Earlier this year, I was lucky to get a place in the latest project by the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra. Now, first I should explain: These chaps are not like your regular, Saturday-morning orchestra however, the scale is breathtaking.
They are an online collaboration of fans across the world who submit self-recorded audio and video to the production team in the US (all fans!), who then edit all the tracks and videos together to form one giant patchwork masterpiece. Now whilst that is in itself, very impressive, I must bring you back to the scale.
Bearing in mind that most symphony orchestras number about 50, its then incredible to think that the DWFO numbers up to 500 in every project. As well as traditional orchestral instruments, they add a full range of percussion, guitar, bass, keys and even a choir to capture the epic scale of Murray Gold’s music for the show.
But perhaps most importantly, it’s clear that the love is really there: many performers dress up to record their video submissions and they seem to compete for the most creative costume! It’s wonderful to see community music making on such an international scale- long may it continue!
Their latest project, ‘Donna’s Suite’ celebrates the music written about the companion, Donna (immortalised by Catherine Tate) and includes a lot of Latin-American inspired tunes and rhythms, which is what makes it stand out from the rest of the score.
I was lucky enough to get to play Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Alto Sax on this recording. See if you can see me pop up anywhere! I’m most proud of my clarinet slide at 2:37. Enjoy!

Click here to learn more about the DWFO.