Local music groups

You can find links to many local music organisations in this web link directory.

Orchestras

Cambridge Graduate Orchestra consists of graduates, post graduates, fellows, mature students and other interested instrumentalists from within the university and city of Cambridge.  Rehearsals occur throughout the calendar year.

Churchgate Sinfonia - gives regular concerts in Bury St Edmunds.

Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra - a charitable trust, founded in 1983 to provide young musicians in the North-East Essex and South Suffolk area with an opportunity to perform a range of classical and popular music at public concerts under professional direction.

Essex Symphony Orchestra - gives regular concerts in Essex, with an interesting variety of programmes and high quality soloists.

Haverhill Sinfonia - a full symphony orchestra whose members (amateur and professional) travel from across East Anglia but, with many players coming from London and beyond.

Ipswich Orchestral Society - has been bringing the pleasures of classical music to the audiences of East Anglia since 1902, and has built up an enviable reputation for high-quality amateur music-making.

Kirkley Symphony Orchestra - an amateur orchestra for young people based in and around Lowestoft. It is run by and aimed at students in the Waveney area, and organises a number of concerts every summer.

Suffolk Sinfonia - a symphony orchestra based at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Many concerts are given in and around Bury St Edmunds, and the orchestra also gives performances in the surrounding region.

Norfolk Symphony Orchestra - founded in 1971 and has developed from a chamber orchestra into a full size symphony orchestra playing large scale works. The NSO presents a series of concerts each season in and around Norfolk.

Waveney Sinfonia - a classical orchestra based in Lowestoft.

Wolsey Orchestra -  having started life as a chamber orchestra, we have now increased in number and have earned the reputation for producing innovative and exciting programmes using repertoire for large-scale Symphony Orchestra. A high level of commitment is required from our members, who attend intensive rehearsals prior to each concert.

Instrumental ensembles

Las Guitarras - a classical guitar duo based in Ipswich. The duo has given performances in a wide range of venues. Their repertoire includes early music, baroque, classical and contemporary guitar styles.

Ravenscroft Consort - based in Ipswich, it particularly likes working with smaller choirs, and can provide consort instrumental and vocal music to add variety to a complete concert.

Choirs

Bury St. Edmunds Bach Choir. The choir was founded in 1932, and currently has 120 singers under the Music Direction of Philip Reed. The choir performs three major concerts each year with professional soloists and orchestra. Whilst one concert each year features a work by Bach, the choir performs many of the large scale classics of the choral repertory including much twentieth-century British music.

Ipswich Bach Choir an 80-strong choral society based in Ipswich. It performs a wide range of classical choral music from Baroque to 20th Century

Ipswich Choral Society - details soon.

The Eye Bach Choir (www.eyebachchoir.co.uk) is a small, friendly choral
society based in North Suffolk, with a history of excellent and adventurous
performance under the baton of its Director, Margery Baker.

The Harmony Girls' Choir - based in Ipswich, this award-winning choir offers girls aged 12 and over the opportunity to take part in domestic concerts, residential courses, foreign concert-tours and prestigious competitions. There is an "apprentice scheme" for less experienced singers and two junior sections for girls aged 9 upwards.

Harmony Juniors - a prize-winning children's choir, part of the Harmony Girls' Choir organisation. Meeting weekly in Ipswich it accepts girls aged 9 and over without audition.

Stowmarket Choral Society - founded in 1901. It generally performs a major choral work early in spring, a lighter summer concert and a Christmas carol concert.

Young Harmony - also part of the Harmony Girls' Choir organisation, for girls aged 9 upwards
from the villages of North Suffolk and South Norfolk with weekly rehearsals
at Kenninghall.

Vocal ensembles

Capella Antiqua - a vocal ensemble based in Suffolkwhich specialises in Franco-Flemish-Italian music of the Renaissance. It sings a capella, or with period instruments played by a group of expert musicians who come together from all over the UK.

Shared Voices- a group of Suffolk and Essex singers who sing songs from around the world from the Balkans to Africa, by way of America and other parts of the globe.

Suffolk Harmony - a recently formed mens chorus of Barbershop Singers in Suffolk. Rehearsals every Thursday from 7.30 at the Institute & Club, 122 High Street Needham Market. Any men interested who would like to attend, do not have to be able to read music, but do need to have a reasonable voice and the ability to "hold their own" in singing a part that may be different to their immediate chorus neighbour.

Music organisations

Aldeburgh Productions - events including the Snape Proms, masterclasses and the Aldeburgh Festival.

Blackthorpe Barn Arts - Blackthorpe Barn is situated three miles east of Bury St Edmunds, in the village of Rougham. Most events are clearly signed by the AA, from the main A14 road. In addition the Blackthorpe Barn's own brown signs direct visitors from local roads.

Bury Festival - The Bury St Edmunds Festival is one of East Anglia's premier arts events attracting thousands of people to the historic market town at the heart of Heritage Suffolk.

Eastern Early Music Forum The Eastern Early Music Forum organises Early Music workshops in East Anglia. Anyone is welcome to join ; the annual subscription is £5 or £8 for families. Members receive a quarterly newsletter and reduced admission fees for Forum events, and those of other regional fora in the United Kingdom.

St Edmundsbury Cathedral concert diary - the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds is a venue for many music events both by the cathedral and other music groups

Stowmarket Concerts – The Society promotes a season of 5 concerts each year. These are held at 2:45pm on Sunday afternoons at the Regal Theatre, Stowmarket.

Other organisations with some music content

Bury Free Press- clubs.