The Orchestra Session, a Winchester CIC formed in August, plays its first concert in the St Cross chapel on 21 November. Twenty strings, £23 and £12.
Winchester has a new orchestra, and it plays its first concert in the medieval chapel at the Hospital of St Cross on Saturday 21 November.
The Orchestra Session was founded by Winchester musician James Symington. It was registered at Companies House on 7 August 2026 as THE ORCHESTRA SESSION CIC, company number 17388342: a community interest company limited by guarantee, with its registered office in Winchester and performing arts as its stated business. Symington is its sole director, appointed on the day it was formed.
The launch announcement sent to The Winchester Post describes him as a professional musician and Army Bandmaster, and a BMus (Hons), FRSM graduate.
The concert is called The First Movement. Twenty string players will perform, according to the venue’s own listing. Doors open at 6.30pm with the bar in the Hundred Men’s Hall, the music starts at 7.30pm, and there is an interval.
Every player on the same rate
The point of the orchestra, as its founders put it, is how the musicians are treated. The announcement we were sent says Symington “wants to create opportunities for professional musicians to perform together in Winchester and to ensure that they are properly paid for their work”, while making live music something audiences “can be part of, rather than something reserved for a select audience”.
The orchestra’s own ticket listing is more specific. It calls the group a 20-piece chamber orchestra built on “professional and exceptional amateur musicians sharing one stage, one mission”. The venue’s listing spells out what that means in practice: every player is paid the same professional rate for the same role.
The second commitment is the charitable one. A fixed share of every ticket sold goes to charities that help people afford instruments, tuition or a place in an ensemble. The orchestra’s listing calls this “a permanent commitment, not a one-off gesture”. It does not name the charities.
The programme
The pieces are mostly ones people will recognise without necessarily knowing their names. The orchestra lists:
- J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
- J.S. Bach, Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3, the “Air on the G String”
- Pachelbel, Canon in D major
- Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, selected movements from Spring, Summer and Winter
- Mendelssohn, String Symphony No. 10
- Dvořák, Serenade for Strings
Dvořák’s Serenade takes the whole second half.
Tickets and what they cost
Tickets are £23 standard and £12 concessions, the concession rate covering students, under-25s and the unwaged, as listed by the Hospital of St Cross. They are sold through Eventbrite, where booking fees are added on top: the listing’s own price data on 22 September showed a cheapest ticket of £13.70 and a dearest of £25.63 at checkout. Tickets went on sale on 11 August.
Getting there
Parking at the Hospital of St Cross is limited, and the orchestra’s listing says so plainly. It suggests two alternatives:
- park in the city centre and take the No. 1 Blue Star bus, which stops outside the Hospital of St Cross
- park in town and walk the roughly 1.5 miles down the River Itchen
If you are driving in, our guide to parking in Winchester sets out where the first hour is still free.
What it means for you
This is a new concert series trying to establish itself, so the first night is the one that decides whether there is a second. The practical points:
- Saturday 21 November, doors 6.30pm, music 7.30pm, at the Chapel, Hospital of St Cross, St Cross Road, SO23 9SD
- £23 standard, £12 for students, under-25s and the unwaged, before Eventbrite’s fees
- a bar in the Hundred Men’s Hall before the concert and during the interval
- a fixed share of your ticket goes to music education charities
The company is new enough that there is nothing else on its Companies House record yet: its first accounts are not due until May 2028. What it has said about pay and about giving a share of every ticket away is, for now, a statement of intent rather than something anyone can check in a filing. The concert on 21 November is the first test of it.
Sources: Companies House, THE ORCHESTRA SESSION CIC (17388342); Hospital of St Cross event listing; The Orchestra Session’s ticket listing; and the launch announcement sent to The Winchester Post on 22 September 2026.
Have your say