At last!  A chance for the East Midlands to have its own Recorder Orchestra!

The orchestra, conducted by Sheila Richards, was formed in 2016. It normally rehearses on the third Sunday of the month from 2pm to 5pm at St Giles Community Hall, Main Street, Balderton NG24 3LN – just outside Newark, Nottinghamshire. Members are asked to pay a modest annual subscription of £35 (£15 students) to cover the hire of the hall.

Prospective members should have a good standard of playing and sight-reading – and be prepared to play any of the usual sizes of recorder (descant, treble, tenor or bass) as required.  Players of larger instruments (great bass and contrabass recorders) are particularly welcome – in the interests of balance, the size of the orchestra may be dictated by number of bass players…

The aim is to work on repertoire suitable for orchestral forces:  this is usually a mixture of compositions and arrangements of music, covering a wide range of styles. We do give occasional concerts for local charities so a willingness to practise is expected.

The provisional dates for the 2025/26 season are;

21st September 2025
19th October 2025
16th November 2025
21st December 2025
18th January 2026
15th February 2026
15th March 2026
19th April 2026
17th May 2026 – and CONCERT
21st June 2026
19th July 2026

Our last concert was at 4pm on Sunday 18th May 2025 at St Giles Community Hall, Main Street , Balderton NG24 3LN 

The programme included music by Respighi, Gabrieli, David Moses and Dvorak – amongst others…

Admission is free but there will be a retiring collection to raise money for Beaumond House Community Hospice.

Our last concert raised £620 for Beaumond House Community Hospice in memory of the composer, Paul Richards.

 

For those of you who missed our first concert, you can hear items on our  Facebook Page.

During the Covid-19 restrictions.  Some of our members managed to put together a short extract from one of our ‘current’ pieces.  You can see it here.

Another recording of some of our members is now available. You can see us playing ‘Entrada for a Deft Eft’ by David Moses here… 

If you are interested in joining the orchestra, please email Sheila giving your details and which instruments you prefer to play.

The East Midlands Recorder Orchestra is affiliated to the Society of Recorder Players a Registered Charity No. 282751, Scottish Registered Charity No. SC038422