usually for the first time in public), and ending with a Family Christmas Concert. In between, concert programmes include small and medium sized orchestra repertoire, and recently there has been an annual chamber concert for ensembles of less than orchestra size and without a conductor. Sutton Coldfield Orchestra is affilliated to Making Music.
The orchestra conductors vary - we don't have a regular conductor, as we prefer to have guest conductors. This keeps the orchestra on its toes, musically, as it has to get used to different styles of conducting. For the main concerts, there are five or six rehearsals before each on on Thursday evenings, followed by one on the day of the concert to make sure it has all come together.
Sutton Coldfield Orchestra
Repertoire
The basic repertoire of the orchestra is music of the Classical period, which does not require more than ten wind instruments, but from time to time extra players are engaged to play larger scale pieces of the Romantic era. The orchestra has played a number of interesting twentieth century works by English composers, Britten, Walton, Butterworth, Arnold and Berkeley. In 1985 and 1990 new symphonies by Andrew Downes and Marcus Blunt were commissioned and premiered by the orchestra.
Many of the concerts have featured a professional soloist in a concerto and many principal players of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra have joined the orchestra in this capacity. Encouragement has also been given to young soloists, often winners of national competitions who are at the outset of their careers. The orchestra has put on a number of concerts to raise money for charity and is itself a registered charity.
Please call Kevin Boyd, Secretary on 0121 308 8755. There is a voice mail messaging service. If buying tickets, please see the Tickets page.
Kevin Boyd, Secretary
Sutton Coldfield Orchestra
49 Bishops Way
Sutton Coldfield
West Midlands
B74 4XS
By Phone
By Post
By E-mail
For general information:
Sutton Coldfield Orchestra is a Registered Charity.
Number: 509630
