Next  Concert

2012  Concerts

CONDUCTORS: NICHOLAS SIMPSON & ANDREW HODKINSON

ORCHESTRAL LEADER: JOHN RESEK

Saturday March 3rd (Holy Innocents Church, Fallowfield, Manchester) (7.30pm)

Saturday May 5th (Romiley Forum) (7.30pm)

Sunday July 15th (Gorton Monastery) (2.30pm)  (Diamond Jubilee Summer Concert)

Saturday October 20th (Venue TBA) (7.30pm)

Sunday December 16th (Gorton Monastery) (2pm - 4pm) Christmas Concert with Carols

(Tickets for this concert will be available from April 2012)

The Gorton Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester (UK), an amateur symphony orchestra, was formed by the Gorton Philharmonic Society in 1854, three years before Manchester's Hallé Orchestra. It presents Subscription Concerts at various venues including the Forum Theatre, Romiley, Stockport and the orchestra now has a regular venue at Gorton Monastery for concerts in July and December each year. These are popular concerts and usually sell-out well before the concert date. Click here to see a photograph of the Monastery Concert with Carols in December 2011.

All the Gorton Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts are open to the public and if you would like to come to one of our concerts, details of the forthcoming ones are given above. Admission to the Subscription Concerts (February, May and October) is £7 (concessions £6) and accompanied children are free. Tickets are available on the door from 7.00 pm on the evening of each of these concerts. Advance tickets for all the concerts are available from Norman Heaps, 117 Woodsmoor Lane, Davenport, Stockport SK3 8TJ (tel 0161 483 1699). Tickets for the Gorton Monastery concerts are priced £12 each and are also on sale at the Monastery.

New Players Welcome

If you would like to join as a playing member, contact the Secretary, John Boydell,  (john.boydell@tiscali.co.uk) with details of your instrument, playing standard etc. and he will be able to advise you if there are any vacancies in the orchestra. String players are always welcome, particularly violas and cellos.   

THERE IS A VACANCY now for the PRINCIPAL OBOE. Please contact the Secretary for details

 Rehearsals are held on Sunday mornings, usually from 10.15am. to 12.30pm. with a short break at 11.30am. The orchestra presently rehearses at the Community Centre, The Forum, Compstall Road, Romiley, Stockport. The orchestra is conducted by Nicholas Simpson, and also guest conductors including Andrew Hodkinson and the President, Stephen Threlfall, who is the Director of Music at Chetham‘s School of Music, Manchester. The professional Orchestral Leader is John Resek, an ex-BBC Philharmonic player. 

The concert programmes are varied and include not only the standard symphony orchestra repertoire but also light popular music from the extensive library that the Society has built up over the 157 years of its existence. Orchestral parts from this library are available for hire to UK amateur musical societies and orchestras. Contact the Librarian, Mrs Bronwen Bhabuta at 22 Beech Road, Chorlton, Manchester M21 2BQ or tel: 0161 881 0572 for details of music available and hire charges.

Recent concert programmes have included composers such as Richard Strauss, Grieg and Nielsen and English composers including Holst, Malcolm Arnold and Elgar. You can get an idea of the orchestra's range of repertoire by looking at our past concert programmes.

If you would like to join as a Patron to get free admission to the Subscription concerts each year, please contact the Membership Secretary, Norman Heaps, at 117 Woodsmoor Lane, Davenport, Stockport SK3 8TJ or telephone him at 0161 483 1699.