Haffner Orchestra

The Orchestra

The Haffner Orchestra is Lancaster's regular orchestra for professionals or well-qualified amateur musicians. We currently have around 50 members. The orchestra is a regular contributor to the musical life of the city, giving three concerts each year at Lancaster's Ashton Hall at the Town Hall in Dalton Square. They normally take place in November, February and June and pre-concert talks are usually given. Workshops and other activities are occasionally organised, and sometimes we perform concerts elsewhere. We have built a good reputation for playing a wide repertoire to a high standard, and our audiences are enthusiastic and full of praise.

In 2004 we welcomed our current Musical Director, Natalia Luis-Bassa. Originally from Venezuela, Natalia's passion for music is stimulating and exciting for both players and audience. (Pic.of Natalia) Our President is Raphael Wallfisch, the internationally recognised cellist. Well known artists and visiting conductors have joined us over the years: Sir Charles Groves, Arthur Butterworth, Wyn Davies, Janet Hilton, Anna Markland, Andrew West, Linda Kitchen, Craig Ogden, Yonty Solomon and Yeland Chen, among many others.

The Ashton Hall affords us many benefits. We are able to make our audience welcome in the large foyer, and we run a bar before the concert and in the interval on the level of the concert hall. There is also an imposing Banqueting Suite where a party is held for members and patrons after the summer concert.

We organise an annual fundraising Open Garden event in May, which has become popular and well supported. There are many social activities for members, which include walks and social weekends

History of the orchestra

The 2006-2007 season is the Haffner's 30th anniversary and events are planned to celebrate this landmark. A special work has been commissioned from Arthur Butterworth, a great friend of the orchestra, and in June 2007 Raphael and Elizabeth Wallfisch join us to play Brahms' Double Concerto.

In the early 1970s, there was no regular local orchestra in Lancaster. Individual instrumental players were invited to accompany choral concerts, but had to look to Kendal for involvement in orchestral music. It was Kenneth Oates who saw the potential for drawing these players together to form an orchestra. With the support of other local musicians, a chamber orchestra emerged, conducted by Gerard Doyle and led by Wendy Cann, and taking the name "Haffner" from one of Mozart's patrons in Salzburg.

The Haffner Orchestra gave its first concert in March 1976. Since then the orchestra has earned the respect and attracted the support of many well-known professional musicians, including Sir Charles Groves, who was the orchestra's first President and conducted the Haffner Orchestra at its 10th anniversary concert. After his death, the Presidency was taken up by Raphael Wallfisch, a world renowned cellist who has also performed as soloist with the orchestra, notably at our 25th anniversary concert. The position of Musical Director has been held by Gerard Doyle, Tim Carter, Denis McCaldin, Roger Cann, and, since 2004, Natalia Luis-Bassa.

Until 2002 the orchestra gave its concerts in the Princess Margaretha Hall at St Martin's College in Lancaster. Audiences grew so large that the orchestra needed a bigger venue, and concerts now take place in the Ashton Hall, which is part of the Victorian town hall in Dalton Square in the centre of Lancaster.