Latest News from the Hampshire Guitar Orchestra
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What's new? Our latest site additions & updates...

2009 is hago's 10th anniversary - read more here - **new** promo video

Where are you? See the Missing In Action splash on the right

July 2009

2nd July - a review of our concert at Quarley Hall is on the Amport Website

What a hot rehearsal tonight - our first heat-wave rehearsal for a very long time - and what a disaster the temperature proved to be - three strings broke on the way to rehearsal!

June 2009

30th June - we've now got a much neater address for our pages on Facebook - www.facebook.com/HampshireGuitarOrchestra - come and take a peek - membership not required, though if you do become a member and a "fan" of hago, you'll get an email update every time we announce a new concert.

27th June - we've added a new gallery of photos to our website commemorating all the fun, food and friendship we've shared with our great friends at Cambridge Guitar Orchestra - see the gallery here.

24th June - a slight improvement, we hope, to our home page montage, as we attempt to capture and distil all things hago into a single image.

24th June - our concert in Quarley earlier this month raised the fantastic sum of £645 for the Alzheimer's Society in Salisbury! Thank you to everyone who came; your ticket helped swell that total to such a large and heartwarming sum.

21st June - the longest day. And last night was the shortest night for a VERY long time - we played a wonderful concert in Cambridge, as guests of Cambridge Guitar Orchestra. As has become the tradition, we retreated to our hotel afterwards for the "after-show party", and the last men standing had a very short night before our hearty cooked breakfasts at 8:30 the following morning (well, the same morning, to be honest!)

We continued our tradition of a prank somewhere in the evening, and this year's prank was to mock up an exhibition of portraits of CGO's Musical Director Peter Rueffer, accompanied by our rendition of Left Bank Two, the Vision On Gallery Theme (our YouTube clip of a "straight performance" is here). Our artistic skills are not, it would seem, as highly honed as our guitar skills. You can have a sneak peek at our photos on our Facebook page.

13th June - we're looking forward to our concert in Quarley tonight, way out in the country just west of Andover. If you fancy a drive out on some deserted roads into peaceful flowing scenery, we'll see you there for a 7:30 start. Pimms is being served....

6th June - our fund-raising concert for our great friends at West Sussex Guitar Club, which we played for them on 25th April, is reviewed in their latest newsletter, which you can read online....

4th June - our website is 9 years old today. We're currently serving about 600,000 pages a year to people like yourselves, coming to find out about our concerts, view our videos or buy easy ensemble music.

May 2009

31st May - One of our players writes...

On one of regular pilgrimages yesterday, to what I think is the largest and finest Guitar Shop in the UK, at Birmingham, I was delighted to be given a promotional DVD of something that's being published very soon. Brian Whitehouse, the owner and teacher of some of the finest conservatoire players in the UK, has had exclusive access to the Ramirez Museum, and played one of the world's greatest collections of historical and modern guitars. The whole project, at the invitation of Amalia Ramirez, has resulted in a beautifully illustrated and fascinating book and CD. I was thrilled to have a chance to see one of the final proofs, and it's a stunning book that I'll be rushing to purchase as soon as it's out.

Dozens of pieces of music demonstrate the wonderful sound that these many guitars can make, with pieces being carefully selected to suit the era of the instrument. It's a fascinating and very readable book, lavishly illustrated with photos, manuscripts and other memorabilia.

25th May - our fund-raising total has risen to £43,368 - thank you for supporting our work for charity.

24th May - we have updated our Audio & Video page - come and take a look!

15th May - calling Sandy Guzzetti - you asked us some questions, but your email address is refusing our reply - it's just bounced back - please make contact again so we can check the address you sent us...