Forest Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1964, is rated as one of the country’s leading community orchestras. A performance and training orchestra, each string section has a professional leader whose role includes rehearsal and technical advice for the section. Members include music students, teachers, freelancers and amateurs. The orchestra thereby fulfils its aim of helping train the musicians of tomorrow while providing a forum for the leading amateur players of today. It also works with young musicians in the local Waltham Forest community, providing open rehearsals and the opportunity to experience a full-size symphony orchestra.

Under the direction of Artistic Director Mark Shanahan the orchestra has gained an increasingly impressive reputation for the quality and vitality of its performances. Many of the major professional orchestras in this country contain players who trained with Forest Philharmonic.

In addition to its regular season at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, Forest Philharmonic has performed in the Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall and St John’s, Smith Square, featuring such works as Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 3 and 8, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Britten’s Spring Symphony. Recent soloists include John Lill, Ronan O’Hora, Gemma Rosefield, Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Anna Hashimoto, Anne-Marie Owens and Linda Richardson.

If you would like to play with the orchestra, please call 01279 814931 or email us at orchestra@forestphilharmonic.org.uk. We rehearse on Monday evenings in Walthamstow.

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Our conductor

Mark Shanahan was born in Manchester of Irish parentage and studied at Chetham’s School of Music. He then studied at London University before joining the post-graduate conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music as the Sir Henry Wood Conducting Scholar. He won the NAYO Conducting Competition for European Music Year.

Recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, his orchestral work includes broadcasts and concerts with the BBC, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and RTE Concert orchestras. He has received invitations from the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Orchestre Filarmonica de Gran Canaria, Netherlands Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Georges Enescu Philharmonic and English Northern Philharmonia orchestras.

Mark has conducted for Opera Ireland, English Touring Opera and the Wexford Festival. For Grange Park Opera he has conducted La Traviata, L’Elisir d’amore and the acclaimed production of I Capuletti e i Montecchi; for Opera North La Traviata, The Queen of Spades and La Rondine; and Don Giovanni for the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Since 1993 he has been associated with English National Opera as a guest conductor, where productions have included La Forza del Destino, Barber of Seville and Puccini’s La Boheme, La Traviata, Otello and Tosca, described by The Times as ‘a musical triumph’.

Concert work has included performances at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican and Royal Albert Hall, London, in wide-ranging repertoire from La Damnation de Faust and Verdi Requiem to Strauss Ein Heldenleben with Forest Philharmonic. Mark is a guest at the Opera and Orchestral Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Guest Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and Visiting Conducting Fellow at the RNCM.

Recent engagements have included Ernani for ENO, Rigoletto for Opera North as well as debuts at the National Reisopera, Holland, and La Fenice, Venice, and performances of Jenufa in Nantes. He recently returned to the Reisopera for La Traviata, and Così fan tutte in Nantes, where he will return this year for The Makropoulos Case. His highly successful debut at Frankfurt Opera with Tosca was quickly followed by productions of Death In Venice and Simon Boccanegra and he will return later this year for Nabucco.
In 2009 he made his symphonic debut in Denmark, his first visit to the Orchestre de Pays de Loire and his debut in Marseilles, where he has been invited to return in 2012 for a new production of La bohème.

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Our String Principals:

Leader
John Crawford received his early training in Sheffield.  At the age of 13, he became a member of the National Youth Orchestra, which led to lessons at the Royal Academy of Music.  During this time, he won the Gold Medal of the Associated Board, and gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Music.  John continued his studies abroad in Vienna and Siena, and after several years at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, now enjoys a full career as a freelance player and teacher in London.  He teaches at Trinity College and the Purcell School, and returns every year to Finland for a series of master classes.

Principal Second Violin
Liz Patridge has had a varied career in music. When she left college she played in a string quartet. She then went to work for the BBC and English National Opera before joining the orchestra of the Royal Opera House where she worked with many notable singers, dancers and conductors. For the last few years she has been freelancing, making a living recording music for rock bands and dinosaurs amongst others, playing in West End shows and concerts. Education work is a big part of her life.

Principal Viola
Natalie Taylor began studying the viola at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and went on to continue her studies at the Guildhall with Amanda Denley.  As a chamber musician she has taken part in  master classes with the Takacs Quartet, Edith Vogel and the Brodsky Quartet.  She is currently a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Principal Cello
Ian Pressland studied cello with Florence Hooton and Donald McCall. While at Trinity College of Music he won the Sonata Prize, the Louise Bande and Sir John Barbirolli prizes for cello. Ian was a member of the BBC Concert Orchestra and later became Assistant Director of Pro Corda. He is now a Director of 'Arts and Finance', his own music promotion company, and the London Chamber Orchestra. A member of the Rasumovsky String Quartet, he plays a 1760 Joseph Hill cello, bought with assistance from the Musicians Loan Fund in memory of Jacqueline du Pré.
 

Principal Bass

Kenneth Knussen studied double bass with his father, Stuart, former Principal Bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Having become a member of the Scottish National Orchestra he soon moved back to London to join the BBC Symphony where he remained for seven years. Since 1993 he has pursued a distinguished and varied freelance career working with all of London's orchestras. He is currently Principal Bass of the London Concert Orchestra and Music Theatre Wales, a critically acclaimed contemporary opera company, and works regularly with the London Philharmonic and English National Ballet. He has worked with Forest Philharmonic for 15 years.

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Forest Philharmonic Society is affiliated to Making Music

Forest Philharmonic Society is affiliated to Waltham Forest Arts Council

This page last updated on 15 April 2010

Registered Company No 1539958              Charity Number 1026792