Leader, Norman Rouse
Conductor, Maurice Miles from the Pump Room, Bath (Soloist, GEOFFREY BROOK )
The Bath Pump Room Orchestra, under its versatile conductor Maurice Miles , is the oldest-established orchestra in the country, and is carrying on a tradition of over two and a quarter centuries of orchestral music in Bath.
In 1671 there is on record ' a band of musick' which consisted then of five players. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the famous Beau Nash was requested by the physicians of Bath to allow this band to play in the Pump Room, and so successful was this venture that the Pump Room musicians have been continued ever since. Subscriptions were opened, famous players engaged, and the Pump Room Orchestra began its task of playing not only in concerts, but for the famous balls that drew the elite from all over the country.