If you haven't yet nominated us for Movement for Good's charity prize draws this calendar year, please take a minute to do so now - their festive draws of 120 x £1,000 grants start tomorrow! movementforgood.com/index.php?cn...

Two weeks ago our new season got off to a brilliant start with a Shostakovich 5 conducting workshop where welcomed Benjamin Draper, Giuseppe Stillitano, Yi-Chuan Chen & Wooju Baik from @rcmlondon.bsky.social, working under the supervision of RO Artistic Director @levparikian.bsky.social. What a day!

Introducing Benjamin Draper: meet the young conductors taking part in our Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 conducting workshop this Sunday. www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/about/latest...

Introducing Yi-Chuan Chen: meet the young conductors taking part in our Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 conducting workshop this Sunday. www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/about/latest...

Introducing Giuseppe Stillitano: meet the young conductors taking part in our Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 conducting workshop this Sunday. www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/about/latest...

Introducing Wooju Baik: Meet the young conductors taking part in our Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 conducting workshop next Sunday www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/about/latest...

Our shiny new website is here - and so is our shiny new weekend course season! Applications are open, so be sure to send in yours now! www.rehearsal-orchestra.org Huge thanks to all the brilliant people at Wild Dog Design with whom we've been working on the new site over the past year!

PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO HELP US WIN! £5,000 would make a huge difference to our work in nurturing orchestral musicians. It could fund our Play ON and Co-Principal bursary schemes for a year – or cover most of our annual music and instrument hire costs. culture.movementforgood.com/index.php?cn...

"Hensel wrote more than 466 numbered works, that we know about, and when I started looking at her, only a couple dozen of them were available online. … I think, now, I have something like 185 of my own editions of the scores on there (henselpushers.com)." - @henselpushers.bsky.social Incredible!

And just like that, our Edinburgh week 2025 is nearly over! But you can see Rehearsal Orchestra at work in tomorrow's Open Rehearsal: Friday 8th August, 2pm-4pm in the School Hall, George Heriot's School, Lauriston Place (entry via The Vennel gate), Edinburgh EH3 9EQ. WELCOME! FREE ADMISSION 1/3

LAST-MINUTE PLACE: HARP! Our annual Edinburgh course from this Saturday 2nd August to Friday 8th August (leaving Saturday morning). Accommodation is available. It's a week of amazing repertoire (full list for harp and more information in thread). Thanks for sharing!

A fortnight ago we shunned the London sunshine and closed our weekend-course season with musical trips to two other capital cities in Duke Ellington's Harlem & Gershwin's An American in Paris, with Artistic Director @levparikian.bsky.social as our guide - and what a fantastic journey it was!

If you haven't already nominated RO for the Benefact Group's 2025 Movement for Good regular draws, now is the perfect time - £2,000 would be a massive help to our charitable work in nurturing orchestral musicians. It's very quick and easy to nominate! 👉 movementforgood.com/index.php?cn...

My new answer to any and all questions in rehearsal.

A hugely enjoyable day with @rehorch.bsky.social. An American in Paris is always fun, but the highlight was conducting Duke Ellington’s Harlem for the first time and discovering first-hand what a cracking piece it is. Should be done far more often.

A DOUBLE BASS has had to withdraw on short notice from this Sunday's course on Ellington HARLEM and Gershwin AN AMERICAN IN PARIS in central London (Henry Wood Hall) - could you join us? Get in touch! 👉 www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

We still have a vacancy for a TENOR TROMBONE for our Ellington & Gershwin course in central London this Sunday (29th). We can also fit in a few more STRINGS (if you're quick) - get in touch now! Some student bursary funding is available. 👉 www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

Sharing conducting duties at our Edinburgh residential course this August is Johann Stuckenbruck, announced last week as the new Music Director of l’Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (OSSLSJ) from 2025/26! jstuckenbruck.com

We currently have a few vacancies for STRINGS on Sunday 29th June (in central London): a great opportunity to study Duke Ellington's Harlem and Gershwin's An American in Paris, two exciting and atmospheric 'city' pieces written three decades apart! APPLY NOW rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

Would £1,000 help you to catapult your creativity? If you’re an amateur musician, we’d love to hear a solo instrumental piece (up to 3 mins) inspired by birds 🕊️ Any music inspired by birds is perfect for this brief, whether in title or lyrics, a well-known song or your own composition.

A few more photos from last weekend's Symphonic Dances course in sunny Manchester, conducted by the fantastic Stephen Bell. And such a treat and privilege to have composer Edward Longstaff with us to introduce his piece (as well as join the cello section). What a brilliant day we had!

Like last year, Manchester greets us with glorious sunshine - one could get the impression that it’s always like this… 😉

Last-minute places for a viola and a double-bass have just become available for our course in Manchester tomorrow (Sunday 11th May) - Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninov and Longstaff. Get in touch if you’d like to play! rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses

For our course in Manchester tomorrow, we are pairing Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances with the central movement of Edward Longstaff’s piece of the same name. ‘Reach for the moon’ celebrates the “power of the creative spirit to imagine new and better worlds”. www.edwardlongstaff.com/five-symphon...

Now sorted, thanks for your help!

TUBA VACANCY! We're looking for a tuba player for our course in Manchester this Sunday 11 May. We'll be working on Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, alongside a movement from Edward Longstaff's composition of the same name, conducted by the Hallé's Stephen Bell. rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

Many happy returns to RO Artistic Director @levparikian.bsky.social!

We're only halfway through the season, so it's not too late to gain new orchestral skills with us! You can join us in three different cities: Manchester, London and Edinburgh. For full information and to apply 👉 rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses Summary of repertoire and current vacancies below. 1/4

Our April course last weekend was only the 10th time *EVER* that Leokadiya Kashperova's gem of a Symphony in B minor (1905) has been played. Brilliant to have had conductor Tess Jackson guide us through it, and a privilege to have had Dr Graham Griffiths, who rediscovered the piece, in attendance.

Always fun to spend a sunny Sunday with @rehorch.bsky.social. Today Leokadiya Kashperova Symphony gets perhaps only its 10th performance in the 100+ years since she wrote it. It's good! Tess Jackson conducting.

This Sunday, in London, we welcome back conductor Tess Jackson who will head our course on Leokadiya Kashperova's gem of a Symphony in B minor. Recently announced as a @classicfm.com ‘Rising Star’, Jackson is Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra. We can't wait!

TENOR TROMBONES and VIOLINS! Our next course in London on Sunday 6th April still has places available. We'll be working on Kashperova's gem of a Symphony in B minor, conducted by the brilliant rising star Tess Jackson. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO APPLY: rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

Always a lovely day at Henry Wood Hall when @rehorch.bsky.social are there. Today with the excellent music of friends Imogen Holst and Benjamin Britten and conductor Alice Farnham

An afternoon studying Britten’s music for Prince of the Pagodas with Alice Farnham - worth missing the sunshine for! 😉

UPDATE: tuba now sorted, thanks!

We've still vacancies for TRUMPET and TUBA on our Holst & Britten course in London this Sunday. Conducted by Alice Farnham, this rep doesn't come up often. We could also fit in more 1st VIOLINS and a CELLO. Please get in touch now if you'd like to play! rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

We now also have a vacancy for a TRUMPET for next Sunday’s course!

NOW is the time to apply for our annual residential week in Edinburgh! Running from 2-9 August 2025, the course is a brilliant opportunity to get tons of repertoire under your belt, improve your sight-reading and enjoy Edinburgh at Festival time. www.rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

APPLY NOW! Our next London course on Sunday 2 March offers some very rare treats: Alice Farnham returns to conduct Imogen Holst's Persephone (which she recorded with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2024) alongside music Benjamin Britten wrote for the Royal Ballet's Prince of the Pagodas in the 1950s...

The first Tom and Jerry cartoon was released 85 years ago today. Any excuse to share this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYrU...

A wet and miserable evening like this is the perfect time to relive our banger of a season opener last Sunday - Mahler's Symphony No. 1 with conductor Timothy Redmond. What a brilliant day it was (we've almost recovered) - a huge thank you to everyone who took part!

The Open Rehearsal’s keenest (or do we mean greenest?) observer this evening.

Imogen Holst is BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week! On 2nd March we'll be studying her overture 'Persephone' which kicks off the series here, in a world premiere recording conducted by the fantastic Alice Farnham - who will also head our course. Catch up here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Many happy returns on his 70th birthday to our alumnus and advocate Sir Simon Rattle who first joined us as a young teenager when the Rehearsal Orchestra acted as a practice orchestra for the Conductors' Seminars organised by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 1968-69, under Sir Charles Groves. 1/2

We’re excited to be returning to Hallé St Peter's in Manchester on Sunday 11th May, for a rehearsal day on Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances - and a movement from Edward Longstaff’s work of the same name - with Stephen Bell (Associate @thehalle.bsky.social, Principal Guest @rteco.rte.ie) conducting.

Larry Schoenberg, son of composer Arnold Schoenberg, reports on the destruction of Belmont Music Publishers in the Pacific Palisades fire. All manuscripts, scores, and publications are lost – including seminal pieces like Verklärte Nacht and Pierrot Lunaire. backstageclassical.com/los-angeles-...

Our London course on Sunday 6th April will give you a (much too) rare chance to work on Leokadiya Kashperova's uplifting Symphony in B minor. We're really looking forward to getting to know this rich piece from the inside! FOR DETAILS & TO APPLY 👉 rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses#cour...

Sibelius' birthday (since 2011 celebrated in Finland as the 'Day of Finnish Music') provides a good excuse to rewatch this short film which contains the earliest known footage of the composer, at home in Ainola. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDqn...

From today until 20th December, ten charities each day will win £1,000 to support their work in the Benefact Group's 12 Days of Giving. If you haven't already nominated us for their £1,000 prizes earlier this year, please take 2 minutes to do so now and help us win! tinyurl.com/RO12days

Our 2025 weekend courses in London & Manchester are open for applications! We've room for strings and percussion for all courses, and keyboard and orchestral saxophone places for specific dates. Please be in touch to enquire about current woodwind and brass vacancies! rehearsal-orchestra.org/courses