The History of the Folkestone & Hythe Orchestral Society
The roots of the society go back to the Folkestone Municipal Orchestra, which was established in the early 1920s. The society was founded in its current form in 1961, and has developed over 46 years to the orchestra we have today.
The Orchestra’s records date back to 1961, in which year it gave its inaugural public concert under its newly formed name: The Folkestone & Hythe Orchestral Society in the Radnor Park Congregational Church (now the United Reformed Church), with just 20 players under the direction of Mr Alan Hall.
The orchestra has been very fortunate to have been under the directorship of many experienced conductors and leaders over the years, this list being:
Conductors Leaders
Mr Alan Hall 1961 – 1962 Mrs Joan Crook 1961 - 1973
Mr John Belcher 1963 – 1967 Mr John Pardoe 1973
Mr Edward Tomlin 1967 – 1976 Mr Roy Green 1974 - 1976
Mr Gerald Pfaff 1969 – 1974 Mrs Clare Mackay 1977 - 1978
Mr Michael Foad 1977 – 1996 Mr Jack Tompsett 1979 - 1989
Mr Duncan Lord 1982 – 1995 Mr John Moore 1989 - 1991
Mr John Ware 1996 – 1997 Mr Eric Sokell 1991 - 1999
Mr John Watson 1997 Miss Floriane Peycelon 2000 -
Mr David Leeke 1998
Mr James Fehr 1998
Mr Danny Fajardo 1998 – 2002
Mr Graham Harvey 2002 – 2007
Mr Andrew Lowen 2004 -
The music has certainly been challenging to the players, who have generally always risen to that challenge by putting in a lot of hard work to achieve a satisfying concert performance. There has also been a progression of very experienced players, leaders and some first class soloists have adorned the stage to perform with us.
Perhaps a few of the most memorable concerts have been:
10th June 1971 – Leas Cliff Hall. Our Conductor: Gerald Pfaff was taken ill at the last minute and Edward Tomlin had to take the rostrum at the eleventh hour.
28th November 1979 – Girls Technical High School. This was perhaps a turning point in the standard of soloists we started to engage when we had Ken Lawrence from the RPO perform the Beethoven violin concerto.
20th November 1984 – Leas Cliff Hall. We were extremely delighted to have, as our soloist, the young and very talented Dutch violinist: Isabelle van Keulen who was runner-up in the first 1983 Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and then went on to win the 1984 European Young Musician of the Year. Isabelle also played the Beethoven violin concerto with us.
13th March 1989 – Southlands School, New Romney. Our soloist: Robin Morrish arrived for the concert, but forgot to bring his violin! Fortunately, our viola player: Mrs Marianne Sutlciffe lived in nearby Dymchurch and was able to travel home and collect her violin and return in time for Robin to give a performance of the Brahms violin concerto on her ‘first class’ instrument.
28th March 1990 – Leas Cliff Hall. During one of many performances with us, Anup Kumar Biswas, the outstanding and charismatic Indian cellist unfortunately had a string break during his performance of the Dvorak cello concerto, Undeterred, Anup left the stage and repaired his string in record time to continue what was a truly outstanding performance, that was also captured on video.
2nd December 1992 – Leas Cliff Hall. We were absolutely delighted when the celebrated violinist: Joji Hattori, winner of the 1989 Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, agreed to perform the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with us. This was memorable in as much as the expectancy of such a fine player did not necessarily include the fact that we were just an amateur orchestra. This required a full understanding between the soloist, conductor and orchestra which was indeed, far more demanding.
9th December 1998 – Leas Cliff Hall. This was our first concert with our new conductor: Danny Fajardo who was a regular violinist with the Bournemouth Royal Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestras.
4th December 2002 – Saga Pavilion. John Perkins came and played his arrangement of the Ashokan Farewell with us, which is still a very popular favourite on Classic FM.
10th July 2004 – Saga Pavilion. This concert was indeed memorable for two reasons; the first being an exceptional performance by our orchestra leader: Floriane Peycelon of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and secondly, the supporting charity: The Meningitis Trust, which helped our first violinist: Derek Kemp on his way to raising an amazing total £4,500 for this charity by undertaking a 285 mile cycle ride across Northern Thailand which he successfully achieved some four months later.
16th December 2006 – Saga Pavilion. The finale to this very festive concert was an enchanting performance of Howard Blake’s ‘The Snowman’ with a ‘Walking in the Air’ solo by Thomas Lowen; Head Chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, plus full narration.