Asklepios Orchestra

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Asklepios Orchestra

Enjoying amateur music-making since 1969! Conductor : Lee Armstrong What's in a name?

Asklepios Orchestra is an amateur orchestra founded in 1969 by Dr. David Humphreys, a Physician in the Birmingham General Hospital where the orchestra originally rehearsed. Although the orchestra has a 'medical' origin, you don't have to have a medical background to join us and we welcome players from anywhere! The title of the orchestra derives from the ancient Greek healer Asklepios (Ἀσκληπιός,

Latin form Aesculapius). Asklepios was said to have saved the unborn child of Apollo and became physician of the argonauts. He and his daughter Hygieia were later deified with special responsibility for healing. Various temples were built to Asklepios, perhaps the most famous being at Epidaurus where a magnificent theatre was also constructed. David Humphreys visited Epidaurus during a holiday and the link between early medicine and entertainment gave him the initial idea for the title of the orchestra. In addition however, close by Epidaurus is Delphi where the oracle was also associated with music, hence a further link between medicine and music.

27/06/2026

...thank goodness it's going to be cooler 😎

**Tomorrow**
The Asklepios Orchestra will be in Barnt Green for its Summer concert!
🎼
Featuring soloist Richard Tattam, we look forward to welcoming you to the very comfortable setting which is St Andrew's Church.
🎻
Tickets (online / on the door) £10
Under 16's free!
📯
Interval refreshments available 🥂

06/06/2026

Featuring soloist Richard Tattam, the Asklepios Orchestra returns to this month for its Summer !

📆 Sunday 28 June

🎟 Tickets now on sale...
£10
Under 16's free!
ticketsource.co.uk/asklepios-orchestra

(also available on the door)

📯 , ,
and !

29/03/2026

Tonight!

A warm welcome and great music awaits...

11/03/2026

The Asklepios Orchestra Spring Concert will be here soon!

**Sunday 29th March**
St Andrew's Church, Barnt Green

Tickets now on sale:
£10
Under 16's free!
www.ticketsource.co.uk/asklepios-orchestra

(also available on the door)

Beethoven, Gounod, Sibelius, Gouvy,
and Mendelssohn!

20/11/2025

🍂 Almost time for our Autumn Concert...

Come in from the cold this Sunday evening for some absolutely wonderful Nutcracker, but before that, we'll be off to Metropolis!

Tickets £10 at:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/asklepios-orchestra

Also available on the door.

Photography shared with kind permission of Caroline Holden 📸

28/10/2025

📣 Asklepios returns next month for an evening of Metropolis and Nutcracker!

Enjoy Lee Armstrong's masterful orchestrations of these two incredible works in the orchestra's autumn concert. A warm welcome awaits, in Barnt Green on Sunday 23 November!

For advance tickets, visit: www.ticketsource.co.uk/asklepios-orchestra

Photography shared with kind permission of Caroline Holden 📸

15/09/2025

Hello and beyond!

Asklepios Orchestra in Birmingham are looking for string players - 2nd violins, violas, cellos and basses of grade 6+ and 1st violins of grade 8+

We are a passionate and engaged group of amateur players who tackle a really varied repertoire. Last season featured music by Wagner, Debussy, Kalinnikov, Harry Burleigh, Bruch, Weill, Elfrida Andrée, Morfydd Owen, Constance Warren, Jane Joseph and Florence Price.

This term we have an extended suite from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, including the transformation, battle, and both the beautiful pas de deux; then, an epic suite by Gottfried Huppertz from the 1927 silent sci-fi film, Metropolis - all very Star Wars, via Wagner and Prokofiev!

In the spring we're tackling Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony alongside music by Beethoven, Gounod, Gouvy and Sibelius, and in the summer we're doing Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture, Mozart's Bassoon Concerto and George Whitefield Chadwicks fantastically 'yee-haw' Symphonic Sketches!

Interested? Find us on Facebook, X, or visit asklepios-orchestra.com

📸 Photography shared with kind permission of Caroline Holden

(that’s us! 👇🏼)

01/06/2025

Four weeks today!

In memory of Deborah Taylor, we're delighted to present an all-women-composer programme for our Summer concert this month.

We hope you can join us.

09/04/2025

Almost there now...

The Asklepios Orchestra is back in Barnt Green this Sunday with its Spring concert and we're delighted to be welcoming guest soloist Eleanor Mackey, with Bruch's Violin Concerto No.1 !

We're also looking forward to presenting new orchestral arrangements (courtesy of our conductor Lee Armstrong!) of less well known, but no less significant works, by Harry T. Burleigh and Kurt Weill.

All welcome!

Our concerts are free, with retiring collection.
Interval refreshments available.

🎺 Sunday 13th April @ 7pm
⛪️ St Andrew's Church, Barnt Green

Address

Birmingham

Website

http://asklepios-orchestra.com/

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