Rehearsals

Our rehearsals are held on a Thursday evening from 7:30 until 9:30 at Woodhall County Primary School in Sudbury. Generally, our rehearsals follow the school term dates although we don't stop for half term. The school is in Mayflower Way Sudbury CO10 1ST and is easy to get to with plenty of parking. Occasionally during term time we rehearse at St Peter's Church Sudbury, our Dates page says where the rehearsal is and we always email our players when the rehearsal is at St Peter's.

As with all team sports we do have some do's and don'ts to make sure we all get the most out of playing together. Firstly, do bring your own music stand. We do ask everyone to arrive at the rehearsal 10 minutes before the rehearsal start time so that you have time to set up your instrument, generally organise yourself and, in pre pandemic days, have a chat to everyone. We try to make rehearsals as enjoyable as possible with plenty of playing so it helps if people don't chat during them as this can be disruptive - we have a break halfway through each rehearsal for this when you can also have a cup or tea or coffee and biscuits.

Corona Virus  - Revised Rehearsal Procedures and Risk Assessment 

Regretably everything changed in March 2020 and since then we have prepared revised rehearsal procedures and a rehearsal risk assessment to deal with reducing the risk of transmission of the corona virus.  You can click on the links to these documents to see how we conduct rehearsals and the risks we believe we face in rehearsing as a group.  Please do familiarise yourselves with both documents. 

The key take-away is hands (use the sanitisers provided), face (wear a face mask at all times except wehn playing a wind instrument), space (keep socially distant).  But I am sure you know all that already.

What to do if you can't make rehearsal or the concert

If you are not going to make a rehearsal please at least get in touch with your section leader (who will then let the conductor know).

You will be asked at the beginning of each term which rehearsals you can't attend; please make every effort to attend as many rehearsals as you can and always let someone know when you can't make it. If you are unable to attend many of the term's rehearsals, you may be asked not to play in the concert. We do however understand that life events will sometimes have to take priority.

If you are unable to play in a concert please let your section leader and the orchestra's Chair know as soon as possible as we may need to get in an extra player to cover your position. If you haven't done this, it will be assumed that you are playing in the concert.

Playing in the concert

If you are playing in the concert, please do your best to attend every rehearsal in the final month before the concert date.

Everyone playing in the concert will be expected to be at the afternoon rehearsal in St. Peter's on the concert day. Please talk to the conductor and chairman if you think this will not be possible.