The Chichester Symphony Orchestra has enhanced the cultural life of the area with over 125 years of music-making. It is one of the oldest musical societies in West Sussex.
The Chichester Symphony Orchestra provides amateur and professional musicians with the enjoyable and fulfilling experience of playing together on a regular basis.
The orchestra makes a major contribution to the preservation of live performances of classical music by local musicians for the community and holds three or more concerts each year.
Traditionally the summer concert is included in the Chichester International Festivities in July and the autumn concert is part of the popular Chichester Cathedral lunchtime series. The orchestra also holds concerts designed specially for younger children.
Regular concert venues include Chichester Cathedral, St. Paul's Church, Northgate and the Chapel at the University of Chichester. Venues have facilities for the disabled and good nearby or on-site parking.
Our repertoire includes popular as well as lesser known works such as the Symphony in C minor by Alice Mary Smith, played at the Cathedral Lunchtime Concert in 2005, and at the July 2006 Festivities concert the orchestra performed Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's violin concerto, opus 80 in G minor, one of the first performances of this work by an amateur orchestra in the United Kingdom. The soloist for this occasion was the orchestra's Leader, Mark Hartt-Palmer.
The orchestra encourages local talent, and has had well-known local teacher Evelyn Harrison as soloist at our 2008 Spring Concert when she played Weber's Clarinet Concerto No.2, and Stephen Caldicott, who played Mozart's 2nd Horn Concerto in our Festivities 2008 concert.
Ella Rundle, a former pupil of Chichester Girls' High School, now at the Guildhall School of Music and one of our youngest soloists ever while still at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, played the first Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in the 2005 Festivities concert. More recently, Lyndsay Cuming, a former CSO member, was the soloist in Ronald Binge's Concerto for Saxophone at the Spring Concert in 2007. In 2008, well-known pianist Ashley Fripp was the soloists in Grieg's Piano Concerto.
The Chichester Symphony Orchestra is registered under the Charities Act No. 1037051, and gratefully acknowledges the support and encouragement of the Chichester City Council, the Chichester District Council, the West Sussex County Council and Chichester Cathedral.
Rehearsals
We rehearse every Tuesday evening during term time at Christchurch, Old Market Avenue, Chichester, from 7.30pm-9.30pm.