Welcome to the Cheltenham Philharmonic Orchestra website. We are a Cheltenham-based amateur orchestra which studies and performs large-scale orchestral music. We play concerts in Cheltenham and the surrounding area every 2-3 months. Please browse the website for details of our upcoming concerts.

Our next concert will be at 3:00pm on 22nd November 2009 at Cheltenham Ladies College. We have commissioned a 'Concert Opener' with funding from Cheltenham Arts Council from the local composer Neil Luck. Other items will include Dvořák's Symphonic Variations, Kodaly's Hary Janos Suite and a Richard Strauss Horn Concerto.

Tickets £9, £5 for students under 25, free for those under 16. Available at the door or from the Town Hall Box Office (01242 227979).

Around the World in 80 Minutes - Monday 9th February 2009

"Phileas Fogg took eighty days, but Cheltenham Philharmonic needed only eighty minutes to complete their (musical) journey around the world. Their transport of choice was clearly a sleigh, with no fewer than four sleigh rides featured on the programme. Clearly the organisers had paid attention to the long range weather forecast! It began with a Sleigh Ride by Mozart and Prokofiev's Troika with its unmistakably Russian feel followed soon after. Delius' Winter Night from Norway had an attractive jauntiness as did Leroy Anderson's ever popular Sleigh Ride from the USA. This concert of light music also brought some lesser known works, such as a movements from Respighi's Rossiniana which varnishes the opera composer's music with a rich Romantic gloss. Farnon's A la claire fontaine inspired by a folk tale from Quebec was characterised by some fine sinuous playing from the woodwind, while Ippolttov-lvanov's Procession of the Sardar from Georgia was a pompously festive affair. Aaron Copland's Danzon cubano from Central America brought a wild, exotic touch to the afternoon, and there was also plenty of excitement in La Fete Dieu a Sevilla from Albeniz' Iberia Suite in an arrangement by Ferdinand Arbos. There was some local interest in this concert. Introducing Sibelius' Valse Triste (from Finland, of course), conductor Duncan Westerman recalled that the composer himself had conducted the Cheltenham Phil in this work 100 years ago in the Town Hall. Holst's Somerset Rhapsody blended in well with the theme of the concert. The distinctive tones of the oboe d'amore, played with great feeling by John Wright, made this a memorable experience."
Roger Jones