The Yeovil Community Orchestra will be giving a Concert at The United Reformed Church, Princes Street, Yeovil on Tuesday 29th May 2012.
7.30pm to 9.30pm
All are welcome, tickets can be pre-booked and collected on the door. Telephone 01935 472312 or 07806565113 or email this site in the Contact us section. Tickets will be available on the door but seating may be unavailable...standing room only!
The concert will inlcude a wide and varied selection of orchestra music including soloists and guest peformers. Strauss, Mozart, Grieg, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, MacDowell, Bernstein, Rodrigo,Handel, and many other renowned composers from all eras.
Come and listen to your Community Orchestra and have a very enjoyable evening with us.
Refreshments will be available during the interval.
Cost: Adults £4, OAPs £3, Children £1.
Brett has taken over Strings and also Creative Ensemble! This sudden change is a result of Chris's hours at the library being increased such that he can now only arrive in time to direct Folkestra. But this change should work out very very well for all concerned. (6th March 2012)
Philippa Simmonds has arrived. Much anticipated and well worth the wait, Philippa has now taken over the direction of Mini-Music, the Pop & Gospel Choir and the Yeovil Music Centre Choir. (6th March 2012)
Penny Dunscombe is brilliantly directing Mini-Music, the Pop & Gospel Choir, and the Yeovil Music Centre Choir while we await the arrival of Philippa. Update: Everyone enjoyed and benifitted from Penny's enthusiasm, professionalism and skill during her brief stay with us.
Kris is leaving us at February half-term, we wish him well. Update: Kris has left sooner than we planned, (January 2012).
Carols by candlelight at Brympton Church, our Community Choir performed as a church choir here on the evening of 21st December 2011.
Vintage Fair Christmas Market, Sunday, 18th December 2011. Another outing for our orchestra enjoyed by all.
Swan Theatre. Well done to our Community Choir who gave a concert here on Wednesday,14th December 2011.
Christmas Concert 2011. Congratulations to all who took part in our Christmas concert at Westfield Academy on 13th December. (Are there any photos?)
Yeovil Baptist Church Christmas Bazaar. Much enjoyed by the orchestra and stall-holders on Saturday, 3rd December 2011. And, yes, there are photo's and, yes, there was cake.
Belated update: A mistake, Community Choir, in forgetting to mention that you too were part of this event. Apologies.
Photo's...a few DVD's containing 144 pictures of the summer concert for £5 !!!!!are still available (and we can make more) just ask at Tuck Shop any Tuesday.
People who have seen these photographs running as a slide-show will know that their standard is amazingly high, and we are indebted to Mr. leFeurve for taking them for us.
AGM. The AGM on 4th October 2011 resulted in a few changes to the committee...we say goodbye and thank you to Lucy, Avril and Alastair, and we welcome Norman, Ian and Kris.
BUSKFEST 2. The Choir as well as the Folk Group took part this time.(24-10-2011)
Laura is a welcome addition to Music Centre, she joins us on 13th September as conductor of the Wind Band, and as Theory tutor.
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*OLD NEWS.*
Congratulations to all who took part in the Summer Concert on 12th July 2011 at St. Gildas. Special thanks to Mr John Vernon Jones. Also James Budden, Mr leFeurve, Steve Moffatt, Graham L., and the others who made a special effort but whom we didn't acknowledge on the programme. As promised there was a super range of music from amateur and professional musicians of all ages (including a Yettie!, who incidently made a really lovely job of presenting the many awards).
Your music (playing and singing) was really great, our organisation of the event = not so great...we'll do better next time.
Dan is leaving us at the end of term. We wish him well.(18-06-11).
Update: Dan wrote us /you a beautiful Thank You letter in which he said lots of nice things about you, and made some well considered comments about us. (NB 'you' = the members, 'us' = the volunteers running YMC).
BUSKFEST. Congratulations to Chris, Rich and Brett, also Pam, for your very accomplished performances. P.S. There's a nice picture in the Western Gazette (9th June 2011 edition).
New appointments: We welcome two new members of staff .... Willow as new tutor for the String Ensemble .... and Pam as new tutor for the Recorder Group.(28th April 2011)
Music Spectacular 2011. Well done to Judy and her Recorder Group for a lovely performance at Westland Sports and Social Club on Tuesday, 5th April 2011.
YES! A reunion is being planned as we speak.(4-4-11)
Congratulations Chris on a successful interview and good-luck with leading Folk Group which starts on 1st March 2011.
Update: Folk Group's popularity just keeps growing.
Creative Ensemble.
The lovely uni students who led the first week of this course will not be returning, but Chris has kindly offered to step in so that Music Centre doesn't let anyone down.(February 2011)
Judy and Di are to leave us at the end of the Spring Term. We are indebted to them for their help in Music Centre becoming independent and wish them well in the future.(February 2011)
Ian is back!!!
Steve happily announced that Ian is to take over as conductor of the adults orchestra from 11th January 2011.
Update: Feedback is excellent. Standards are high.The repertoire is wide-ranging. This friendly welcoming and supportive orchestra now just keeps going from strength to strength.
Steve is leaving us!
One of those rare people who gives and expects nothing back. Steve's contribution to Music Centre is immeasurable. He has given his time, his money, his ideas and his sound advice. His business expertise has saved us from ourselves on more than one occasion. We'll miss you Steve.(December 2010)
Thank you to the Roda family for the sentiments expressed in their beautifully written 'thank you' letter.The pleasure was all ours, and Music Centre owes you much.(30th November)
A.G.M. Our AGM resulted in some changes to the committee: we say good-bye and a MASSIVE THANK YOU to Fiona and Rowena for so much hard work above and beyond the call of duty, and we welcome Jenny, Chris and Alastair. Thank you to Martin and Janice for attending the AGM and for your contributions.(23rd November)
Opportunity! An opportunity was available in November for "Teachers and Musicians to Learn How To Lead A Creative Ensemble".
....Update: It didn't quite happen this way, but nonetheless a very productive and enjoyable weekend was had by all.
Dot has unexpectedly had to leave.We wish her well.(October 2010)
New staff: We welcome Dan and Dot (September 2010).
Summer Concert 2010: A lovely evening (6th July) .We look forward to seeing your photographs/videos(?) in September.
Val has announced that she is leaving us at the end of this term (i.e. on 6th July 2010)...she goes with our sincere thanks and very best wishes. N.B. Interviews are underway to fill Val's positions as director of Pop & Gospel Choir,of Adult Choir and as theory tutor.
A £400 grant from the CO-OP has been used to buy red T-shirts for the U18's to perform in (June 2010).
Music Spectacular 2010: Congratulations to everyone who was able to take part in our "Beatles" themed performance at Westland Sports and Social Club on 23rd March 2010.
The Big Lottery Fund announced (on 17th February 2010) that they were giving us an Awards For All grant to fund a project encouraging local people of all ages to participate in musical activities.
The project has three parts:
1) A week long series of workshops in local schools with Jason Thornton, Music Director of the Bath Philharmonia.(This ran from 8th March to 12th March 2010 inclusive.)
2) A free event hosted by us on 20th March at Preston School in which everybody could COME AND SING / COME AND PLAY with professional musicians including James Davey, Ruth Palmer and Claire King.
3) A Summer Concert for all...details to be announced. Update:(N.B.This plan fell through and we held our usual annual summer concert for family and friends. Later, in November, some of the grant money allocated for it was used to fund the Creative Ensemble weekend and in March 2011 the remainder was returned to the Big Lottery Fund).
Our free event on 20th March 2010 (see above and below) was open to all........For members it was an opportunity to work with professional musicians,and for non-members we extended the same opportunity as well as giving a taste of Yeovil Music Centre. The workshops were well attended and the concert was immensely enjoyable. During the day we were visited by Cllr Pauline Burr,Cllr Ian Martin and The Western Gazette. It was a really fun and productive day which sadly didn't translate into many new members.
Guitar Group: Phill has kindly taken over this group from Mike.(Spring 2010)
Tuck Shop: are pleased to announce that Alex will be joining their team of volunteers for a few months as part of the 'servce to the community' element of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme (Spring 2010).
Christmas Concert 2009 :Wonderful. Congratulations to all of you who helped make the evening at St. John's Church such a success!
Website: Autumn 2009 saw the launch of our latest venture – this our very own website. Its purpose is twofold –
(i) to provide all the information that prospective new members might need or that current members might enjoy.
(ii) to act as a repository (store) of all the information necessary for the efficient administration of Yeovil Music Centre, serving as a handbook that members, committee members and group leaders can refer to.
Design-a-logo Competition: Charlie triumphed over adults and youngsters alike to win the competition. Congratulations to everyone who entered, the standard of entries was high and we hope you enjoyed your surprise gifts. Also 'Thank you' to everyone who took part in the voting. Charlie's design will soon feature prominently on all our literature and on the website.
Arts Development Award: This much appreciated £90 grant from South Somerset District Council was forwarded by Arts Development Officer Pauline Burr to promote musical opportunities for young and old. It will pay for 2 years worth of web-space hosting fees.
Strum for fun: Our much anticipated guitar group started on 29th September 2009 led by Mike Taylor. Our thanks to Gary Mills of Wessex Music who very kindly lent us several guitars for the trial evening on the 15th September 2009.
....Update: Mike's new day job meant he left us sooner than anticipated. He has been replaced, most ably, by Phill.
Sharon: We are very sad to announce that Sharon has retired as treasurer (July 2009)....... Elaine will deputize until Rowena takes over in January 2010. Thank you Sharon for doing such an amazing job. Happily Sharon is still part of the Tuck Shop team.( July 2009)
Community Choir: Following the success of Steve's Community Orchestra, a Community Choir started after Easter 2009, led by Val Miller. It runs from 7.30pm to 8.30pm on Tuesdays, in the dance studio, £2.00 per evening. (Update: £3 as of April 2011.)
New equipment: Over Easter 2009 we took delivery of a new keyboard and a new drum kit which, along with the new music stands, replace much of the equipment lost to us when we became independent. Music Spectacular 2009: Spring Term 2009 culminated with our participation in the South Somerset Music Spectacular at Westland's on Tuesday 31st March. There were 38 of you on stage,and you looked and sounded amazing performing excerpts from "Oliver". Well done!
Summer Concert 2009: Brilliant! Congratulations to you all attending this event at Westfield Community School.
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