We are Croydon’s Resident Orchestra.
Our story at Fairfield Halls began in 1964 when we gave our first performance, conducted by our founder Harry Blech. After that, we decided we quite liked this Modernist building and its award-winning acoustics, so we made it our home in 1989 and took up our status as Resident Orchestra. Our long-standing partnership here is a proud part of our identity; it’s where our management team is based and where our artistic vision comes to life.
Fairfield is the perfect party venue; we’ve celebrated some of our biggest milestones here. It’s where we launched Croydon’s spectacular term as London Borough of Culture in 2023, where we’ve celebrated our 60th, 70th and 75th birthdays and where we’ve experimented with haze machines and flashy lighting.
Big names in Croydon
We like to honour legacies here, too. The composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was raised in Croydon, and his legacy is still felt around the borough. In 2025, we celebrated his 150th anniversary with a huge celebration at Fairfield, and we run a bi-annual Prize for under-represented composers in Coleridge-Taylor’s name.
Created for Croydon, with Croydon
Our work here is informed by our talented and diverse community. Over the past few years, our work has evolved into creating large-scale, community-driven events which showcase the artistic creativity of our home borough.
We make music, Croydon style
From ambitious commissions to photography projects to imaginative staging, we’re pushing the boundaries of what it means to be Croydon’s Resident Orchestra.
