Some of the evening’s events were finalised too late to make the printed version.  The latest news is that we can confirm there will be a pre-concert talk in the auditorium at 6:30pm (given by Piers Burton-Page), an Upbeat Club meeting in the inner foyer at 6:30pm, and a pre-concert interlude in the Octagon Lounge at 7pm.

We had also been looking at the possibility of including a ‘Last night of the Proms’ selection as the second half of the July concert at Ferneham Hall, but have now decided that for practical reasons this idea would be much better suited to another venue such as Oaklands School, so we have deferred these plans to some future occasion and reinstated the previous programme, including the popular ‘Enigma Variations’.

Now that these points are resolved, we finally have a complete main concert programme of works, soloists and conductors for the 2013-14 season.  All of the details are now on the Concerts pages on this website, and we hope to be able to complete and print the long-delayed programme brochure for the season within a few days. 

Note that there will not be a combined programme book for the whole season as in previous years; for this season, we have decided to try printing separate programme booklets for each concert in order to evaluate the pros and cons of this alternative approach. 

Havant Symphony Orchestra will also be involved in at least one additional concert, a performance of a new concert version of ‘The Yeoman of the Guard’ with Colin Jagger on Saturday 22nd February 2014 at Portsmouth Guildhall.  More details will be available soon. 

Our recent acting Chairman, Becky Hill, has had to step down from the committee due to new work commitments.  The new Chairman is Jonathan Scott (1st violin, HSO and HCO, and Webmaster), assisted by his wife Stella Scott (cello, HSO and HCO, and Playing Members’ Secretary) who had already arranged to take over Sandra’s Administrator role. 

We are grateful for the support of experienced committee members who have agreed to continue their current roles, including Gunther Oestreich as Hon Secretary, Brian Terry as Hon Treasurer and Tony Gutteridge as Orchestral Manager. 

To make it easier to manage external email contact while allowing for personnel changes within the committee, we have set up new email addresses for specific committee positions, including an overall general contact email address which goes to the administrator.  See the Contacts page for details. 

More news from the AGM will appear in the October newsletter (before the HCO concert). 

As previously notified in the July Newsletter, an EGM of the Havant and District Orchestral Society will be held at 7.00pm on Friday 6 September 2013 at St Faith’s Church Hall, The Pallant, Havant, to be followed immediately by the AGM.  All members of the Society (i.e. playing members and season ticket holders) are invited to attend.

The purpose of the EGM is to approve a new constitution, a copy of which was distributed with the July newsletter.  Our current constitution is 30 years old and no longer conforms fully to our needs.  The new constitution is based on model constitutions from the Charity Commission and Making Music (the National Federation of Music Societies).

Places are available on the committee and nominations for election may be sent to the Chairman in advance (with the names of candidate, proposer and seconder) or submitted at the meeting.

Following the AGM, refreshments will be served and the evening will conclude with a rehearsal to which all non-playing members are invited.

David Le Page:  Thank you @HavantOrchestra for the Glazunov last night. A great pleasure to work with you all.  Hard to believe the last time was 1986! 

Tom Hammond:  I thoroughly enjoyed it, what a lovely evening… Just can't decide WHICH tune to stop whistling this morning! 

For more comments on the concert and other interesting topics, check our Twitter feed (@HavantOrchestra) and see what else our soloist David Le Page (@dlpviolin) and guest conductor Tom Hammond (@Tomhammondmusic) had to say! 

Our musical director Peter Craddock put together a programme for the 2013/14 season many months ago, but as Peter’s continuing mobility problems meant that he would no longer be able to conduct any of the concerts himself, it seemed sensible that the guest conductors and the new committee should be offered the opportunity to suggest their own ideas for changes. 

It had been hoped that we could sort out the details and incorporate these ideas into a final programme and publish a summary brochure for the May concert as usual.  However, the communications and meetings to resolve the details took much longer than expected, so we decided to publish the ‘Advance Brochure’ containing the provisional programme as it stood at the time, having at least confirmed all but one of the soloists. 

Most of the additional details have now been resolved, but the changes were more extensive than originally expected, and there are likely to be a few further minor changes.  We also still have to fix another guest conductor after discovering that one of our intended guest conductors was no longer available on the concert date. 

We apologise for the delays in fixing this programme and the number of changes since the first version, but we hope that people will enjoy the revised programme. 

I am delighted to report that The Havant Orchestras won the Best Classical Act prize at last night’s ‘News’ Awards held at The Kings, Southsea.  Our prize was presented by our good friend (and recent piano soloist) Peter Rhodes from South Downs College.  We were up against five other finalists including:  Solent Symphony Orchestra, Portsmouth Choral Union and The Renaissance Choir.  This is the fourth ‘News’ Award ‘we’ have won including Peter’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  Sandra, Lance Dearsley and I went to the ceremony where Sandra and I made a short, joint acceptance speech.  There is coverage in tonight’s ‘News’ but sadly no photograph. 

This is another excellent accolade and comes hard on the heels of the equally excellent £4750 grant from Hampshire County Council.  We have many challenges ahead but it is terrifically encouraging to get a boost from these two pieces of good news.  Well done to everyone who contributes to and supports the Society in any way.