In late 1996 Jean Giese, then President of U3A Hawthorn, expressed her dream of forming a chamber orchestra. After some discussions, George Logie-Smith kindly agreed to come out of retirement ”to get us started”, and become our first Director.
In mid- 1997 a small group of musicians, several of whom had worked years before with George in the Astra Chamber Orchestra, began rehearsals in the hall of the Oxley Rd Uniting Church, Hawthorn. Numbers grew during the 2 years of George’s leadership, and we gave several successful concerts, the first on October 9th, 1997 in the Chandelier Room of the Hawthorn Town Hall.
As George’s health failed, we were fortunate indeed in March 2000 to secure the guidance of Christopher Martin, whose reputation attracted many more players, and we now have about 55 members with a fairly good balance of instruments. Our players include several ex-MSO members and many enthusiastic and skilled amateur musicians who, in their retirement, can devote themselves to quality music-making. During these past years we have also enjoyed the occasional leadership of Phillip Carrington, Basil Hawkins and, more recently, Willem van der Vis, when Christopher was unavailable.
As our numbers grew, we made the move to a larger hall for rehearsals, and for the last several years have enjoyed the facilities at St Mark’s Anglican Church Camberwell. Having outgrown the concert venues at local churches, we now perform in the Hawthorn Town Hall and give 3 concerts a year to large audiences.
Our repertoire includes symphonies, concertos and smaller works, mainly from the 18th and early 19th centuries, by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert, though the recent inclusion of a brass and percussion section has widened our scope. A feature of our programming has been to invite young musicians to perform as soloists, a valuable experience for all!
