South East London Orchestra

A brilliant start to 2025, thanks to all who came to our recent concert featuring both Schubert and Beethoven’s Eighth Symphonies. We are back again on Sunday 30th March with Ruth Gipps’ Symphony No 4 and some fantastic film music including an absolute favourite, Star Wars – see you there!

Our Next Concert

Our Next Concert will be on Sunday 30th March 2025 at 4.30pm at St Michael and All Angels Church, Beckenham. It’s a fantastic programme featuring works by Ruth Gipps, Doreen Carwithen and the one and only John Williams as SELO brings Star Wars to south east London!

Book your tickets for our 2024/25 season here.



Cover for South East London Orchestra
Here's a photo from our Thursday rehearsal last week! It's either a) Daniel conducting a string sectional or b) Daniel practising his force choke 😎 Come watch our performance of John Williams' Star Wars: Suite next week! www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/select/ylrqpbvzwxle ... See MoreSee Less
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About Us

South East London Orchestra is one of south London’s leading amateur 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


Join our Mailing list

If you would like to sign up to our Friends mailing list and receive details of our concerts, events, fundraising and other news, please sign up here