Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra Association

Past Events

Prime Brass at the Christmas Course 2008

As part of the Christmas Course 2008, Prime Brass gave a lunchtime concert for course participants and their parents. Their performance was great fun, and extended the range of music that the children experienced as part of the course. For more information about Prime Brass click here.

Summer 2008 Course

This summer the Holiday Orchestra welcomed record numbers of young musicians to the University Music School at West Road in Cambridge. As well as the usual panoply of bands, choirs, string and recorder groups and the full orchestra, the week's activities included Barber-Shop, Piano Percussion, Gamelan, and a Samba Band. And as an added bonus, three members of the Haffner Wind Ensemble visited, and ran Discovery Workshops for the bassoon, clarinet, and oboe. Click here to find out more.

Summer 2007 Course

For three days in rainy August, Britten Sinfonia had the chance to work with budding musicians in the Cambridge Holiday Orchestra. This week long course gave young musicians of any level (beginner to advanced) a chance to take part in musical activities at West Road Concert Hall. Highlights of the course included Discovery Workshops where children could find out about "Endangered Species" instruments in the orchestra, listening to performances by three Britten Sinfonia musicians, Emma Feilding (oboe) Douglas Coleman (trombone) and Lucy Shaw (bass). In a noisy conclusion to the sessions, they also got to try out some of the instruments for themselves.

Russell Keable, director of the Holiday Orchestra praised the enthusiasm of the musicians: "The feedback from our course continues to be tremendously positive. Much of this is down to the added dynamism of having this visiting team of fine musicians in our midst for part of the week. The three players were so positive, professional and willing to enter into the spirit of the event."

Upper Wind Band conducted by Paul Garner

Piano Percussion directed by Maurice and Thanea Hodges

Percussion Ensemble directed by Derek Scurll

10+ Choir directed by Thanea Hodges

Easter 2007 Course

The Easter Course was held at Manor Community Centre and around 180 young musicians took part. Russell Keable was the Course Director and he was ably assisted by tutors, both long-established and new to Holiday Orchestra. There were two choirs, three string groups, three bands and recorder ensembles. There were many highlights during the week but the concert ended with an enormous flourish. The Upper Band under the direction of Paul Garner played Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem.

For those who missed the course, you can read the programme of the Presentation at the close of the course.

Please note: in order to read the programme you will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader program which can be downloaded for free from the Adobe web site.

Christmas 2006 Course

One hundred and eighty young musicians thronged West Road Concert Hall for the Christmas Course directed by Peter Britton. The week was fun, according to feedback forms from the children. Fifteen children were the lucky ones who had a session each day on the Gamelan. One innovation was an Advanced Recorder Group, where children normally involved with other instruments went back to the recorder, perhaps nostalgically. They played well. A very exciting part of the final presentation was the first performance of a work by Alex Cook, a 14 year old member of Holiday Orchestra. The orchestral composition, Rusty Carousel, was highly applauded and sat so easily between a Mozart overture and part of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. This was a remarkable occasion.

For those who missed the course, you can read the programmes of the two performances at the close of the course.

Programme for the Presentation by the Training and Lower Strings and Wind Bands, Recorder Ensembles and 7+ Choir.

Programme for the Presentation by the Upper Strings and Wind Band, 10+ Choir, Advanced Recorders and Orchestra.

Summer 2006 Course

Over 250 young musicians joined the Summer Course at West Road Concert Hall directed by Russell Keable. The week was a resounding musical success. For the first time the younger children were given sessions on the gamelan while African Drumming and Improvisation Workshops were available for the more experienced musicians. The opportunity was taken to take modern digital images of the rehearsals and performances for publicity purposes.

For those who missed the fun, you can read the programmes of the two performances at the close of the course.

Programme for the Presentation by the Training and Lower Strings and Wind Bands, Guitar and Recorder Ensembles and 7+ Choir.

Programme for the Presentation by the Upper Strings and Wind Band, 10+ Choir and Orchestra.

Easter 2006 Course

The Easter 2006 Course attracted over 200 children, many of whom were young and new to Holiday Orchestra. This was gratifying because the course had been devised to appeal particularly to those early in their musical education. Tutors rose to the challenge of engaging the children and the final presentations showed how successful the tutors had been in developing the children's musical awareness in just four mornings.

For those who missed the fun, you can read the Programme for the Easter Course Presentation.

Christmas 2005 Course

The Holiday Orchestra Christmas 2005 Course was thoroughly enjoyed by the young musicians, parents and tutors alike. The course was a terrific send-off for Ian Nimmo-Smith, who retired after completing his fifteenth year as Chairman of the Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra Association. At the AGM of the Association new parents joined the Committee for the first time, so there is much enthusiasm for the future direction of Holiday Orchestra.

Programme for the Presentation by the Training and Lower Strings and Wind Bands, Guitar and Recorder Ensembles and Choirs.

Programme for the Presentation by the Upper Strings and Wind Band, and Orchestra.