Your chance to have a go at playing in an orchestra

They are running a taster session for their community orchestra in The Hawth Studio from 2-4pm on Saturday, February 5. The two-hour workshop will be followed by an informal sharing at 4.30pm. Do you have a musical instrument hidden away in your garage or attic which you’ve not touched for years? Can you read music? If yes, then come and join the Ensemble Reza Community Orchestra for a fun afternoon of music-making.

Pavlos Carvalho will be welcoming players of all ages and all abilities: “Our team of professional tutors will guide you through a programme of classical favourites ready for an informal performance at the end of the afternoon. With music available in advance and arranged for all abilities, there will be plenty of support for players at every level.

“Reza’s Community Orchestra is an exciting, nurturing environment for aspiring musicians of all ages and abilities to experience playing in an orchestra. You’ll learn loads of new skills and meet like-minded people who all share one passion – playing great music together. All ages welcome from five to 85 but please note, children aged 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.”

Pavlos added: “We have been running our community orchestra for the last ten years and the idea was that, as in folk cultures, the whole family should be able to join together. We felt the families were missing out on the chance of being able to perform together, different generations together in the same group. Or maybe it might be people who are missing out on having a safe space to play or it might be people who were professional and then retired and just want to dust off their instrument again. Or it could be amateur musicians who reached a decent level and then became a lawyer or whatever and now want to get back to it.

“This is our first time in Crawley. We are starting from scratch but we have invited community orchestra members from Haywards Heath to join us so that we can make a bridge between the areas. For this taster we're going to work towards a concert in July at The Hawth. It really depends on the response that we get but the idea is to start playing together regularly and have a performance with perhaps two or three rehearsals.

“For us it is fantastic to be associate artists at The Hawth. It gives us a wonderful venue and it gives us an extra regular series of concerts that we play, a beautiful consistent group of concerts that we can plan at this lovely venue and it also gives us new audiences as well. It feels like it has become a second home for us. Every concert is special but you feel more relaxed when you go to a place that you know already. It means that there is a greater sense of connection between you and the people there and it just creates a warmer atmosphere and it is also so much more welcoming for the new people coming in.” For more information and to book a place please visit https://www.ensemblereza.com/play