• Orchestra
• Conductors
• Soloists
• Players
• Committee

• 2007/08 Season
• Hong Kong 2008 Tour
• 2006/07 Season

Orchestra

The University of London Symphony Orchestra (ULSO) is widely recognised as one of the leading student orchestras in the UK. Founded in 1955, ULSO was set up to provide orchestral opportunities for students throughout the University of London, cutting across college and subject boundaries. The orchestra seeks to provide students with the unique opportunity to study and perform major symphonic repertoire at the highest standard, catering for those wishing to continue and develop their performance skills whilst studying non-musical courses, as well as attracting those who wish to pursue a professional career in music.

In recent years ULSO has gone from strength to strength with successes including a tour to Italy in 2006, a performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony with Catherine Wyn-Rogers in March this year, and the appointment of an internationally-renowned Music Director, John Forster.

On Tour

The orchestra has been on tour twice in the past twenty years. When the orchestra went on tour in 1980, it played at the universities of Durham, Bradford and York and performed a commission, Farne, funded by the Arts Council. Recently in 2006, the orchestra embarked on a tour to Lake Garda in Italy, which was a resounding success. As a result, ULSO will venture outside Europe for the first time to perform in Hong Kong, China in the summer of 2008. This ambitious project will bring the cream of musical talents from London universities over to the Far East, while acting as an ambassador on behalf of the University of London.

Owing to the orchestra's complete rejuvenation and the achievement of their most recent seasons, ULSO is adopting a place as one of the leading student orchestras in the United Kingdom.

A Brief History

"In its infancy, the orchestra represented a group of enthusiastic individuals assembled under the University of London Union to make music together. There were at first an uneven distribution of players – far too many flautists, and a string section of varying standard – but under the direction of their first conductor, John Hollingsworth, the repertoire and parts were allocated to everyone's satisfaction. The only teething problems stemmed from the difficulty of communication: there were no e-mails or telephones so letters were written, typed out on a special copying sheet, put into a copying machine and turned manually about 50 times, and then taken to the post office in hand-written envelopes!

There was always great enthusiasm for the next week's rehearsal and the first concert was a resounding success. The orchestra has since seen a number of high points, including leadership from the eminent conductor, Norman Del Mar."

– Stephen Rind, a founder of ULSO

Autumn 2008 Concert