In 1997, under the leadership of Tony Mason, Saint Hilda’s Festival Orchestra was formed to accompany Saint Hilda’s Festival Chorus.

The Orchestra is drawn from the best professional and amateur players from the Whitby and surrounding area.

The Orchestra consists of around 40 musicians and has always had the policy of including talented young musicians so they can experience orchestral playing. In September 2006, the Orchestra performed its first solo orchestral concert in a programme including Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto and Clock Symphony plus Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

Since that beginning, the Orchestra has given concerts in most years (full list shown below) and has been fortunate to secure the services of talented young professionals to play concertos with the Orchestra.

If you play an instrument to a good level and would like to be involved, please contact Tony Mason.

Next orchestral concert

Music and dates to be determined.

Previous orchestral concerts

2024

June

Simply Strings

Programme includes:

Holst – St Paul’s Suite

Dvorak – Serenade for Strings

Vaughan Williams – Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus

Tchaikovsky – Serenade for Strings

2023

Albinoni Oboe Concerto – Adagio for Organ and Strings

JS Bach Violin Concert in A minor – Brandenburg Concert No3

Corelli Christmas Concerto Grosso

Handel Concerto Grosso

William Boyce Symphonies 2,3 and 6

2022

Beethoven Piano Concerto No3 Soloist Lester Bartlett

Beethoven No3 Eroica

2017
Mendelssohn – Overture Midsummer Night’s Dream

Mozart – Serenade (K388)

Beethoven – Symphony No. 8

2016
Gounod – Petite Symphonie (wind)

Rimsky Korsakov (arranged Cross) – Trombone Concerto (Tony Cross trombone)

Elgar – Serenade for Strings

Mendelssohn – Symphony No 3 “Scottish”

2015
Dvorak – Wind Serenade Opus 44

Vanhal – Double Bass Concerto in E flat – Anthony Williams soloist

Haydn – Symphony 104 “London”

2014
Mozart concert: Divertimento in B flat for wind, K270 – oboes Stephen Norval, Cathy Hawley, bassoons Philip Trevelyan, June Emerson, horns Isaac Wilsher, Tony Cross

Piano Concerto in D minor, K 466 with soloist Adam Johnson

Symphony No 41 in C, K 551

2013
Bach – Brandenberg Concertos Nos 2 & 3

Boyce – Symphony No 4

Fasch – Concerto for Trumpet

Vivaldi – Concerto for Violin in A Minor

Bach – Orchestral Suite No 3. Soloists David Staff trumpet and Tony Mason violin

2012
Haydn – “Drumroll” Symphony

Mozart – Symphonie Concertante for Violin and Viola soloists Tony Mason and Robert Ellis (principal viola)

Beethoven – Piano Concerto No 5 soloist Adam Johnson

2011
Hirst – Roundhay Frolic

Bruch – Violin Concerto in G minor soloist Madeleine Easton

Beethoven – Symphony No 5

2010
Grieg – Holberg Suite

Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor soloist Daniel Grimwood

Dvorak – Symphony No 9, From the New World

Simply Strings: Elgar – Serenade for Strings

Vaughan Williams – Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus and Fantasia on Greensleeves

Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No 3

Barber – Adagio for Strings

Mozart – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

2009
Mozart – Symphony No 35 “Haffner”

Haydn – Cello Concerto in C soloist Jamie Walton

Beethoven – Symphony No 6 “Pastoral”

2008
Beethoven – Egmont Overture

Delius – On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

Mozart – Clarinet concerto soloist Matthew Dunn

Beethoven – Symphony No 3 “Eroica”

2006
Handel – Suite for the Royal Fireworks

Mozart – Symphony No 40

Haydn – Trumpet concerto soloist Kevin Moxon

Haydn – “Clock” Symphony