Dear All
Congratulations to Sinfonia after a busy and very special weekend of performing!
Message from Ian:
“Thank you all for your hard work over this last, very hot, weekend. The playing in the Bedford Choral Society concert was superb. The string sound was wonderful – some said to me the best they have heard for a while. Also the playing at the Concerto Masterclass was terrific. It really gave the three young soloists a marvellous feeling of what it is like to play with a superb orchestra. Thank you all for working so hard (and for making my weekend so enjoyable and satisfying!).”
Ian
I spoke to Imogen’s parents (Imogen played third in the Masterclass) from North London yesterday: “The orchestra sounded amazing - we’ll definitely be coming to your concerts with Imogen.” I got them to sign up to our newsletter there and then!!
Thanks from Brian Garner on behalf of Bedford Rotary Clubs to Sinfonia for your wonderful work yesterday.
The Masterclass was one of my personal highlights of the Season playing with young soloists who were so inspiring and to be part of that memory that they will have forever: the first time they played with a live orchestra! It’s also wonderful to see Ian bringing out the best in us all from Alice aged 11 to all of us in the orchestra! Thanks to you, Ian!
Thanks also in particular to Ben and the Sinfonia Section Leaders who did a lot of the organising for yesterday.
As we come to the end of the season, I’d like to highlight the work done by Andrea Kilpatrick and Ben Phillips in their roles as Librarian for BSO and Sinfonia throughout the season. Their brilliant organisation and planning ahead means that we have had music in front of us for every single piece we have played this year at every single rehearsal! They have to track down the music, get it costed, organise the delivery and often pick it up from various places and then return the hired music on time. It’s a vital job that takes a lot of time and attention to detail! Thanks so much to you both! Without you, not one note would be played!
For lots of photos of Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/share/16S2BHcqKJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
We’re now looking ahead to our new season for 2025-6...
Programmes for both orchestras have now been finalised and we have so many treats in store for you!
You will see that the programme has been designed to combine pieces that will excite both you and our audience, with two wonderful soloists: Carolyn Sampson, an internationally renowned singer and who lives in Bedford and is keen to support us. We have a fabulous violinist lined up too, but we're just confirming details with him.
A huge thank you to Ian, Bjorn and Ben primarily for their work on the programming. They have listened to many of your ideas and concerns and balanced our needs as a charity too. I hope you are excited as I am about it!
The draft calendar for 2025-26 with all rehearsal dates, AGM, venues and committee meeting dates will hopefully be published next week in the newsletter.
Our new 2025-26 Season tickets with 20% off for adult tickets are now on sale (available to buy until the end of the Summer).
Take a look here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/bedfordshire-orchestral-society
We want to sell 100 before the end of the summer! This would bring in £8000 and would give us a more comfortable financial cushion for the season.
Could you sell just two Season tickets?
Your guests get 20% off adult tickets, so it's an excellent deal for our regular audience members. We have simplified the pricing structure and made it equal across all of our concerts to £20, which includes the admin fee.
To book: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/bedfordshire-orchestral-society
TicketSource is still a little bit fiddly, but it is much better than the Corn Exchange website and crucially gives us email addresses. Please encourage your friends and family to use it. Any feedback, hit reply!
Note that the admin fee is now included in the ticket price (£20) and ALL children are FREE, but they need to "buy" a free ticket!
We will still sell tickets at rehearsals, but Season tickets will not be available.
Rehearsals coming up:
Out and About Rehearsals: please contact Jan if you need more details
BSO start again in September:
Wednesday 10th September at BGI
Recruiting 2 volunteers: BSO Orchestra Manager, Sinfonia Orchestra Manager
Would you like to get involved in the running of the BOS at an exciting time when we are planning for our 60th birthday?
Can you think ahead, be calm, adaptable - and good-humoured when things change unexpectedly?!
We would like to invite you to join us to help organise the practical side of concerts and rehearsals: who’s playing, liaising with the venue, collating concert info, sorting out lighting, heating, seating, refreshments, dressing rooms etc. Most of the job is overseeing the fixing of players and collating the list of players for each concert and is an admin role done on email/WhatsApp.
There is a checklist which is in progress and breaks down all the little jobs. The role for each orchestra could easily be shared between 2 people, so if you’d like to do it with someone else, that could work very well. For Sinfonia, it would be a good idea as there are 8+ events/concerts to organise with quite different requirements.
You need to be able to devote about 1-2 hours per week initially, but with better systems in place to plan the whole season, rather than concert by concert, that could reduce considerably.
Most of all, we are looking for people who enjoy organising, are very organised themselves, are good team players and are passionate about supporting the BOS charity.
If that’s you, please speak to me!
We will support you all the way and do it with you until you are ready to take over the reins!
Contact me for a chat about it.
Being part of the Committee and our volunteer team is a great privilege and very interesting! And I'm living proof that you don't need to know anything at all about how to run an orchestra in order to get started! With a good team, we have gathered experts and mentors around us, we are working it out, step by step!
We pull together and we're excited about the future.
If you've got that mindset, plus a little bit of time, the rest is all possible.
Housekeeping note: please check your spam/junk regularly for emails from us! It seems that emails that go to a group get caught up in spam very easily these days. If you can check your spam regularly, it would be helpful. Many of the Section Leaders, I know, are moving to WhatsApp, which should help communicating quick messages and checking attendance as we go into next season.
Have a great week and congratulations again on another wonderful weekend!
With many thanks
Ann
Interim Chair with the Committee
Season ticket link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/bedfordshire-orchestral-society
PS to reply, hit reply
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