Sheffield orchestra raises £1,400 for children’s charities following success of spring concert

The University of Sheffield Concert Orchestra has raised £1,400 for children’s charities following the success of their spring concert last Saturday.

Orchestra President George Harris said: “We raised £2,500 just across all ticket and raffle revenue, and £1,400 of that has gone towards charity.

“That’s then split between the Sheffield Children’s Hospital and the Child Property Action Group.”

The ensemble previously raised money for Sheffield Children’s Hospital at their winter concert, which led to a snowflake featuring their name being put up on the side of the building.

The orchestra struggled in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic but has since found its feet:

George Harris continued: “I think we recognised after the Christmas concert, there are a few things we wanted improving. I mean, obviously, you always want to improve the quality of the music, but we were short on just being able to support ourselves.”

“After COVID happened, there was one point where the orchestra was down to about 16 members, and that was about 2 years ago.”

“This year, we achieved the highest membership numbers the orchestra’s ever had with 70 playing members.”

In the last year the Concert Orchestra secured new funding for instruments and undertook a name change, they were previously known as “The University of Sheffield Medics’ Orchestra”.

George Harris attributes the ensemble’s success to their dedication to the music, saying:

“As long as the music sounded good, I would have been happy, because that’s really what the people are there to listen to.

“I’m telling my conductors always just to be really mean, drill down into the details, don’t just run it from top to bottom, really go over the same bar 15 times if you have to.

“We play a high quality of music, and I think we proved that at our concert. People want to come and watch us, and that’s really nice. For years to come, I would like the reputation of the orchestra to just keep on going up, you know, because I think it has done this year.”