the whitehall orchestra

The Whitehall Orchestra was founded in 1978 as the Civil Service Orchestra, initially recruiting its members entirely from the public sector. The rehearsals were held in a MOD building in Holborn and after overcoming initial problems, such as the clarinets outnumbering the violins, the Orchestra held its first concert in June 1979 at the Civil Service Theatre near Trafalgar Square. The programme was a blend of symphonic works such as Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony and light classics such as “London Every Day” by Eric Coates.

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For the first few years, its founder, Paul Gillett, conducted the orchestra. It then entered a period when it provided a useful training ground for a number of conductors embarking upon their professional careers. Michael Nebe was appointed Musical Director in 1990 and led the orchestra for over 30 years until he sadly passed away in 2021.

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We were then grateful to several interim conductors for guiding us before the appointment of our Principal Conductor, Claudio Di Meo in 2022.

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The orchestra is open to all and its members come from variety of sectors including the Civil Service, the art world, advertising, banking and many others. Rehearsals were held for many years in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy building in Victoria but since its recent closure for redevelopment, we have used a number of venues including St Peter's Vauxhall and the National Audit Office.

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We normally perform three concerts per year featuring classical repertoire for large orchestras from Beethoven to the present day, and have also commissioned works. Recent concerts venues have included St Gabriel’s Pimlico and St Cyprian's, Clarence Gate.

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The Orchestra has collaborated over the years with renowned professional musicians and guest performers including Raphael Wallfisch, Idil Biret, Leonid Gorokhov, Nelly Miricioiu, Alan Brown, Rebecca Goulden, Ann Harvey, Peter Fisher, Samantha Ward and Nathaniel Vallois. We are going on tour to Northern Italy this October to participate in a music festival in Pordenone and Sacile near Venice.

 

The Whitehall orchestra is friendly, ambitious and it achieves high standards in concerts. It also has an active social scene with members going to pub for a drink after rehearsals and concerts – as a consequence, the past 40 years have seen a number of weddings within the orchestra, including in the last year.