Minehead and Exmoor Festival Orchestra Was originally founded by Tim Reynish in 1963. It has been running in its present form for well over twenty five years and, since 1982, under our Artistic Director, Richard Dickins. A core of the performers have been coming for all of that time. Others have joined more recently and every season sees some coming for the first time.

The players are drawn from all over the country but most come from the London area where many of them perform with well established orchestras and chamber groups: our frequent leader Maya Magub has been with the London Mozart Players for some ten years. Some of the performers do live locally but the reason we look further afield is to find instrumentalists who will maintain and, where possible, improve on the well established high standards our audiences have come to expect. The fixing of players is done by the orchestra itself and this ensures that they gel as soon as they arrive and play well together. Our Monday audiences may not realise that the concert they are enjoying was only rehearsed for the first time on the day before.

With Richard Dickins' help we are able to enjoy performances by well established international soloists as well as up and coming stars.