About Us

The orchestra seeks to provide students with the opportunity to study and perform some of the most challenging symphonic repertoire. We cater both for members seeking to pursue careers in the music profession as well as those wishing to continue and develop their performance skills whilst completing degrees in non-musical subjects. Many of our members go on to conservatoires after their time at Southampton, while others become doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and more! We take on a full professional programme each term, and repertoire highlights in the last couple of years have included symphonies by Mahler, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. In addition to the four concerts a year, our members enjoy a variety of socials and a European tour

Our approaching 2023-24 SUSO concert season promises many new opportunities for this long established Southampton orchestra. With a newly appointed Assistant Musical Director, we have some exciting new concert projects ahead, which will see the orchestra team up with children’s choirs from local schools, offer music workshops for local primary school children, perform ambitious programmes of mainstream symphonic repertoire – offering new conducting experience to its assistant student conductor along the way, and it will embark upon a concert tour to Germany next June. The SUSO’s work within the local community and its continued musical journey, looks bright.

The orchestra offers high quality training to Southampton University students from all degree courses, and with as much as 50% of the orchestral membership studying non-musical subjects (from aeronautics to computer science, engineering to history, law to languages and medicine to economics and many more) we are keen to increase the orchestra’s links with local companies – equally, from all fields and professions.