Our Courses
Expand your repertoire. Practise that audition excerpt in context. Improve your sight-reading skills. Build your confidence.
Our courses give you a chance to develop your orchestral skills at high level. We simulate professional rehearsal conditions, replicating the speed and focus required for preparing a piece on limited rehearsal time. To do so, you’ll benefit from the support of a team of high-quality and experienced professional musicians.
While we do not give concerts, there is an open rehearsal at the end of each course to which a non-paying audience is welcome. During the open rehearsal, we reserve the right to fall apart, play wrong notes, stop, and generally lose the plot completely – but we very rarely do. By taking away the pressure of performance and placing the focus on the process of exploring a piece of music, we are able to enhance your enjoyment and appreciation of the work while simultaneously achieving a high standard of execution.
A Rehearsal Orchestra course is typically a draining but rewarding experience, and you should come away from it tired and satisfied.
We’re here for experienced players over the age of eighteen. We may occasionally be able to accept players under the age of eighteen, provided a parent or guardian is in attendance.
There are three kinds of Rehearsal Orchestra course: One-day, Two-day, and Full-Week (our annual residential course during the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe).
Prokofiev: Symphony No 5 conducting workshop
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Sergei Prokofiev
Symphony no 5
Join us for our fourth conducting workshop with young conducting students from the Royal College of Music’s postgraduate course in orchestral conducting. Four student conductors nominated by Toby Purser, Head of Conducting at the RCM, will work on one movement each, under the supervision of Levon Parikian, our Artistic Director. We’ll bring it all together at the end of the day in an Open Rehearsal/informal play through.
Applications are invited for all sections of the orchestra from players at Grade 8-plus, or equivalent.
Edinburgh Week
Our annual Edinburgh summer residential course is a unique and rewarding venture which gives you the opportunity to combine rehearsals of fantastic orchestral repertoire during the day with exploring Edinburgh at festival time during the evening. This year, we’re excited to announce that we have a new rehearsal venue, George Watson’s College, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh, which offers us more space and greater accessibility.
Rooms will be provided in self-catering apartments close to Edinburgh’s main railway station and festival venues in the Pleasance area. The apartments sleep five in single occupancy rooms, with shared kitchen/diner and shower room/WC facilities. Transport will be provided one-way to the rehearsal venue each day.
"Music Colleges in the late 1960s did not provide the sophisticated orchestral education current now and so the two summers I spent in the Edinburgh Rehearsal orchestra under the direction of Harry Legge were the best preparation I received for my subsequent orchestral career. I particularly remember playing Shostakovich 8 and Mahler 9. I also had a very good time!"
Meyrick AlexanderPrincipal Bassoon, Philharmonia Orchestra 1980 – 2010 and London Chamber Orchestra 1985 – present; bassoon and orchestral educator.
"I loved my weekend with you all. There is a tremendous spirit and enjoyment about everything that enables wonders to be achieved. Long may you thrive!"
Sir Mark Elder
Edinburgh Week
Our annual August visit to Edinburgh, coinciding with the start of the International Festival and Fringe. Running from Saturday to Friday inclusive, this is a stimulating week of concentrated music making which has taken place every year since the orchestra’s foundation in 1957 (apart from 2020 and 2021). We work through a wealth of repertoire, with rehearsals during the day and the evenings left free for players to explore the city at Festival time. At the end of the week, we hold an open rehearsal where we present just a small selection of the work we’ve been doing.
All course fees are subsidised by our fundraising activities and fees are further reduced for students. Some bursary funding is available: please enquire when applying for courses. In addition to the general full and part bursaries we offer, we have two specific bursary schemes:
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Co-Principal Strings Student Bursary scheme
If you are currently studying full-time at a UK conservatoire and would appreciate the opportunity to work intensively on large-scale symphonic repertoire with professional conductors, without the pressure of public performance, at the same time as benefiting directly from the experience of our professional string principals, why not apply for the Co-Principal Strings Student bursary scheme? Successful applicants will be offered a bursary-funded place on one of our London weekend courses as co-principal first or second violin, viola, cello or double bass. A modest contribution to travel costs is available to participants studying outside London.
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Play ON bursary programme
Our newest bursary programme, Play ON, initiated in 2022 by a grant from the Victoria Wood Foundation, enables us to offer a number of bursary-funded places on London weekend courses to current conservatoire students and recent graduates across all sections of the orchestra, particularly those who studied and/or graduated during the Covid pandemic. A contribution to travel costs is available to all participants.
Gillian Halse Bursary Fund
Harold Taylor, partner of Gillian Halse Noel who co-founded the Rehearsal Orchestra in 1957, very kindly gave a legacy in his will in Gill’s memory to fund student bursaries for our annual Edinburgh rehearsal week.
To apply for these schemes, please email admin@rehearsal-orchestra.org with your CV.