The Huntingdonshire Philharmonic has been at the heart of quality music making in Huntingdonshire for nearly half a century. Founded in 1977 by amalgamating Huntingdon Choral and Orchestral Societies, we are one of the largest amateur musical bodies in the region.
Founding conductor Christopher Brown directed the first decades, performing a number of his own choral and orchestral compositions, including the critically acclaimed 1986 cantata Landscapes. Hunts Phil has also given first performances of works by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Anthony Isaac and the first UK performance of Shostakovich From Jewish Folk Poetry and Suite from Five days – Five nights. We marked the 50th anniversary of Elgar’s death with The Dream of Gerontius in Ely Cathedral and we’ve also performed further afield, including a tour to Salon-de-Provence in France.In the past few years the Hunts Phil have performed symphonies by Beethoven, Borodin, Brahms, Dvorák, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams. We also took part in a massed choir performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.8 at the Royal Albert Hall. Major choral works have included Delius Sea Drift, Handel Messiah, Tippet A Child of our Time, Verdi Requiem and the European première of Gretchaninov’s 1915 cantata.