About the Orchestra

The orchestra was founded by Amanda Williams. Amanda has a degree in Fine Art and Music from Brunel University, London, having studied piano and oboe and now works as a primary school teacher with a music specialism. She has lived in Warminster since 2002 and in July 2004 founded the Warminster Philharmonic Orchestra to help local musicians get together. She used to travel to play with the Bournemouth Philharmonic every week to play the oboe and out of sheer frustration thought she would see if there would be enough interest in her home town to get a group together. 

“Warminster needed to provide more options for musicians. I have enjoyed playing with the other orchestras but felt that there must be other people in my position, who have studied music to a reasonable level at school and university and now have their instruments stuck under the bed due to the lack of groups in the local area.”

We are a group of nearly 40 musicians ranging in age from fun to wise who meet fortnightly at The Minster Church of St Denys.

“With my energy and enthusiasm I wanted to appeal to players of all ages who wish to make new friends through music. I do my best to cater and appeal to a wide range of people and musical skills; primarily through the social aspect of meeting as a group. We have musicians who are experiencing playing within an orchestra for the first time – who take the music to their teachers to continue learning, we have some other people who enjoy the outing to come and socialise with fellow musicians and we also have some extremely talented musicians who support me and generally tell me when I’m going wrong!"

The orchestra is a not-for-profit organisation which supports local charities through their community concerts. To date the orchestra has donated nearly £50,000.