The Whitehall Orchestra

Joining

Membership and rehearsals

The Whitehall Orchestra currently has about 50 members and is open to all. We rehearse on Thursday evenings between 7pm and 9.30pm at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, 1 Victoria St, SW1 (nearest tube St James Park).

The orchestra provides an excellent opportunity for instrumentalists, particularly in the Civil Service, to rehearse together and perform three concerts a year to a high standard, often including "big" orchestral works that are just fantastic to play. Click the history link on the left to see the sort of programmes we do. We are keen to welcome new members (you don't have to be a Civil Servant but we'd like more of those too). If great music is not enough, we also go to the pub after each rehearsal. A recent highlight was our first overseas tour Turkey in 2009 where we played with Idil Biret at the famous Topkapi palace in Istanbul to a wildly enthusiastic audience of 2000 people. We regularly play at St Johns, Smith Square, one of London's top concert venues.

We currently have some vacancies for strings and are particularly looking for all those viola players out there. We also have some room for brass players and while we've got a full complement of wind players at the moment, the sections run a waiting/deps/extras list. No formal auditions are held, but the minimum standard is Grade 7 for Strings and Grade 8+ for wind with admission by trial rehearsal.

Subscriptions are currently £60 per term with a £10 discount for prompt payment, £3 discount for CSSC members and 50% discount for students/unwaged. Rates for deps and other extra players by arrangement.

We welcome musicians of this standard who are disabled or have other special needs. Our rehearsal venue has good access for wheelchairs and for those with impaired sight. Some of our concert venues, however, do not have such good access.

For more information about joining the orchestra, please contact the Membership Secretary.

Whitehall Orchestra Home Page