We are excited to have started our 2023-24 concert season with a thrilling performance of Sibelius Symphony No 2 in October! Come along and join us for a special family Christmas concert in December featuring Paddington’s First Concert.
Our Next Concert
Tickets for our next concert on Sunday 10 December 2023 are now on sale here.
The concert will feature some wonderful pieces of orchestral music and will be a great concert for children or those who haven’t heard much classical music before. Come along and join us for Paddington Bear’s First Concert, Christmas Carols and more!
Please note this is first and foremost an orchestral concert, and we (humbly!) suggest that children from primary age upwards would have a great time at it! The concert is not designed to be a participative/education event for very young children or babies, though of course all are welcome – please just be prepared for a “normal” concert environment.
We were excited to hold our first “relaxed concert” with our new charity partners, Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich Mind who provide mental health support services to the local community. SELO’s string orchestra and BLG Mind’s Singing for Wellbeing choir performed at St Michael and All Angels church on Sunday 29th January. See more details of this here. We’ll be collaborating and raising funds for them throughout 2023. More information here
About Us
South East London Orchestra is one of south London’s leading orchestras with a reputation for exciting, high quality concerts and a genuine connection with our community.
Our concerts feature great pieces of classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Weber. SELO is equally at home with the music of the twentieth-century, performing works by Bartok, Copland, Britten, Shostakovich, Debussy, Nielsen, Ravel and Sibelius.
We are proud of our tradition of performing music by British composers, from Boyce, Elgar and Vaughan Williams to more recent works by Lennox Berkeley, Joseph Horovitz and Richard Rodney Bennett. In 2016 we gave the UK premiere performance of a work by Fung Lam.
Based in Beckenham, we have many members from the local area and others from further afield. Our short rehearsal periods, led by conductor David Smith, are designed to appeal to busy musicians, and rehearsals are a fine balance of hard work and enjoyment.
SELO was founded in 2012 by our Music Director, David Smith, and Natalie Cole. Since then we have grown the orchestra and embedded ourselves in the heart of Beckenham’s cultural life.
How to Join
We are very interested to hear from all strings and brass players of grade 8 standard or above and/or substantial experience of playing with large ensembles. See our Joining page for more details
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A bit of silliness from last night's rehearsal: Firstly, what happens when @dave_smith_625 asks you to write "long pause" in your part after telling some
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