The Fleet Orchestra was founded about 30 years ago by Bill Stimpson. Bill's wife, Joyce, had taken up the flute in later life and the idea was to assemble a group of local musicians with whom they could make music. The ethos was to enjoy making music (as it still is!) whilst striving for improvement. Sadly Bill's hearing deteriorated to such an extent that he had to give up conducting. However the baton passed to Mike Ford and subsequently Theresa Gowers who have all made significant contributions to the development of the orchestra before passing it on to oboist Paul Moloney (pictured with the orchestra above). Our current conductor is cellist Chris Keelty who joined us in January 2010.

Our membership numbers some twenty people of whom at least three of us remember the early days. Whilst we have plenty of woodwind players, we are always looking for new brass and string players and currently have vacancies for violin, viola and double bass players. We welcome players who may not have played for a long time, however the music we play requires a standard of around Grade 4. There is no age barrier and we welcome older school children and college students.

Our repertoire ranges from arrangements of the classics through to light music and includes some pieces specially written or arranged for us.

We aim to give two concerts per year in aid of charity, one in the summer and the second near Christmas. We also follow a regular rehearsal schedule.

We meet at St. Philip & St. James Church in King's Road on Wednesday evenings at 8pm. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us at join@fleetorchestra.co.uk.