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Starting out as the Insurance Orchestra, the London Phoenix Orchestra
was founded in 1924 by Harold Rawlinson to provide members of the
Insurance industry with an opportunity to meet regularly and enjoy
playing music together. This fundamental enthusiasm for music and
friendly ethos remains at the heart of the Orchestra’s purpose to this
day. While the Orchestra may have grown and changed over the years, we
are proud to retain strong links to the Insurance industry and provide
its many workers with the chance to further their love of music.
The Insurance Orchestra (as it started life) soon established itself
among the forefront of amateur orchestras and up to 1939 gave concerts
in the Queen's Hall. In 1951, the then London County Council invited the
Orchestra to appear at the new Royal Festival Hall where it played for
the first time on the 12th July 1951. For the next forty years or so,
the Festival Hall and its smaller sister, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, were
to be its regular concert venues.
When its original conductor, Harold Rawlinson, retired in 1969 the
Orchestra took the ambitious and inspired decision to appoint a
professional conductor. The first of these, Maurice Miles, started the
process of raising the playing standard of the Orchestra and each of his
successors has continued this process. The result of all this work has
produced an orchestra where the best of amateur musicians can attend
rehearsals in the knowledge that the resulting concert will be one notch
better than the previous.
Under the baton of Levon Parikian the Orchestra is now regarded as one
of London’s finest amateur orchestras. We give regular concerts at some
of the capital’s top venues including St. John’s, Smith Square and
Cadogan Hall and have recently worked with prestigious soloists such as
Andrew Marriner and former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Rafal
Zambrzycki-Payne. In late 2006, the Orchestra’s performance of Stuart
Hancock’s Bitter Suite was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of the
Listen Up Festival. Bitter Suite was commissioned by the Orchestra as
part of its ongoing efforts to support talented young musicians at the
start of their careers.
Today, a re-launched London Phoenix Orchestra, with the backing of its
new Corporate Members, intends to join them in their support for local
charitable causes. This way, the Orchestra properly returns to the
Insurance industry within its mandate as the Insurance Orchestral
Society. |
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