About Us

North East Stage and Screen Orchestra and Choir (NESSOC) was formed to address three particular issues:

Participation

We believe that anyone and everyone who wants to perform music should get the chance so we want to remove as many barriers to that as possible.

This is why we have no restrictions on who can join. Especially with orchestras, there can be limits on how many of each instrument they allow in. This is not the case with us.

This is also why we are a non-auditioned group and welcome anyone who wants to join into the group, whether you want to join the orchestra, the choir, or both.

Socialisation

It can be difficult to find opportunities to meet new people outside of a place of education or work. An environment where everyone is participating in a hobby in common is a good place to do this.

To aid in this, all rehearsals will have an interval in the middle to give time to both have a break (and refreshment) and also a chance to socialise.

Having said all that, we do not want people to feel forced to socialise if they are not comfortable or just don't want to. If you want to just turn up, play and then leave, that is fine of course!

Representation

There are certain genres of music that are not performed much in concerts, especially by orchestras. This is for multiple reasons, including cost and potential snobbish attitudes towards them.

By focusing on music from the stage and screen, this allows us to showcase more modern music from, for example, film and video games while also allowing for more conventionally performed music from operas and ballets.

This also gives us more chances to perform music composed by women, non-white people and LGBTQ+ people.

Everything that this group does is done with these things in mind and with the fundamental aim to be a place where people can have fun and put on performances that they can be proud of.