Awaydays
Awaydays have been a highlight of the orchestra calendar since the beginning. Members play as an orchestra as well as in small ensembles and spend social time together. In 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 the venue was Headley Park, a pleasant hotel in extensive grounds near Farnham in Hampshire. In 2015 the awayday moved to Chorleywood and then between 2016 and 2020 to Abingworth Hall, a delightful HF Holidays hotel at Thakeham, East Sussex at the foot of the South Downs (see pictures below from 2020).
Residential weekends ended with the pandemic. Since 2021 we have had an awayday each year locally, mostly at St Mary’s Mortlake or at All Saints, East Sheen. We have played a wide variety of music, much of which has been taken up later for concerts. This includes Mozart’s Piano concerto no 22 in Eb and four of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Violin concerto, Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, the first movement of Mozart’s Oboe concerto, movements from Brahms’ symphonies, Chabrier’s Habanera, Haydn’s Clock Symphony, two movements of Tchaikovsky’s 2nd Symphony (Ukrainian) and the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.
The 2025 awayday was on February 15 at St Mary’s Mortlake and was devoted to trying out Nielsen’s First Symphony.
en.
There are more pictures of Abingworth in the Gallery.
And here’s an article from the 2012 Richmond U3A newsletter about an away weekend from the orchestra’s early days.
