Children’s Concert – 25th Nov 2023
Another successful children’s concert, this time at All Saints Church in Marlow. To keep the children entertained, this featured pieces from The Dam Busters March to Let It Go (from Frozen) as well as solos from each section of the orchestra, with the woodwind particularly impressive. Arguably the highlights (for the younger sections of the audience at least) were the two Leroy Anderson pieces featuring a typewriter solo (in “The Typewriter”!) and farm animal solos (in “Old MacDonald”)!
If you missed it, have a look at the videos that have been uploaded.
Summer Series 2023
A busy schedule of 4 outdoor performances over 2 weeks made our Summer Series for 2023. We avoided rain and despite a breezy afternoon at The Bounty, it was definitely better than last year’s gales! Sadly we have outgrown the garden at The Ship in Marlow, but we started out at The Two Brewers, a venue we only bravely visited once before for a Christmas (outdoor) performance.
All events were well received, but our second venue at Gossmore Park (less glamorously referred to as “Under the A404”) had close to 100 in attendance – here’s a taster of the beautiful evening we were blessed with.
After a busy afternoon by the river at The Bounty, our final performance was also our first appearance in the lovely garden at The Royal Oak in Bovingdon Green.
There are a selection of photos from all of the performances as well as a video from Gossmore Park.
Thank you to everyone who attended – we really hope you enjoyed the unusual combination of an orchestra in a pub garden (or park!).
1st April 2023 – Spring Concert at All Saints Church, Marlow
Our annual symphonic concert was played to a full house at All Saints Church by the bridge in Marlow. A few videos have been added with some photos to come.
We have had some lovely feedback from the evening…
“We just wanted to congratulate you for a superb evening. You deserved to have a full house and we are sure everybody went home feeling much the better for the wonderful music you performed.”
“…an interesting programme with amazing performances”
“Your conducting and the orchestra were magnificent.”
“Our grandsons… were both entranced. This concert, as well as the last children’s concert, has really helped foster their interest in live music.”
12th Nov 2022 – Children’s Concert
We had a full house for our children’s concert at the Shelley Theatre in Marlow, ably supported by three fantastic narrators from Borlase school. The family-friendly programme featured Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, Coates “The Three Bears” and Godfree’s “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”. Many apologies if you were turned away at the door – we will ensure that advance tickets will be available for future events.
Summer Series 2022
This is where Marlow Orchestra takes music to parts most orchestras don’t reach! We were very happy to return to two of our regular favourite outside summer venues: The Ship in Marlow and The Bounty by the river in Bourne End. We finished with a performance under the bridge by the river in Gossmore Park, Marlow.
This is from the Bounty…
The weather wasn’t quite as kind as it might have been with The Bounty bringing particularly challenging conditions – I’m not quite sure how we avoided losing any of the music in the river given we were fighting strong winds for the whole performance! Not so bad for pieces on a single page, but turning over the page was definitely a challenge!
We were a lot luckier with our final venue at Gossmore Park where we narrowly avoided thunder and hailstorms and ended up with a beautiful evening, almost too much with the wind section in particular being blinded by the sun!
9th April 2022 – Spring Concert
What a fantastic evening it was at the beautiful All Saints Church in Marlow on Saturday 9th April! A suitably large audience filled the church for our first concert since November 2019, with wonderful performances by our young soloists Conor Simpson (violin) and Laura Moisey-Gray (viola).
Please have a look at the gallery for more photos. And please get in touch if you have some photos or videos you would be happy to share with us!
1st July 2021 – Finally a Performance!
Having been able to rehearse in person again, we thought we would close off the academic year by running through the pieces we had been rehearsing on and off through zoom, and in person over the previous 5 or so weeks, playing next to Gossmore Park, by the river in Marlow. There are more photos in the Gallery.
Keeping Going Through COVID
The orchestra valiantly managed to keep making music throughout the pandemic, making the best of a very difficult situation. Rehearsals continued online through zoom, bringing its own inherent challenges, but managed superbly by Tom. The resilient group of up to 20 players kept the spirit of the orchestra going for over a year.
By May 2021, with the guidelines changed, we were able to have our first in-person rehearsal for over a year, in a location Tom had been desperate to try out for many years! Yes, we carried chairs, instruments and stands to a covered area by the river near Gossmore Park – or less glamorously, under the A404 flyover! The acoustics were great, the road noise was barely noticeable and we were very happy to be playing in person again.