Our History
Since December 2015 we have been the Cornwall Concert Orchestra, but we started several years earlier under a different name.
Back in July 2008, Colin Rendell of the Cornwall County Music Service embarked on a mission to start an orchestra for Cornish people to dust off their long-dropped musical instruments and brush up their long-forgotten musical skills.
Thus was born the Cornwall Returners Orchestra, meeting for the first time at the old Richard Lander School, Truro, at 7.30pm on Monday 22 September 2008. We consisted of Colin as conductor, and a group of ten rusty but keen players, frustrated at how much we had forgotten, yet inspired to pick it all up again. We were joined by some experts as well, and they helped us with all the forgotten notes, keys, scales, timing, etc.
We hovered between eight and ten players for the first few weeks as various people tried us out, and then following a very positive article and a call to arms in the local press, we quickly reached twenty.
We soon decided we would add a hint of spice by committing to reach a standard worthy of performances, and from then on, our rehearsals began to have purpose and direction.
By January 2009 we realised that the now thirty or so of us had improved quite a bit, and the returners had well and truly “returned”. We therefore committed to give our début performance at St. Agnes Methodist Church on Mothering Sunday, 22 March 2009. We were six months old to the day, and it was a huge success!
We really have come a very long way since those early days. We’ve lost a few good friends but gained many more, including Chris Morgan who has been our musical director since October 2013. Furthermore, the link with the past is as yet unbroken – one of our players from “Day One” still plays with us – clarinettist Mark Bramwell.
The orchestra’s goals remain:
- To provide a safe and friendly environment for players to develop, socialise and, above all, enjoy themselves.
- To continue to develop our combined musicianship as an orchestra and to perform to the best of our ability.
- To promote orchestral and classical music as an essential part of Cornwall’s cultural landscape, providing opportunities for people from all walks of life to hear beautiful and moving music played live.