How we plan our concert and rehearsal dates

The normal concert and rehearsal dates for the Havant Orchestras have followed a systematic pattern for many years, to help avoid clashes with other organisations in the area.  The concert dates are based on the Hampshire Schools term dates, as follows: 

• The Hayling pre-season ‘Popular Classics’ concert is on the Saturday immediately after the third Friday of the new school year in September.  Rehearsals are on the three preceding Fridays, the first of which is combined with the AGM. 
• There is one HCO concert each term, on the Saturday one week before the start of the half term break.  Rehearsals are on the two preceding Tuesdays. 
• There is one HSO main concert each term, normally during the weekend approximately two weeks before the end of term.  However, when Easter is very early or late, the March concert may vary from this.  All HSO concerts used to be on Saturday evenings, but for the December and March concerts we are now trying afternoon concerts instead, usually on Sunday rather than Saturday.  Rehearsals are every Friday during term time except for the day immediately before the HCO concert and any Friday between the HSO concert and end of term.  In the summer term the Friday following the July concert is normally used for bursary auditions (except that if the date is too near the end of term, or the musical director is unavailable, then the auditions are brought forward to the preceding Tuesday). 

It may sometimes be necessary to modify a specific concert date if a venue, conductor, soloist or key player is unavailable on the normal date.  For main concerts, the usual alternative date is one week earlier, and for the Hayling pre-season concert the usual alternative date is a week later.  As many of our players are teachers, we specifically try to avoid setting any concert dates which are within school holidays, including the first Saturday of the half term break. 

Note that if an alternative date has to be used, this should not be taken to suggest that the corresponding concert date in the following season will follow the same pattern, as the normal pattern will be resumed if possible.

Provisional dates for 2024-2025

It has been decided to shake things up this year with a different new schedule, which is not yet fully determined, but will be very different from the usual schedule.  We hope to have more information soon.