Two student trumpet players in rehearsal, with low brass instuments in the background. Lights make the brass of the instruments shine.
One-Day Course

Shostakovich: Symphony No 4

23 May 2027

Henry Wood Hall
Trinity Church Square
London SE1 4HU

Cost
  • Non student
    £45
  • Student
    £25

Join us for a day spent exploring this monumental, highly expressive, and turbulent work, composed during a time of intense personal and artistic crisis for Shostakovich, shortly after the infamous January 1936 Pravda editorial attack condemning his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

Applications are invited for all sections of the orchestra from players at Grade 8-plus, or equivalent.

The nearest stations to Henry Wood Hall are Borough, Elephant and Castle, and London Bridge. There is free parking in the surrounding streets on Sundays (and parking on the forecourt for large instruments).

Please note that while the hall is in the central London congestion charge zone (fee £15, payable online), it only operates on Sundays only if you’re driving through the zone between 12.00 and 18.00, which should mean players are not affected.

(The London Ultra Low Emission Zone applies all day, every day. Check here to see if your vehicle is affected.)

Repertoire:

Symphony No 4

Dmitri Shostakovich

Conductor:

Levon Parikian

Schedule

10.30-13.30

14.30-17.15

Open Rehearsal

17.45

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:

  • 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 weekend courses as co-principal first or second violin, viola, cello or double bass. A modest contribution to travel costs is available to participants on London courses who are studying outside London.

  • 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.

    Are you a young musician from Devon? We have bursaries available to enable you to attend our courses, funded by the Veronica Awdry Charitable Trust.

To apply for these schemes, please email admin@rehearsal-orchestra.org with your CV.