The Collegiate Orchestra is a community orchestra based at the University of Otago. The players are made up of students, staff and alumni from the University of Otago, College of Education, Otago Polytechnic, Otago Language Centre, Foundation Year, local schools as well as the greater Dunedin community. We provide an excellent training on orchestral techniques and expose players to a wide range of repertoire, from Baroque works to 20th Century Chinese symphonic works - the 2009 Semester Two programme includes the violin concerto "Liang Shanbao and Zhu Yingtai" (小提琴協奏曲《梁山伯與祝英台》) (or known as "Butterfly Lovers"). See here for our past and current programmes.
Becoming a Member
We always welcome new members. If you play an orchestral instrument at approximately grade 6 or above (grade 8 for flute and first violin), please feel free to contact us to arrange for a try-out at the next rehearsal. Potential percussion candidates should also be able to play a string, woodwind or brass instrument. Orchestra members, please check here for announcements and upcoming events. We urgently need oboe, brass, cello, viola and first violins.
Note:
If you currently live outside Dunedin and want to join us, please register with us now before you depart and don't forget to bring your instrument with you.
If you use the open-standard score-typesetter Lilypond or Lilypond GUI frontends such as LilypondTool and Frescobaldi, or WYSIWIG editors capable of generating Lilypond outputs, such as MuseScore and Denemo, please let us know. We may need your help to re-typeset some full scores to get orchestral parts.
Rehearsals
Orchestra rehearsals are on every Tuesday 5:45pm - 7:30pm between late February and December. Additional rehearsals are scheduled before concerts.
Location
Rehearsals are held at:1st Floor, Music Suite,
College of Education,
University of Otago,
Union Street East,
Dunedin
Note: The rehearsal venue is wheelchair-accessible.