Carlingford High School Hall, 7.30-9.30pm every Monday. Map as follows:
The Beecroft Orchestra is an amateur community orchestra with about 40 members who rehearse weekly at Carlingford High School and perform at St Albans church Epping quarterly. We are a volunteer organisation and rely solely on our box office and fundraising efforts to fund our four concerts a year. Our charter is to provide the opportunity for local amateur musicians to play classical orchestral music and to deliver well-priced concerts to the local community. There are no auditions, but we welcome new players of a standard generally of about AMEB grade 6 and above. Our orchestra includes players of all ages, from school students through to retirees!
We also perform four chamber music recitals a year. These enable our players to participate in small ensemble and chamber music performances, which they find very enjoyable and which are an important part of their musical development. The Orchestra’s programming is varied and challenging. We occasionally perform choral works with local choir singers and soloists, and also premiere works by young composers.
The Beecroft Orchestra was founded in 1989 by Allan Stiles and Graham Thiele who were teaching music at the same school then. Some of their students and Graham's children were playing in The Western Youth Symphony Orchestra which Allan had founded several years previously. Commencing an orchestra for graduates of the WYO, parents of WYO members (which included Graham), and interested musicians in general was a further ambition and Graham offered to support the project by being the manager. It began as a string orchestra, since without an adequate string department a respectable sound would be impossible, and was initially called The Beecroft Chamber Orchestra. Allan was the conductor and under his guidance the orchestra expanded to a full symphony orchestra and became very active in the musical life of the area, performing four concerts a year and taking part in the Beecroft Festival. Following Allan's departure overseas, leadership passed to Louise Keller, David Hood, Mal Hewitt and the present conductor, Brendan Cooper.
We are always looking for new members. We have no membership fees, but ask for a token contribution (currently $10 per concert) to cover costs. If you are interested in joining, or have any other queries, please contact: Elizabeth Grey Ph: 9908-7405 (ah); E-mail: the_beecroft_orchestra@yahoo.com.au
Carlingford High School Hall, 7.30-9.30pm every Monday. Map as follows:
Brendan Cooper graduated from the University of NSW with Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees in 1999. As a part of his music degree he studied conducting with Varga Piroska and Max McBride at the Canberra School of Music. He has completed further conductor training courses with Graham Abbott through Symphony Australia, and Jerry Nowak through the Australian Band and Orchestral Directors Association (ABODA). He has regular conducting lessons with Romano Crivici and has attended conducting workshops and master-classes with Dr Charles T Menghini, David Barg, Jeff King and Stephen Williams. In 2002 he was selected by Symphony Australia to audition for the Director of their conducting courses, Jorma Panula.
Brendan is currently employed at Carlingford High School as a full-time music teacher where he conducts three concert bands and a stage band in addition to teaching classroom music. He is also actively involved as an orchestral conductor of high school students at a regional and state level including the State Senior Music Camp, Sydney North Music Festival and the Sydney Schools Symphony Orchestra.
