The Ayrshire Philharmonic Opera Society is an amateur opera and theatre group based in Ayr, Scotland and was established in 1933. Initially, the company specialised in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas but, more recently, has performed musicals such as Carousel and Oklahoma! Since 1934, the company has produced some sixty-eight shows, the latest of which was the Pirates of Penzance in November 2007.

June 2008 - Production Update
After much discussion and many excellent and sometimes humourous suggestions for a title for this year's production, musical director Andrew Nicol's suggestion of Musical Stages was thought to be very apt. There is the obvious use of the word stage for a theatrical production but also the fact that our show will encompass the stages of development of music over a time span of over a century. At the same time the Ayrshire Philharmonic has gone through many developmental stages itself having, in its time, presented everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to operetta and musicals. This year "The Phil" will add musical revue to its repertoire.

2008 Production News
We recently learnt that The Gaiety Theatre will be available for us to use this year and, while we were very much looking forward to the challenge of organising a show in a new venue, we are delighted that we will be able to perform this year's show in our home theatre.

We had previously expected to be performing in Ayr's Town Hall in 2008 and, as such, we had decided that we would do a Show of Shows. We therefore plan to continue with this exciting idea for 2008. We will cherry-pick the best of the best of shows we have done and indeed shows we would like to do at some point in the future. The show will be linked by a theme and will be beautifully costumed, full of light colour movement, humour and, above all, the best of music. The company believes that this format will offer fantastic opportunities for individuals to shine as there will inevitably be a host of principal parts on offer, given that each section of the show will include different characters. We are fortunate once again to have Andrew Nicol as our musical director for 2008.

We are confident that our audiences will enjoy this year's show and, given that 2009 marks our 75th anniversary, this is an excellent time to revisit some of our best shows from the past and offer a taste some of the possible great shows of the future.

Concert Party News
The concert party were very well received at the Burns National Heritage Park on the 18th May 2008 where they sang a selection of Burns and Scottish songs as part of the Burns an' a' That Festival. News of the next concert party will appear here soon.

Get in Touch!
Please feel free to browse the website to find out more about the society. We are always delighted to hear from people who may be interested in joining. If you would like to find out more then please call Isobel on (01292) 287583 or email us.