PETER GILLMAN drops in on a rehearsal at Croydon’s 120-year-old orchestra, as they prepare to perform ‘the greatest symphony ever written’
On point: musical director Chris Braime takes the CSO through its paces at last week’s rehearsal
Who knew that Croydon had its own symphony orchestra?
A straw poll among fellow members of the Croydon Male Voice Choir, who are presumably musically aware, found a startlingly small proportion who did.
The Croydon Symphony Orchestra has existed for more than 120 years, but it is now seeking to raise its profile. Steered by an energetic committee, with a new “interim” musical director, it is in the throes of expanding in both size and ambition. It has booked to play at the Fairfield Halls in March next year and aims to forge links with Croydon charities and education.
The orchestra chair, violinist Paul Rowlands, is emphatic about the choir’s current qualities.
Croydon composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor helped found the group that became the CSO
“It’s a community orchestra, with a great range of abilities,” he says. “It’s a very inclusive orchestra.” Now the orchestra is keen to participate in what he sees as the current cultural and artistic regeneration of Croydon. “We want to catch the wave. We have some grand plans for the next couple of seasons.”
The orchestra’s progenitor was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Croydon’s very own black composer, whose work has been undergoing a revival around his own 150th anniversary.
Coleridge-Taylor founded the String Players Club in 1905. In 1920, that group became the Croydon Symphony Orchestra. Over the next century, the CSO had just four music directors, the most recent Darrell Davison, who followed his father, Arthur Davison, a dynastic duo who between them led the orchestra for 67 years.
Well composed: Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony will be performed by the Croydon Symphony Orchestra in Upper Norwood in June
The orchestra is widely respected in music circles, but when Darrell retired following his final concert in February this year the committee felt it was time to reset its outlook and give it a higher profile.
It has almost doubled in size to more than 50 members, most notably by the addition of a brass section. All its musicians are amateurs, although a number work as music teachers.
Chris Braime is the new music director, initially for the next two years. Braime is a Yorkshireman who, after living here for 25 years, emphatically considers Croydon as his home.
Braime is already music director for several other south London orchestras and choirs, and he says his aim for the CSO is to build on its past achievements and “capture the things that we know are going to inspire people”.
Braime has been hard at work preparing the orchestra for his first concert, at St John the Evangelist in Sylvan Road, Upper Norwood, on Saturday June 27. At rehearsals last Friday, he put the orchestra through its paces with the concert’s main piece, Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony.
Braime told the orchestra that it was both “an exercise in humanity” and that he considered it “the greatest symphony ever written”.
He steered the orchestra through its slow, sombre opening, progressing swiftly to a dramatic climax which makes the symphony’s darkly passionate nature abundantly clear. “Don’t be afraid of the triplets,” he told the cellists, as he provided advice and encouragement in equal measure.
The orchestra is already looking beyond the June concert to return to the Fairfield Halls on March 6, 2027 – the first time it will have staged its own concert there in almost 20 years. Under Arthur Davidson, generations of Croydon children were introduced to classical music with Saturday morning concerts in the Fairfield’s Concert Hall.
Braime considers its is entirely appropriate to return to the Fairfield Halls for the orchestra’s new aspirations. “It’s such an important community asset,” he says of the Halls. “I feel incredibly proud that we have it.”
He is also delighted that the orchestra will be able to “champion the Fairfield Halls’ amazing organ” by playing the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony.
The orchestra will continue to hold its biennial Croydon Concerto Competition, another legacy of the Davison era, for promising young soloists (the next will be held in 2027).
Besides all that, the orchestra is keen to further its community links. It has plans to work with local charity, the remarkable Orpheus Centre in Godstone, founded by Sir Richard Stilgoe and neurologist Dr Michael Swallow 30 years ago to provide a residential music and performance school for disabled students.
Big plans: as well as work with charities and schools, the CSO is putting in some hard work ahead of some important concert dates
Orchestra members will volunteer to attend the centre and support its students. The orchestra is planning to partner the centre in a Gala Concert at the Fairfield Halls in December 2027. “We will have some very exciting guest performers,” says Phil Myers, a cellist and committee member who has been with the orchestra for 29 years.
The orchestra is also looking to develop links with schools and colleges in Croydon. It has ties with Trinity School, performing concerts there, and seeks a closer working arrangement which would allow Trinity students to play with the orchestra. Myers invites interested schools to email the orchestra at croydonsymphonyorchestra@gmail.com.
For Linda Penn, who has played flute and piccolo with the orchestra for 33 years, its prospects look exciting. During a tea-and-cakes interval at last Friday’s rehearsal, she spoke of the orchestra as “a great family – we look after each other”. Now, she adds, it is looking to “grow and develop”.
Penn says: “We are making great strides already. We’re really hopeful for the future.”
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