SUSO Conductor for concerts

We are aiming to raise £2,000 to help pay for a conductor to lead the Southampton University Symphony Orchestra. Without a conductor, SUSO are a group of talented musicians with no direction - and we can't have that.

We have 3 concerts coming up on the 12th & 13th of March and we have a wonderful conductor lined up for each of these dates, George Jackson, however we are still in the process of raising the funds to pay him and we really would like to have the opportunity to raise enough funds to help cover the cost.

If we are unable to raise the funds for the cost of our conductor, the burden of the cost will come from other funds that should be helping us to pay for things like instrument rentals, outreach activities and opportunities for SUSO to play at fantastic music venues all over the UK.

We've even provided you with a sample from one of our recent concerts in the video above to show you how great we sound with the help of an amazing conductor like George. Imagine what would happened if we didn't have a conductor! 

The orchestra is made up of around 80 students from University of Southampton who are from a diverse range of courses. The orchestra allows those that want to pursue music as a career the opportunity to play challenging repertoire under the direction of a professional conductor, and those that don't the opportunity to further their playing ability in a friendly yet committed environment.

Southampton university symphony orchestra

We are the symphony orchestra at the University of Southampton and perform between 4 and 6 concerts per season/academic year. We are student led and student funded. We work with Southampton Music Hub and the Baby Proms project to take orchestral music into schools as well as performing our own concerts.

The orchestra is made up of around 80 students from University of Southampton who are from a diverse range of courses. The orchestra allows those that want to pursue music as a career the opportunity to play challenging repertoire under the direction of a professional conductor, and those that don't the opportunity to further their playing ability in a friendly yet committed environment.

Our story

SUSO is the longest standing orchestra at the university and has developed massively over its lifetime. We our 80+ strong and filled with talented musicians.

- We have three more concerts to put on this year, with a variety of repertoire from Sibelius, and Prokofiev through to supporting living conductors such as Matthew Taylor.

- Music is an incredibly important aspect of everyone's lives (whether they realise it or not). It offers release, escape, enjoyment, fulfilment, an opportunity to communicate where words fail and most of all FUN!

- By raising this money, it enables us to work with conductors that can continue developing the orchestra as a whole. Without a conductor we are unable to rehearse, let alone perform concerts in venues such as Romsey Abbey.

What your gift will help pay for

The £2,000 we are aiming to raise will pay for two conductors over two terms (one conductor for the first term, and another for the second).

- If we hit our minimum target the money will go towards paying the conductor. It will reduce the amount of money we have to raise through other fundraising methods such as busking, raffles and bake sales (we would need to sell a lot of cakes).

- Were we to raise the full amount we would be able to pay the conductor a fair rate for their time and effort. It would free up any other funds we may raise to pay for music hire, instrument repairs and rehearsal costs.

- Should we raise more than our target we will use the money to pay for music hire, instrument repairs and rehearsal costs - if it really takes off we will be able to put money aside to pay for next term’s conductor!

In one term the orchestra generates average costs of:

- Cost of one evening rehearsal (usually 9 in a term): £100

- 1 all day rehearsal (once per term): £300

- Travel (van hire & petrol): £150

- Music Hire: £300-500

We will update on progress at least once a month, we have a newsletter which goes out to donors on a termly basis, as well as an active Twitter and Facebook feed with weekly updates on progress.

Rewards 

We have some great rewards as a way of thanks for anyone that donates to us - check them out on the right hand side of the page!

Find us here

Follow us for regular updates on twitter (@SUSOrchestra),on Facebook by following Southampton University Symphony Orchestra or take a look at our website suso.susu.org 

Help us succeed! 

- You don't need to give money to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think would support us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, by email, telephone, in a chat over the fence or on your blog.

- In fact, share it with everyone you know as we think it's a great idea, and the more people who know about it, the more likely we are to make this work out brilliantly.

- And we know we said you don't need to give money to help us, but we'd love it if you did! Please sponsor us and help make this happen.