The PSO

Plymouth's own Symphony Orchestra has been central to the musical life of the city for 134 years, and continues to perform challenging music ranging from the traditional to the contemporary.

In 1875 a local teacher of music, Dr Samuel Weekes, brought together a group of musician friends and founded what was then known as an Orchestral Society: their first concert was presented in the graceful Tea Rooms of Plymouth’s old Royal Hotel. The renamed Plymouth Symphony Orchestra can claim to be one of the longest-established orchestras in the country, with an amazing record of continuity: the founding conductor was succeeded by his son; his grandson, John Weekes, was a vice-president until recently! The present conductor, Anne Kimber, is only the sixth in 134 years.

The eighty members of the orchestra travel from as far afield as Beer and Bodmin to attend weekly rehearsals. Many different occupations are represented; a number of members have had professional training but none receive payment for playing in the orchestra.

In its choice of programmes the orchestra aims to achieve a balance between established masterpieces and an adventurous selection of less familiar music. Among the contemporary pieces performed in recent years have been several specially commissioned from local composers, including Judy Whitlock, who leads the double bass section.

Many distinguished soloists have played concertos with the orchestra, including in recent years Kennedy, Peter Donohoe, the late Jack Brymer, Julian Lloyd Webber, Priya Mitchell, Anna Markland, Ralph Kirshbaum, Noriko Ogawa and, most recently, the BBC Young Musician of the Year, Jennifer Pike.

In addition to making appearances in Plymouth, an important feature of the orchestra’s work is to present concerts in other centres which professional symphony orchestras rarely, if ever, visit, such as Liskeard, Totnes, Dartington, Christow and Buckland Abbey. But the purpose of Samuel Weekes in founding the orchestra has remained central to all its activities: to bring friends together once a week to make music.

 

 

NEW: Click on Blog tab to read the latest news about the orchestra


2010 March PROGRAMME

Wednesday 24th March 7.30pm

The Guildhall. Plymouth
Suzanne Manuell solo soprano

Friday 26th March 7.30pm
The Public Hall, Liskeard

Overture to Froissart Elgar
Palladio Karl Jenkins
Stargazing Judy Whitlock
Symphony No. 8 Dvorak

 

Move cursor over Music name for more details of each piece - in the case of "Palladio" you can click a link to a YouTube performance of his work by the composer Karl Jenkins

 

This is the new PSO blog page - enjoy!
To see earlier posts use the scroll on your mouse while over the Blog, or scroll the side slider on the right of the Blog,
or else click on one of the various Archive entries on the rght hand side.

 

TICKET PRICES AND OUTLETS

Tickets are also available at the door or from members of the orchestra

Plymouth tickets
Vibes Music, 19 Mayflower Street, Plymouth PL1 1QJ
Telephone 01752 603563

 

For season tickets for Plymouth concerts, phone 01579 342955
Launceston tickets

Tottles Music,

30 Westgate Street,

Launceston

Telephone: 01566 772512

Tickets on-line

Get ground floor tickets for Plymouth from www.wegottickets.com
(Search for Town Plymouth and Month, say November 2009)
You'll need to present the on-line booking reference and some ID at the door

Tickets by post
Obtain tickets by post

One way to purchase tickets for Plymouth Symphony Orchestra concerts is to fill in the form below according to your requirements and send with a cheque and a stamped addressed envelope to the given address. Your tickets will be sent to you by return.

 

Name____________________________________
Address__________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
______________________Post code____________

Ticket requirements________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

Please send cheque and stamped addressed envelope to:

Mrs Denise Hasshill,
Little Gormellick Farm
Lodge Hill
Liskeard
Cornwall PL 14 4 JX

Download form for postal tickets

For further information including season tickets for Plymouth concerts, phone 01579 342955

Ticket prices
Plymouth
Launceston
Balcony
£15
n/a
Ground floor
£13.50*
£10
(concessions - Ground floor)
£11.50*
£9
Students/children
£5
£4

* tickets available online
Suzanne Manuell soprano soloist - Stargazing

Suzanne Manuell's soprano operatic performances include PapagenaThe Magic Flute, Prince Orlovsky Die Fledermaus, Olga Eugene Onegin, Giulietta Tales of Hoffman, and the title roles of Rossini's in La Cenerentola, Bizet's Carmen and a part specially created for her, Russell Pascoe's The Murder of Charlotte Dymond. Recently she has sung the role of Butterfly in Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Amelia inUn Ballo In Maschera
An experienced recitalist, Suzanne has appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, the Savoy Hotel, London and the Crush Room, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Oratorio performances include Elgar's The Music Makers in Newcastle, Bach's Magnifcat in Durham's Cathedral, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Devon, the Mozart Requiem in London and Mozart's Mass in C minor in Truro Cathedral.
Suzanne has been the guest soloist at a 'Proms' concert with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and is a regular performer at Newcastle's annual 'North East Last Night of the Proms' with the Northern Sinfonia. Her own Springtime concert with Anthony Seddon at the Newcastle Civic Centre is now in its 9th year. Suzanne recently had the honour of being invited to sing for HRH The Princess Royal on a visit to Cornwall.
Suzanne and her regular accompanist, Anthony Seddon, have produced a fine CD recording - available now through her website ! The selection of material includes works by composers such as Bizet, Richard Strauss, Mozart, Fauré, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Sondheim, Copeland and Stefano Donaudy

Suzanne Manuell
Judy Whitlock - composer

Judy Whitlock - Composer - Stargazing

Judy was born in 1961 and grew up in Hinckley, Leicestershire, beginning music lessons at the age of six. With a Music Degree from Durham University and a PGCE from Cambridge University she moved to the South West (and joined the PSO) in 1983.
Judy has since become well-known in the region as a Double Bassist, Pianist, Jazz Singer and Secondary School Head of Music. After completing an MA in Music for Film and Television at Bournemouth University in the mid 1990’s she has built a reputation locally as a Composer.
'Star-gazing', first performed in 2007, is her third commission for the PSO (following ‘Eclipse’ in 1999 and ‘Dartmoor Letterboxes’ in 2002). Other large-scale commissioned works include ‘This Earth Beautiful’ and a co-written children’s musical ‘There’s Moor Around’. Judy has recently collaborated on the music for a Radio 4 drama 'The Cloths of Heaven' to be aired in mid-March.

(A CD of 'Star-gazing' by the PSO with Suzanne Manuell is on sale and a CD of ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Dartmoor Letterboxes’ is also available). Contact jude@macace.net

 

 


St Andrew's Church organ concert - June 2009

 

Orchestra collage

 

Photos by Julia Finzel

PSO at Dartington

Click on Play buttons to hear the orchestra playing Delius and Mussorgsky.
Move cursor over sections to view portraits.

 

 

Michael Wood

 

 

President
Vice Presidents
Chairman
Conductor
Leader
The Lord Mayor
Vera Pearce, Nigel Amherst
Michael Stone
Anne Kimber
Paul Mathews
Treasurer
Secretary
Secretary PSO Friends
Librarian
Membership Secretary
Social Secretary
Concert Managers
Committee
Publicity Officer

Ivan Sidgreaves
Denise Hasshill
Robert Kellagher
Julia Allsop
Denise Bowden
Christine Harvey
Mike Hasshill, Ian Kilpatrick
Margaret Sampson, Sean Overend, Hilary Hall
Ian Banbury

Contact details
E-mail
plymouthsymphony@yahoo.co.uk
PSO Friends
The Secretary
PSO Friends,
Cutmere Cottage,
Tideford,
Cornwall PL12 5JU
PSO tickets
Mrs Denise Hasshill,
PSO Orchestra Secretary
Little Gormellick Farm
Lodge Hill
Liskeard
Cornwall PL 14 4 JX
Players

The Musical Director
Anne Kimber
01803 732550


SUPPORT PLYMOUTH'S OWN ORCHESTRA!

Who are Friends of the PSO?

Decades ago it was realised that certain supporters of the orchestra were willing to augment the money they were already paying regularly to buy tickets for our concerts. These kind people agreed to commit themselves to assisting the orchestra by paying an extra few pounds each year. In return, they would be acknowledged as Friends of the PSO with their names in each programme and would receive by post three special pre-concert newsletters every year. To this has been added an invitation to the orchestra’s party held in the Guildhall after each March concert. But the most valuable reward to our Friends is the awareness that they are helping the City of Plymouth to maintain its own symphony orchestra. The revenue on which the orchestra depends comes from the annual subscription paid by each player for the privilege and joy of playing plus the contributions from the orchestra’s Friends.The Friends’ annual donations contribute significantly towards the expense of music hire, soloists’ fees and publicity. To have survived for 134 years in this way is a tribute to the devotion of a very few people.

How To Join Us

If you are already a Friend of the PSO, please will you tell your neighbours and colleagues about us? Ask them to join too. If you are not a Friend, will you print out and fill in the application form and join today?

Download donation and Gift Aid form

Please send the completed form with your cheque (minimum £30)
made out to The Plymouth Symphony Orchestra to:

The Secretary to the PSO Friends,
Cutmere Cottage,
Tideford,
Cornwall PL12 5JU

 

PSO rehearsal dates Spring 2010

To get latest information on rehearsals, click on (new) Blog tab

Spring 10 rehearsal schedule

CONCERTS

 

The Guildhall, Plymouth:

Wednesday 24th March at 7.30pm

The Public Hall, Liskeard:

Friday 26th March at 7.30pm

 


 

 


Hear the orchestra playing and see portraits of players

Comprehensive concert listings for Plymouth and area

Promoting the performance and appreciation of music in Plymouth

Listings for Choral, Operatic and Orchestral Societies in Cornwall
Looking for sheet music? Try searching here
smp local2

Judy Whitlock the composer

 

Judy Whitlock's CD of Stargazing,
sung by Suzanne Manuell is available from jude@macace.net

For Stargazing ringtone - select RINGTONE Tab

 

Recent PSO performances
(Click here for Philip R Buttall's programme notes)
Adams
The Chairman Dances
Arutiunian
Trumpet Concerto (soloist Steve Williams)
Barber
Adagio
Bax
Tintagel
Beethoven
Symphony No. 7
Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique
Bernstein
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Borodin
Overture to Prince Igor
""
In the Steppes of Central Asia
Bliss
Things to Come
Brahms
Symphony No. 2 and No. 4
""
Academic Festival Overture
Britten
The Courtly Dances from Gloriana
""
Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Bruch
Violin Concerto No. 1 (soloist Priya Mitchell)
Butterworth
A Shropshire Lad
Canteloube
Songs of the Auvergne (soloist Cecile Bonnet)
Chabrier
Espana
Coates
The London Suite
Copland
Rodeo (4 dance episodes)
Corigliano
A Promenade Overture
Debussy
Prelude a l’Apres Midi d’un Faune
Delius
Summer Night of the River
Dvorak
Russalka's Song to the Moon (soloist Suzanne Manuell)
Elgar
Overture Froissart
""
Overture Cockaigne
""
Cello Concerto (soloists: Julian Lloyd Webber, Jacqueline Phillips, Ralph Kirshbaum)
Gershwin
Strike Up the Band
""
Rhapsody in Blue (soloist Joanna MacGregor)
Glazunov
Symphony nr. 5
Ives
The Unanswered Question
Khachaturian
Suite from Spartacus
Mahler
Adagietto (5th Symphony)
Marshall
Clock of the Long, Long Now*
Mendelssohn
Fingal’s Cave (Hebrides)
  Violin concerto (soloists Thomas Gould and Tasmin Little)
Mozart
Overture from The Magic Flute
Mussorgsky-
Pictures at an Exhibition
""
Night on a Bare Mountain
Prokofiev
March and Scherzo (Love for Three Oranges)
Rachmaninov
Symphony No. 2
""
Piano Concerto No.2 (soloist Anna Markland)
""
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini (soloist Noriko Ogawa)
Rimski-Korsakov
Dance of the Tumblers
Shostakovich
Symphony No.5
Sibelius
Finlandia
""
Symphony No 5
Stravinsky
The Firebird
Susa
Stars and Stripes for Ever
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.5
""
Overture Romeo and Juliet
Vaughan Williams
London Symphony
Verdi
Overture The Force of Destiny
Wagner
Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
  Tannhaeuser Overture
Walton
Crown Imperial
Whitlock
Eclipse*
""
Dartmoor Letterboxes*
""
Star Gazing* (soloist Suzanne Manuell)

* First performances

Judy Whitlock the composer

Judy Whitlock's CD of Stargazing,
sung by Suzanne Manuell is available from
jude@macace.net

 

Name:
Email Address:
How often do you come to PSO concerts? Every one in my area
Once a year
Occasionally
Never

What sort of music would you like us to play for you? Classical
Romantic
Modern
Baroque
Choral
Concertos
Light classical
Popular
Musical
What work(s) would you like to see in future PSO programmes?

form mail
Commissioned by the Worcester Festival in 1890, this marked the beginning of Elgar's successful orchestral compositions. The New Oxford Companion to Music acknowledges the support of Elgar's new wife Alice Roberts, who he married the year before. She "believed implicitedly in his ability to become a great composer" - how right she was! Those of us with a Worcester - or even Three Choirs (for which Elgar played as a violinist) - connection will not want to miss out on this.
Written in August/November 1889; first performed in Prague the next year and published by Novello in London. Not "the English" symphony - that was nr 7 (commisioned by the Philharmonic Society in London). The BBC Proms Pocket Guide to the Great Symphonies speaks of "trumpets riding a rather Tchaikovskian storm" in the first movement, a "village band, cimballom and all" in the second movement, a lilting G minor waltz in the third and "a set of variations on a cello theme" in the fourth. Can't wait to play it....!
Judy Whitlock, the leader of the PSO double bass section, was commissioned by the Orchestra in June 2007 to write Stargazing. The work was inspired by Judy's interest in astronomy. Our March soloist will again be the wonderful Suzanne Manuell, who sang the soprano part at the premier to great acclaim - "reaching to the stars"! You have a treat in store for you!
Top - During the performance - view across orchestra from the pulpit!

Bottom left: leader of cellos : Bottom right: Spot the cellist, viola and two second violins!

 

Get connected by Mobile phone!

To access details of the next concert on your mobile, save this address as one of your bookmarks:-www.plymouthsymphony.co.uk/mobile.html

RINGTONES

Text "PSOUK Stargazing" to get Stargazing or
"PSOUK Mussorgsky" to get Night on Bare Mountain or
"PSOUK Delius" to get In a Summer Garden ringtones
to +447797806195


Registered Charity No. 286656

Last updated on 7 February, 2010