The Hallé has become the first UK orchestra to make its archive available online.
Its 165 year repertoire will be available through a searchable, digital archive.
More than 20 years in the making, the digital database will have more than 40k listings of individual works, artists, soloists, concert halls and more, dating from 1858 to 1990.
The project began in 2002, when the National Lottery Heritage Fund supported a student volunteer to manually input data for the concerts conducted by founder, Sir Charles Hallé. Since then, through further National Lottery funding, a bank of volunteers have been trained as part of the Ancoats: The Hallé Story Project.
The end of this initial stage will be marked this Sunday (21st January), with a matinee concert performed jointly by the Hallé and Hallé Youth Orchestra. On site will be archivists and other staff to answer questions about its history and the database.
The Hallé gave its first concert on 30 January 1858 under the baton of founder Sir Charles Hallé. For the majority of its history, it was based at the Free Trade Hall, but it moved to various venues around Manchester, including the Albert Hall and Kings Hall Belle Vue, during the Manchester Blitz. It returned to the Free Trade Hall after its rebuild, performing its last concert at the venue in 1996, before moving to its current home, The Bridgewater Hall.
