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After their highly enjoyable 2023-24 season under their effervescent Columbian conductor, Maca Barbosa, Settle orchestra are looking forward to another season of first-class music making.  For this year they will be conducted by Harry Lai, another graduate student of the masters course at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music.  Harry is from Hong Kong and has already made his mark in the UK, collaborating with orchestras such as the Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Birmingham Opera Company.

For this season, Harry has chosen an engaging and varied programme including symphonies by Haydn (number 103, the “Drum Roll”), Tchaikovsky (number 5) and Schubert (the rarely played number 3).  Another comparative rarity will be Dvorak’s darkly haunting tone poem “The Noonday Witch”.  The season also features concertos by two present or past younger members of the orchestra, Ellen Buller (flute) and Ewan Hudson (horn), in line with our policy of encouraging young musicians.

We always welcome applications to join the orchestra, especially from younger players and from string and brass players.  We would also be very interested to hear from any composers who would like to write music for the orchestra.

We give two concerts each term, one in Settle and one in Skipton.  This year the dates are 23 and 30 November 2024, 22 and 29 March, and 21 and 28 June 2025.  Full details are on our website, http://www.settleorchestra.org.uk/.   Do please come and support us and keep music live in the Dales!