News Summary
This is a summary of older news items for this web site, with links to more details further down the page or elsewhere on the site. Note that some old links on this page may no longer work, or may no longer be active.
2nd December 2022 | The Havant Orchestras Newsletter for December 2022 is now available, including additional information about the Winter Wonderland afternoon HSO concert at Oaklands Catholic School, Waterlooville, at 2.30pm on Saturday 10th December. |
17th November 2022 | Tickets are now available on TicketSource for the HCO concert on Saturday 4th February 2023 at Holy Trinity Church, Fareham. |
8th October 2022 | The Havant Orchestras Newsletter for October 2022 is now available, including additional information about the HCO concert at Holy Trinity Church, Fareham, on Saturday 15th October. |
8th October 2022 | Tickets are now available on TicketSource for the afternoon Winter Wonderland concert by HSO at Oaklands School on Saturday 10th December. |
11th September 2022 | Are you a competent musician looking for orchestral playing opportunities at a high amateur standard? Havant Symphony Orchestra is always interested to hear from potential new players, whether regular or just to help out when our regular players are unavailable. Right now we are looking for additional players in all sections, especially woodwind and brass, where we have potential vacancies for new regular players. See our Joining page for more details. |
26th July 2022 | At the 60th Anniversary celebration concert in July 2022, our administrator Stella Scott provided a noticeboard display of items related to the history of Havant Symphony Orchestra. For those who would like to look at the display in more detail, here is a link to some photos of the display. |
23rd July 2022 |
Formal Notice of AGM The AGM for the 2021-22 season will be held at 7.00pm on Friday 9th September 2022 at The Pallant Centre, Havant PO9 1BE. All members of the Society (that is, playing members and season ticket holders) are invited to attend. As season tickets were not offered for sale for the 2021-22 season and there were no concerts during the 2020-21 season, season ticket holding members are defined as those who were season ticket holders during the 2019-20 season. There are vacancies on the committee. Nominations for election may be sent to the Chairman in advance (with the names of candidate, proposer and seconder) or submitted at the meeting. If there are more nominations than places available, elections will be held during the meeting. After a short break for refreshments, the AGM will be followed by the first rehearsal for the Popular Classics concert. Season ticket holders are very welcome to stay and listen to our rehearsal. |
10th July 2022 | HSO players, please note that the first HSO rehearsal (and AGM) in September, to prepare for the Popular Classics concert with Avi Taler, will be on Friday 9th September. This is mainly because the Hayling concert date had to be delayed until 1st October, two weeks later than our usual date, so there is no need to start immediately on the first Friday of term. See the rehearsals page for further details. |
8th July 2022 |
We are delighted to announce that the
Bob and Beryl Harding Bursary for Young Conductors
for the 2022-23 season
has been awarded to James Thomas,
from Chichester University.
We are eagerly looking forward to working with him during the season.
We hope to be able to provide a biography link for James in the near future. |
7th July 2022 | As there is only one bursary candidate this year, the bursary auditions at Hayling Island Community Centre tonight, Thursday 7th July, will start at 7.30pm. See the rehearsals page for further details. |
28th June 2022 | The HSO 60th Anniversary Concert is on Saturday 2nd July. As part of our celebrations Music in Portsmouth has published some interviews by our publicity officer Helen Taylor with some of our longest standing members: Tony Gutteridge (cello), Graham Frewer (violin), Gwenda Dearsley (cello), Carla Bacon (violin), Tom Mailey (trombone). |
14th May 2022 |
For this season, we have been using distanced seating and our
our usual pre-concert talks and interval refreshments have been
suspended up to now to reduce Covid risks.
Although legal restrictions have been removed, we feel it
is appropriate to continue some precautions for the health and
comfort of our audiences and players.
For the HCO concert on 21st May, distanced seating is still in effect but we are finally hoping to resume providing some interval refreshments (at least tea and coffee). Please allow space around others, especially as they may be more vulnerable than yourself. |
14th May 2022 | 2022-23 season announced! Full details of the Havant Orchestras concert programme for the 2022/23 season are now available on this website, together with information about booking season tickets. As there are still more concerts in the current season, the main Concerts and Tickets navigation buttons at the top of page will still take you to the current season’s details for now, but you can then select the button on the right for next season's details. Printed brochures and season ticket forms will be available at concerts, and brochures will also be made available via other locations such as local libraries and information centres. In addition to the main concerts, we also now have details of our ‘Popular Classics’ concert by Havant Symphony Orchestra at Hayling Island Community Centre on 1st October 2022. |
30th April 2022 | HCO players please note that the rehearsal dates for the HCO concert on 21st May are now Tuesday 17th May (the original second rehearsal date) at Bosmere Junior School and Friday 20th May (the day before the concert) at the Pallant Centre (St Faith’s Church Hall). See the rehearsal schedule for details. |
14th April 2022 |
HSO July Concert tickets
Tickets are now available on TicketSource for the HSO concert on 2nd July (60th Anniversary Concert) at Oaklands School. Covid-19 precautions are no longer legally required, but for safety and comfort we still plan to continue precautions including limited audience numbers with distancing between separately booked tickets and no pre-concert talk. We hope to be able to resume providing interval refreshments, but this will be confirmed later. |
21st April 2022 | The HSO bursary auditions in July will now be on Thursday 7th July, 7.00pm, at Hayling Island Community Centre, Hayling Park, Station Road, Hayling Island P011 0HB (our usual location for September concerts). The date and venue had to be changed because of problems with venue availability. See the rehearsals page for further details. |
25th March 2022 |
Formal notice of AGM
The AGM of the Havant and District Orchestral Society will be held at 7.00pm on Friday 29th April 2022 at The Pallant Centre, Havant PO9 1BE, the usual HSO rehearsal venue. All members of the Society (that is, playing members and season ticket holders) are invited to attend. As there were no rehearsals or concerts during 2020-21, members are defined as those who were playing members or season ticket holders during the preceding season 2019-20. This is the AGM postponed from September 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. We postponed it in the hope of being able to hold it in person rather than online and, although the covid situation is still far from ideal, we have decided to go ahead with an in-person AGM in time to submit our documentation to the Charity Commission by their deadline of May 31st. There are vacancies on the committee. Nominations for election may be sent to the Chairman in advance (with the names of candidate, proposer and seconder) or submitted at the meeting. All current members of the committee have indicated their willingness to stand for re-election. If there are more nominations than places available, elections will be held during the meeting. The first HSO rehearsal of the summer term will follow immediately after the AGM, which is expected to be much shorter than usual. |
25th March 2022 | The Pallant Centre is not available for 25th March, so the HSO rehearsal at 7.00pm is at Hayling Island Community Centre, Hayling Park, Station Road, Hayling Island P011 0HB (our usual location for September concerts). See the rehearsals page for further details. |
5th March 2022 |
Tickets are now available on TicketSource for the HCO concert on 21st May at Holy Trinity Church, Fareham. Covid-19 precautions may no longer be legally required, but for safety and comfort we still plan to continue precautions including limited audience numbers with distancing between separately booked tickets and no pre-concert talk. It is not yet clear whether it will be safe enough to provide interval refreshments, so this will be decided closer to the date. |
25th February 2022 | HSO players are reminded that rehearsals for the April concert start today, Friday 25th February, at 7.00pm at the Pallant Center. This rehearsal during the half-term break is to help make up for rehearsal time lost earlier in the term. See the rehearsals page for further details. |
18th February 2022 |
HSO Rehearsal cancelled The Pallant Centre have notified us that the hall will not be available today because of Storm Eunice, so today’s rehearsal is cancelled. The first rehearsal will therefore be on Friday 25th February, during the half-term break. |
29th January 2022 |
HSO April Concert tickets
Tickets are now available on TicketSource for the HSO concert on 2nd April at Oaklands School. Covid-19 precautions may no longer be legally required at that time, but for safety and comfort we still plan to continue precautions including limited audience numbers with distancing between separately booked tickets and no pre-concert talk. No refreshments will be provided during the interval, although audience members are welcome to bring their own refreshments. We are working within government guidelines to ensure that the event is as safe as possible. However, we should point out that Covid-19 infection, hospitalisation and death rates are still high and neither the usual precautions nor vaccines are 100% effective. Any audience member or player attending this event will be doing so at their own risk. |
26th January 2022 | HSO players please note that rehearsals for the April concert are now planned to start on Friday 18th February. See the rehearsals page for further details. |
26th January 2022 |
We are planning to hold our society AGM for the 2020-21 season (postponed
from last September) at the start of the first HSO rehearsal for
the summer term, which is on Friday 29th April
at the Pallant Centre
(St. Faith’s Church Hall).
The AGM is expected to be much shorter than normal as there were no rehearsals or concerts during that season, but we are still legally required to produce the usual reports and handle committee elections. Confirmation and further details will be provided closer to the date. |
14th January 2022 |
HCO February Concert tickets
Tickets are now available on TicketSource for the HCO concert on 12th February at Holy Trinity Church, Fareham. Covid-19 precautions will be in effect, including distancing between separately booked tickets. There will be no pre-concert talk and no refreshments will be provided during the interval, although audience members are welcome to bring their own refreshments. Current guidelines for England advise the use of face coverings at indoor events whenever practical. We are working within government guidelines to ensure that the event is as safe as possible. However, we should point out that Covid-19 infection, hospitalisation and death rates are still high and neither the usual precautions nor vaccines are 100% effective. Any audience member or player attending this event will be doing so at their own risk. |