History

The Fulham Symphony Orchestra (FSO) has a long and distinguished history. It was founded in 1958 by Stephen Hunt as the Fulham Municipal Orchestra, and operated in association with Fulham Borough Council. The orchestra has been central to community life ever since. The orchestra renamed itself the Fulham Symphony Orchestra in the 1980s and became an independent organisation in the 1990s.

Under highly respected conductors such as Joseph Vandernoot, Andrea Quinn, Peter Stark, Roland Roberts and Levon Parikian the orchestra undertook many adventurous musical projects, including several performances of rare operas.

2001 saw the arrival of the current Musical Director, Marc Dooley. Under Marc’s direction the FSO has gained a reputation for performing challenging programmes to a very high standard.

In recent seasons FSO has performed with outstanding soloists such as Alina Ibragimova, Adrian Ward, Norbert Blume, Clara Rodriguez, and Elizabeth Cooney. The orchestra has an ambitious musical programme and enjoys exploring the large-scale symphonic literature. Musical projects have included Smetana’s Má Vlast cycle, works by Bruckner, Mahler, Ravel, Shostakovich, and Strauss’s huge An Alpine Symphony. Contemporary music plays an important part of the orchestra’s programming. The orchestra has performed works by Wolfgang Rihm, Luciano Berio, John Adams, Mauricio Kagel and Howard Skempton. For the 2004–05 season, the FSO was one of two orchestras selected nationwide to participate in the Society for the Promotion of New Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme, and ‘adopted’ composer Owen Bourne. The result of this association, the World Première of Dooley’s Bass written specially for the orchestra, took place in July 2005. Most recently FSO performed the world première of a new work by Stephen Hicks, your boundaries are the sky.

The FSO continues to have a high profile in the local community, performing regularly at Fulham and Hammersmith Town Halls since 2003, and playing a major part in the Hammersmith and Fulham Festival since 2002. The FSO has worked on several projects with the Youth Orchestra of Hammersmith and Fulham (YOoHF).

Since 2005 the FSO has had an association with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The two orchestras have worked together on several projects and broadcasts. Each year, the two orchestras combine to work on a large orchestral work (most recently the Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra) over the course of an evening. FSO collaborated on two BBC composer weekends. In 2006, FSO took part in a performance at the Barbican as part of the BBC festival, Get Carter! The FSO’s performance of Judith Weir’s Alverley Symphonies in 2008 as part of the BBC Weir weekend was broadcast on Radio 3.

The orchestra is entirely independent and raises funds through membership subscriptions and concert receipts, as well as generous support from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and from the Novotel Hammersmith which provides rehearsal space.

In this section

• Past programmes and events
• Repertoire sessions

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Contact us

Please email us at info@fso.org.uk

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