FULL CONCERT PROGRAMME
Chris Swaffer conducts the orchestra in a sparkling programme of Christmas music from the movies, well-known classics and music specially written for the cinema.
CONDUCTOR
Chris Swaffer
DATE
Saturday 9 December 2023, 7.30pm
Aug 2023
GOS has recently completed a four-concert Tour of Scotland as the finale to our year of 150th anniversary celebrations.Conducted by Chris Swaffer, we played the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony with four different organists on four great instruments all in three and a half days!
Wednesday 5 July Inverness Cathedral with Gordon Tocher
Thursday 6 July in Holy Trinity Church St Andrews with John Kitchen (and Callum McLeod)
Friday 7 July in Caird Hall Dundee with Stuart Muir and
Saturday 8 July in Dunblane Cathedral with Kevin Duggan
The programme started with
Richard Strauss Sunrise from Also Sprach Zarathustra
Ethel Smyth The Wreckers Overture and
Wagner Prelude and Liebestod fromn Tristan and Isolde, joined for the Liebestod in Dundee by soprano Shuna Scott Sendall.
The schedule was gruelling but we had a blast and the large audiences who came to hear us seemd to love it. You can read a review of the Caird Hall concert here:https://voxcarnyx.com/category/reviews/ (Posted on 15 July)
Mar 2022
Now open at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, this exhibition in the Community Gallery space shows what being a member of GOS is like and why we love making music together!
Mar 2022
Now open at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, this exhibition in the Community Gallery space shows what being a member of GOS is like and why we love making music together!
Glasgow Orchestral Society, founded in 1870, is a symphony orchestra with about 80 members. Our repertoire is wide and we perfrom music from the classical era to the present day including new works, most recently by Joshua Brown as part of Making Music's Adopt A Music Creator Scheme 2022, And we occasionally perform choral works with local choirs - in March 2023 we gave a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (Choral) along with the City of Glasgow Chorus.
We invite different conductors for our concerts, each bringing their own personality and distinctive style to our rehearsals and performances. And we are non-auditioning, enjoying making music to the highest standards while having as much fun as possible in the process!
We give four concerts a year and rehearse weekly on Monday evenings from 7.15pm to 9.45pm, from September to May, in Maryhill Burgh Halls, 45 Gairbraid Avenue, G20 8YE
The Orchestra has just finished celebrating its delayed 150th anniversary season with a four venue Tour of Scotland in July, playing Saint-Saens Symphony No 3 (Organ) in four different venues with four different organists, a spectacular end to an amazing year!
The Glasgow Amateur Orchestral Society was founded at a meeting at 37 Sauchiehall Street, “for the study and practice of orchestral music” and “practisings” were held in The Halls at 285 Bath Street.
The first concert took place in the Queen’s Rooms, conducted by HD Mehul, nephew of the French composer Etienne Mehul (1763-1817)
The orchestra was foundering and amalgamated with another struggling group, the Glasgow Southern Orchestral Society.
Women musicians were admitted for the first time as full playing (and paying) members.
The orchestra performed two concerts as part of the official programme of events.
The orchestra continued to rehearse and perform but abandoned its activities in 1916 and did not reconvene until 1919
There were no celebrations planned for the Golden Jubilee because of the impact of the war but a significant celebration took place in 1930, including a civic reception with the Lord Provost present.
The Society was renamed Glasgow Orchestral Society, dropping the term “amateur “ from its title.
The blaze in the orchestra’s permanent home destroyed the Society’s extensive music library, most of its document archive and four double basses, one cello, one viola, a trombone, and all percussion apart from the timps.
The orchestra celebrated its centenary.
The tour took the orchestra to Umbria in Italy, with concerts in Chiusi, Gubbio, and Perugia
Celebrated in all four concerts with women playing in the ranks, as soloists, and as conductor.
Concerts in Marianske Lazne, Pilsen and Prague
Saturday 21 October 2023, 730pm Sherbrooke Mosspark Church Details above and link to tickets, now on sale.
Saturday 9 December 2023, 7.30pm GRCH New Auditorium
Christmas at the Movies
Conductor Chris Swaffer
Saturday 16 March 2024, 7.30pm GRCH New Auditorium
Greig Piano Concerto
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Conductor Robert Baxter
Saturday 18 May 2024 Sherbrooke Mosspark Church
Sunday19 May 2024 St Michaels Church Linlithgow
Cecil Coles Comedy of Errors Overture
Walton, Richard The Third Suite
Arnold English Dances Suite No 1
Borodin Symphony No 2.
Conductor Nicholas Wilks
Rehearsals take place on Monday evenings from 7:15pm to 9:45pm in Maryhill Burgh Halls (45 Gairbraid Avenue G20 8YE).
Monday 28 August 2023 Rehearsals begin 7.15 Maryhill Burgh Hall
Concert 1 Saturday 21 October Sherbrooke Mosspark Church
Florence Price Symphony No 1
Dvorak Symphony No 9 (From the New World)
Conductor John Grant
Concert 2a Thursday 7 December GRCH New Auditorium
Private event
Conductor Chris Swaffer
Concert 2b Saturday 9 December GRCH New Auditorium
Christmas Film Classics
Conductor Chris Swaffer
Rehearsals start Monday 15 January 2024
Concert 3 Saturday 16 March 2024 New Auditorium 9 Mondays
Grieg Piano Concerto
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Conductor Robert Baxter
Concert 4
Saturday 18 May 2024 Sherbrooke Mosspark Church Glasgow
Sunday 19 May 2024 St MIchael's Church, Linlithgow
Cecil Coles Comedy of Errors Overture
Walton, Richard the Third Suite
Arnold English Dances Suite No 1
Borodin Symphony No 2.
Conductor Nicholas Wilks
No rehearsal on Easter Monday 1 April 2024
There will be a rehearsal on May Day Monday 6 May 2024
Download the Members’ Handbook here
We do not formally audition, but you should be of at least Associated Board Grade 7 standard or higher, with relevant orchestral playing experience. And you should have enough free time and be prepared to practise your parts at home between rehearsals.
New members will be invited to attend rehearsals and perform in two concerts and the committee will then decide, in consultation with the relevant section leader, to invite you to join the orchestra for the longer term.
You will be asked to pay 50% of the annual subscription for the first concert, the balance of the year's subscription to be paid on mutually satisfactory completion of the first term.
Non-playing friends are also invited to get involved in our activities.
admin@gos.org.uk
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