About the Orchestra
The Carlisle Chamber Orchestra was founded in Fall of 2014 by Richard and Kathy Chick. The orchestra was conceived as a compact symphonic ensemble assembled to give skilled local musicians, who were not engaged in music performance as a full time occupation, the opportunity to play in a high quality chamber ensemble.
It is an additional priority of the founders that the orchestra's concert programming be chosen to appeal to a wide audience. The orchestra's overall goal is to become an integral and indispensable part of the fabric of the community.
The Carlisle Chamber Orchestra's debut concert was performed at the Carlisle Congregational Church on Dec. 5, 2014.
Music for CCO concerts must be suitable for a smaller orchestra. We are more likely to be performing the works of Mozart or Gershwin than Mahler or Wagner. Whlle we may include works from a variety of genres and eras from the baroque to the contemporary, a chamber orchestra is well suited to perform a variety of works that are less often chosen by the larger orchestras. These include everything from the smaller works of Mozart, Haydn, and Vivaldi, to some of the more recently composed contemporary pieces.
Composers of all nationalities have long incorporated music from their popular culture into their serious compositions. We believe that there is much from American popular music that will also eventually find its way into more serious forms. This broadly accepted popular raw material is the music frequently contained in the POPs programs of orchestras throughout the country. From time-to-time CCO will insert selections from the POPs repertoire into its concert programming to lighten and add variety to its concerts.
Concert Programming
CCO is committed to presenting many local vocalists and guest artists performing concertos on a broad variety of instruments. The artists are drawn from the local professional ranks as well as promising students, and especially accomplished semi-professionals.
Founding CCO
Testimonials
Mission Statement
The mission of the Carlisle Chamber Orchestra is to provide challenging and rewarding performance opportunities for accomplished local musicians and adding to the cultural enrichment of the community by presenting quality orchestral performances for local audiences regardless of means.
Awards
CCO has received awards from The American Prize - a National Nonprofit Competition in the Performing Arts. CCO was the Second Place WINNER in the community orchestras category for 2018-2019.
