Welcome to our 18th season of Orchard Lake Philharmonic

Rehearsals begin for our All American concert on September 11, 2025 at West Bloomfield Middle School band room. The music for this concert is all by composers born and raised in the USA.

Our second concert is with Nardin Park United Methodist Church’s Chancel Choir and features The Many Moods of Christmas. Written in 1963, this is a collaboration with orchestra and chorus arranged by Robert Shaw and Robert Russell Bennett and has 18 different Christmas carols arranged into four movements. Jack Chefan, the Music Director at Nardin Park was able to rent this piece for a limited time. We are excited to be able to perform this wonderful piece.

The February concert at Nardin Park UMC is just OLP. Two pieces by Beethoven, including the 1st Symphony, two concertos and a wonderful three movement London Suite by Coates are featured in this concert. The Spring Bouquet will enlighten you with the beautiful music.

In March, on Palm Sunday, the orchestra again performs with the Nardin Park Chancel Choir with a new cantata written by Norah Duncan called Easter’s Song. Norah is a member of the Nardin Park Chancel Choir.

Our last concerts are at St James and St Therese featuring music to wave the American Flag. Our patriot concert American Salute celebrates the military, the Civil War, George M Cohan and a new piece for us “A Bridge Too Far”, written for an epic war film from 1977 showing WWII Operation Market Garden, a failed Allied operation in the Netherlands in the movie A Bridge Too Far.

OLP has gained many new members and is looking for only a few more musicians. We need another trombone and a tuba player, a string bass player or two and a couple more 1st violinists. Anyone else interested in joining OLP but play a different instrument than these can still send in a registration form and will be informed if there is a place for them during the year. We do have people not able to play all the concerts, therefore a space or two does open up during the year.

Our concert schedule and music is on the website for your perusal. Please come and enjoy a wonderful season of music with OLP.