Who plays in one and what are you rehersing at the moment?

I play 4th desk 1st Violins, in a local orchestra.
At the moment, we're rehersing Shostakovich Symphony No. 10.

It's very violent, very noisy and very very hard (especially the second movt!).
But I love it! I can't stand all this ClssicFm stuff
Relaxing classics
Smooth Classics
Give me some Wagner or Stravinsky anyday

I play in the Plymouth University Orchestra and play 2nd desk viola (there are only three players! ) and we have a concert in May at which we are playing:

Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March no.4 in G
Alford - Colonel Bogey March
Holst - Suite in E Flat
Holst - Suite for String Orchestra in C
Mussorgsky - Night on a Bare Mountain
Barber - Adagio for Strings
Arvo Part - Summa (strange piece)

nice program. I love the 4th P&C march. So much better than the overplayed 1st

I agree. I must admit I had never heard it before we started playing it but now I love it!

Where is your orchestra based?

I play in Worcester youth orchestra and i play 1st clarinet. We just played symphony in D (i believe) by Franck and Piano concerto no.2 by Rachmaninov... it was amazing! One of the best pieces i have heard in a long time! We performed that on Saturday. Next we are starting Chabrier's Espana.

I'm sub-principal viola in the Merseyside Youth Orchestra (soon to be called the Liverpool Youth Philharmonic Orchestra) and at the moment we're rehearsing for a Bugs themed family concert, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E Minor from the New World, which we'll be playing at our 55th Birthday and Relaunch concert in May!

I'm in a lot of orchestras. We have mostly just done concerts and deciding on new repertoire, or have concerts very soon. SO at the moment the list is shorter than usual.

Soloist in Vivaldi Concerto for 4 Violins (found out today )
Mahler 1 (4 flats is too many)
Mozart 40 (yay!)
Hayden 44 (under-rated and yay!)
Copeland - Outdoor Overture (mehhh, good but no-one can play it well)
Butterworth - On the Banks of the Green Willow (interesting)
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending (yawn to orchestral parts, but soloist is amazing)

I play in the Isle of Man Symphony Orchestra and we've just done:

* Rienzi - Wagner
* English Folk Song Suite - Vaughan Williams
* Strauss Horn Concerto
* Ma Vlast - Smetana
* Bavarian Dances - Elgar

Now we're doing an all-Mozart concert in honour of his 250th! Playing:

* Don Giovanni
* Sinfonia Concertante in Eb (Solo violin & viola)
* G minor symphony
* German Dances K509

and something else I've forgotton the name of.........

I played bass trom for the last one which was brilliant, but I'm playing cello in the next ones as Mozart obviously forgot to write trombone parts...........

OMG you are sooooooo lucky!!!!!!! Can I join? The Sinfonia Concertante is AMAZING and I absolutely love Don Giovanni! My orch are doing the symphony too Assuming you mean the same G minor one.

Oh wow, my husband used to work on the Isle of Man, and I went to hear the symphony play, one summer, about four years ago. They were very good.

I've just done:

Mozart 40
Mendelssohn 3 "Scottish"
Schubert 8 "Unfinshed" (again *yawn*)
Vaughan-Williams Tuba Concerto

Am about to do:

Dvorak 8
Mahler 1

I played in one last week. We did Mozart's Piano Concerto 23 and Schumann's Spring Symphony. Some favourites I've played are West Side Story, Beethoven 6, Dvorak's New World Symphony, English Folk Song Suite, Schubert's 'Unifinished', the 'Organ' Symphony by Saint-Seans, and The Lark Ascending.

brighton and hove youth philharmonia, we're doing bhrams 1, as well as a schumann piece for 4 horns and some other little pieces to fill the gaps!

All these great symphonies! I would love to join a proper orchestra like these, but there aren't many around. Or if there is, I haven't heard of them...

I wouldn't be able to get into our county symphony orchestra, and I'd be really scared!

Have a look at http://www.amateurorchestras.org.uk/

Unfortunately your orchestral instrument is against you. Getting into an amateur orchestra on flute or clarinet is usually almost a question of waiting for dead (wo)man's shoes!

If you want to get into an orchestra as easily as possible (I mean getting in easily, not learning the instrument easily!) take up the viola or the double bass. It's a rare orchestra that has people queuing up to join those sections. Of course for the bass it's a question of "first choose your car" unless public transport is unusually good in your area...

Which of course is the only reason I got in! I'm not complaining!

If you're serious about getting into an orchestra on clarinet the answer is make yourself known to the people who run them. I got a call out the blue recently to play 2nd clarinet in Edinburgh's top amateur orchestra because their regular player had to miss that concert. This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been in touch previously with the wind section leader who sorts those players. In saying that, it was my clarinet teacher who recommended me, but only because my name was already in there. The bad news is you generally have to be diploma standard to even have a chance of playing flute or clarinet in an orchestra, and usually grade 7 at the very least.