The Minehead Community Orchestra (MCO) was founded by David Pitts on 25th January 2012, when it was known as the Alcomber’s Orchestra.
Over the past fourteen years we have lost members and indeed conductors but have gained replacements regularly. Emily Feldberg stepped in and conducted us when we were suddenly without a conductor. She held us together and brought us forward for the past 7 years, for which we are greatly thankful but has now stepped aside and back to her cello.
We are very fortunate that composer James Stringer is now our conductor, he studied piano at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College, London, and retired to Minehead in 2021 after a career in business.
Since then, James has participated in many musical activities locally and is a member of the saxophone quartet/quintet “Sax Collective,” recorder quintet “Pipe Dreams,” the Exeter Recorder Orchestra, the Watchet Town Band (saxophone and associate conductor) and the Exmoor Piano Group, as well as playing keyboard in various pantomimes and musicals at The Regal theatre, most recently as Musical Director for “Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood.” James has also contributed to several albums by rock musicians over the years, as well as producing modern dance and ambient music in his own studio. Several of James’s compositions are published by Peacock Press.
James looks forward to conducting the Minehead Community Orchestra over the coming year and will feature some of his own music in its repertoire.
We are also fortunate to have Mary Sutcliffe as our leader. Mary is a music graduate from 2006 with violin as her first instrument. She joined the MCO in 2018 and has loved every minute, particularly valuing the friendly atmosphere in which to share music. She has played violin since school days and taught Abrsm violin grades for 20 yrs plus organized many annual children’s concerts and performances.
Mary comes from a family with musical parents and 14 children who all played. She also plays several other instruments and leads a folk band of her original songs (Mary and the Faeries) and ran a vibrant weekly open mic (The Parlour Party) for 12 years.
Mary and her husband have been successfully in the music business for 45 yrs earning a living from music, running music events for all ages http://www.whirl-y-fayre.co.uk and http://www.whirl-y-gig.org.uk
