This is your invitation to be there from the very first note.
Twenty strings — professional and exceptional amateur players, together on equal footing — performing Bach, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn and Dvořák in Winchester's medieval St Cross chapel.
This is your invitation to be there from the very first note.
Talent doesn't care what's on your payslip — neither do we. The Orchestra Session puts professional and exceptional amateur musicians on the same stage, paid the same rate for the same role, engaged under the Making Music/Musicians’ Union Freelance Orchestral Agreement — not as a bonus, but as the founding principle the orchestra is built on. As a Community Interest Company, any surplus we make is reinvested in the orchestra itself and in widening access to music for people who couldn't otherwise afford to learn an instrument.
The Orchestra Session is looking for its first players — professional and exceptional amateur string musicians who want to perform at the highest standard, paid fairly for doing it. Every chair is engaged under the Making Music/Musicians’ Union Freelance Orchestral Agreement 2025/26, at real, current freelance rates — not a token fee.
If that's you, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us what you play and a little about yourself, and we'll be in touch as we finalise the line-up for our debut concert.
Alongside paying our musicians fairly — every player is engaged under the Making Music/Musicians’ Union Freelance Orchestral Agreement, the industry's own benchmark for freelance orchestral pay — we donate a fixed share of ticket revenue to charities that give children and adults access to instruments, tuition, and ensembles they couldn't otherwise afford.
We're actively pursuing giving partnerships with charities already doing this work, and we'll name them here as soon as those relationships are confirmed.
It matters more than ever. A-level music entries in England have fallen 44.8% since 2010, and in 2024, 42% of state schools entered no pupils at all for GCSE music — fewer young people are getting the chance to learn an instrument in the first place, and we think a ticket-funded, musician-led orchestra has a part to play in reversing that.
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