ABOUT US

Do you play an orchestral instrument and are looking for a group to join in North Bristol? If so then The Gifford Ensemble might be for you!

We started up in September 2018, when local residents, realising there was no local orchestra for the Stokes area, decided they’d better start one.

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As a small group, we currently play in the round, and don't use a conductor, and we find we can improve through rehearsal and discussion.

Over the past couple of years we have worked on and performed music from a variety of styles and periods, including early Classical symphonic works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, light classics such as Faure's Pavane, Elgar's Chanson de Matin, Schostakovitch's Second Waltz and Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, and other popular pieces such as Gershwin's Summertime and movements from Bizet's L'Arlesienne suite.

We have great fun with TV and film themes (The Pink Panther, Bright Eyes, Steptoe and Son) and classic pop songs (Yesterday, A Whiter Shade of Pale), and really enjoy the Christmas music we have, both traditional and popular.

We even have home-grown music in the form of pieces composed by our members, and we look forward to expanding our repertoire as we grow.

 

We gave our first informal concert in March 2019 to an appreciative audience of friends and family, followed by a second in October and have established ourselves as  a welcome provider of accessible classical music (and cake!) to the local community.

The Ensemble is currently small, but our ambition is to grow into a full orchestra.

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