Chorleywood Orchestra recently celebrated its first birthday and continues to go from strength to strength.Founded by Chorleywood resident, Andrew McFarlane and Christine Deeley, the thirty strong community orchestra is made up of a mix of professional musicians, amateurs and returners, some of whom have picked up their instruments to play for the first time in decades just to take part! Many just enjoy the opportunity to play as adults and others love making music as part of a bigger group under the baton of Richard Wainwright, a professional horn player and former student of the Royal Academy of Music.
Member Emma Bindloss dubs herself a ‘remedial’ horn player “I have come back to playing and love the opportunity to play with such talented musicians. Our orchestra members come from all walks of life – from accountants to web designers but with one thing in common – we all love making music together!”
Roger Stafford of Berks Hill plays first violin.
“I enjoy every minute. We get to play some wonderful music (and eat cake) with a lovely group of local people and improve each week”.
Working Mum Rina Cheung especially enjoys the me-time:
” I was struggling to find something I could do for myself and when I saw a leaflet about Chorleywood Orchestra event I thought, why not ?! – After 25 years of not playing my violin it is now or never! I went along to a rehearsal and I stayed ever since. It’s one of the best things I’ve done in ages. I put all those years of learning violin to good use again, I can leave my busy world behind and just enjoy the moment. Everyone is encouraging, I relearn how to play properly from other players and gain new musical knowledge.”
Chorleywood Orchestra has a public concert in the Memorial Hall coming up this month with an inspirational programme including two special features:
“We will be playing well known classics such as Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending (No. 1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame) with talented Japanese violin soloist Yume Fujise from the Royal Academy of Music who is on the verge of a career on the international stage.” says Andrew, “We are excited to feature a new piece by Chorleywood composer, teacher and musical director Adrian Warren. Adrian is known locally for arranging music for the Christmas Eve service at Christ Church! His composition – ‘Melting into Spring’ – written specially for Chorleywood Orchestra, depicts the last remnants of Winter slowly dying away to be replaced by the new life of Spring. We are really looking forward to giving this original work its first public performance!”
Chorleywood Orchestra Spring Concert, Sun 25 March, 4pm, Memorial Hall, £10 in advance from wegottickets.com/event/429649 and Chorleywood Bookshop or £12 on the door. Under 16s free.
Interested in joining?
The orchestra welcomes musicians of around Grade 6 standard and upwards, particularly strings and rehearses at The Russell School on Tuesday evenings. Contact andrew@chorleywoodmusic.com