hago concerts - 2009

28 February

The United Reformed Church at Hythe have a regular concert series; we played in aid of their rebuilding fund.

From the URC website

We have also had a wonderful evening being entertained and enchanted by the Hampshire Guitar Orchestra which was supported by over 100 people and contributed £842 to the building fund.

Read a review of this event

14 March

St Leonard's Church, Sherfield English, puts on concerts through the year, and we played in aid of restoration funds.

The organiser wrote

Thankyou very much for a lovely evening on saturday; the feedback was exellent. They thought the sound of hearing eleven guitars together was lovely not what some expected. We will certainly call you back again. Profit made was 360 pounds thank you 

2 April

We were invited to play at The Oasis Centre Portsmouth for Age Concern

The organiser wrote

A huge thank you to you personally and to all members of the orchestra for your support of Age Concern Portsmouth once again. It was a most enjoyable evening and your performance was as skilful and entertaining as always

25 April

It was a great thrill to play at West Sussex Guitar Club in aid of their Club Funds.
You can watch some of our performance on video.

Terry Woodgate (Chairman and Editor of the WSGC magazine) writes

Thank you for a very enjoyable concert last night. You could tell from the enthusiastic applause that the audience really enjoyed themselves (mayors included). There was a mix of superb music - much not heard for a very long time and brilliant arrangements. The mix of guitar sizes meant that with some pieces (Elizabethan Serenade) if you closed your eyes you would not have known it was just guitars playing.

Please convey our thanks to the orchestra for a very enjoyable and fun evening. I am sure the new faces in the audience will return. Above all many thanks for helping to sponsor our club! That was a very kind gesture.

16 May

It was a great thrill to be invited to the Royal Star and Garter home at Richmond for a short afternoon concert for the residents.

Heather Robinson, the organiser, writes

Many thanks to you all for a splendid concert on Saturday.
Everyone was buzzing with it afterwards and feedback has been very positive.
You are all such a lovely bunch of people too- a real pleasure to have you.
As you quite rightly said, some of the pieces will stay in our minds for a while to come. You may already know this but the Germans have a word for a tune that 'gets stuck' in your head- they call it an earworm. I have an earworm of Elizabethan Serenade! (Makes a change from some of my usual suspects).

13 June

We drove over to Quarley, just west of Andover at the invitation of Four Parishes Arts Society.

Helen Norman, organiser, writes

Good day Derek
I meant to write last week to say how much everyone enjoyed your orchestra and the music that they played. It was a most successful evening and we were able to give a more generous cheque than we first anticipated to the Alzheimer's Society.
Various members of the audience were particularly complimentary.
I hope that all your orchestra members arrived home safely
We look forward to meeting again in the future
Go well and may success follow

20 June

It was a great pleasure to spend another weekend in Cambridge sharing a concert with Cambridge Guitar Orchestra.

From Peter Rueffer - CGO MD

Dear Derek
My thanks to you and everyone in HAGO for your marvellous contributions both musically and otherwise to the concert on Saturday.
Its sad that we have to wait another year before we meet again - If only we lived closer to each other.
With best wishes to you all
Peter

4 July

We played at the western Edge of Fareham in aid of Church Mission Funds for St Columba's.

The event raised £235

19 September

We played at St Peter's, in the centre of Petersfield, raising £760 for the "Away From It All" holiday scheme for disadvantaged families,

The organiser wrote

Derek
Many, many thanks...it was a brilliant concert and yes they were a cool audience.
Anyway it was a fun night, we made money and lots of people looked at our leaflets etc.
again many thanks

3 October

We were invited to return to the Church of the Good Shepherd at Four Marks near Alton, to perform a second concert in aid of "Friends of Boundaries Surgery"

After the concert, the organiser wrote on Facebook...

Wonderful concert at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Four Marks in aid of Friends of Boundaries Surgery on Saturday evening. Those people who weren't there missed a treat.....

4 October

It was a great thrill to be invited back to Portsmouth Guildhall as guests of the Milton Glee Club again at their autumn celebration concert.

The MGC's Deputy Chair wrote...

I enjoyed your programme and sense of humour. I found Eternal Flame played by your guitars very moving indeed.
...
I hope we can perform together again in the future.

17 October

Following on from our April concert, Sir Michael Moore asked us over to Portchester as part of the concert series at St Mary's Church, in the grounds of Portchester Castle.

The concert was a sell-out, and we performed sideways on in the main body of the Church to give the audience the best possible sound.

The concert raised £1250 for Church funds. The organiser wrote

That was quite EXCELLENT (his capitals)
We've had many nice comments
Best wishes

19 November

It's tradition that we perform one concert each year in aid of The Rowans Hospice - a simply wonderful and caring place on the edge of the countryside. This time we played at a new venue - St Barnabas Swanmore...

From the organiser...

An absolutely brilliant Concert as always - thank you to everyone for making the evening possible and for supporting The Rowans Hospice.
Peter Kelly (vicar of Swanmore) has written to me: "Everyone here thoroughly enjoyed HAGO yesterday".

And in a later email...

I can now confirm that Hago were kind enough to raise £807-41 at the recent Concert held in Swanmore supporting The Rowans Hospice - we are absolutely delighted with the result and would like to thank everyone for making this possible.

May I take this opportunity of wishing all at Hago a very Merry Christmas and many best wishes for the New Year.

17 December

We played a short concert of Christmas Music for the residents at Nicholson Gardens Sheltered Housing complex in Portsmouth. Always a fantastic evening with lusty singing and lots of good-natured heckling!