Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra offer Proms For All special jubilee celebration

The concert comes as part of their re-emergence from the pandemic which was also a chance for the orchestra to take stock and rebrand. On the day, under conductor Marcio da Silva, they will be joined by Hastings Philharmonic Choir and massed local choirs for a programme to include Parry – God save the Queen, Jerusalem, I was glad; Handel – Zadok the Priest; Handel – Hallelujah Chorus; Elgar – Cello Concerto; and Elgar – Pomp and Circumstance March No 1.

HPO is the new orchestra in residence at White Rock Theatre, and they are dedicating their 2021-22 season to celebrating the history of the Hastings Municipal Orchestra, for which the theatre was created.

Marcio said: “Our project as the orchestra is to continue the whole history of Hastings Municipal Orchestra which closed after the war. We started the HPO in 2016 with that history in mind. When we found out that big names had performed at the White Rock like Rachmaninoff and Sir Henry Wood, we had to do something. We wanted to fill the gap and to build on that history, but this is our first season based at the White Rock. The whole idea is to celebrate that heritage and also to celebrate the jubilee.”

The new orchestra has made a very good start so far: “But what is difficult to understand is that there is no scenario in which an orchestra would ever break even, but I do believe we have been very successful in just surviving the first five years. We’ve had some Arts Council funding and we have developed our corporate sponsorship and our friends and our regular audience. We put in place 20 events a year, not all orchestral concerts so it is a very busy schedule that we offer and we are consistently getting good audiences.

“But for this one we really want to fill the White Rock as much as possible so we are giving away a number of tickets to local organisations that work with underprivileged people who might not be able to come to the concert otherwise. The theme is the jubilee and we’re calling it Proms For All and we’re trying to bring together as many people as possible. The programme is a real crowd-pleaser and the whole thing is a big celebration for us. We’re doing this in partnership with Hastings Philharmonic Choir.

“The pandemic was in some ways very difficult for us but in some ways also very good. We had to stop all the concerts we were doing and that was a big stop for all the musicians but it did also give us a chance to repackage and rethink our strategy and reorganise ourselves. We have rebranded the orchestra during the pandemic and there have been lots of changes. We were associated with Hastings Philharmonic Choir and they gave us operational support from the beginning but during the pandemic we became our own independent organisation with a new website so in that sense the pandemic was a game-changer for us.”