Having played quite a few tunes together over the years, the ‘Dorks’ are now a proud, intermediate and advanced level group of adult string and woodwind players.

Made up of a disparate group that includes an architect, archaeologists, a couple of vets and a few medics, a literature professor, a speech pathologist, a lawyer, engineers, a care worker, a copyright queen and mums and dads, we are conducted by our enthusiastic and fearless maestro Daemon Clark (a real musician!). We are generally well known for our enthusiasm!

We play an eclectic mix of western art music and occasionally attempt popular hits. Previous repertoire included Beethoven (1st, 2nd, 5th) and Haydn symphonies, some Telemann, Bach Brandenburg concertos (1st, 2nd, 5th) and Mozart’s Sturm und Drang 40th symphony. We recently ventured into an overture by Chevalier St. George (they didn’t pick ours for the movie, though!), and our most recent favourite was the Overture in D by Emilie Mayer, a woman composer from the 19th century. We been known to play a couple of zesty tangos but our all time faves are Bach Brandenburg No.3, short versions of Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and Rossini’s Barber of Seville.

The ‘Dorks’ meet from mid-January all the way through to mid-December at North Fremantle Community Centre Hall, 2 Thompson Road, North Fremantle (off Stirling Highway) every Thursday night, 7.30pm until 9.30pm.

Click below to listen to the Dorkestra being insterview on Radio Fremantle

Radio Fremantle interview Feb 2017

……..”The infectious rhythmic style of Stephen Bulla’s Subway Stomp was recently recorded live by the Dorkestra for a select audience. Played for the most part in time and with notes in tune and in the right sequence, this creative sleuthy number tells us much about the Dorkestra’s emerging skills as one of Fremantle’s most musically challenged groups. With the jazzy harmonies of the violins, clarinet and flutes held together by the plucking strong performance of the cellos and violas echoing the eerie stomp of footsteps, Maestro Daemon Clark leads his orchestra through the dark corners of the “subway” to emerge triumphant on the pavement in the bright light of day! It’s amazing how these try-hard non-musicians have risen from their earlier hits of the Dr Who theme tune and Gluck’s more challenging Dance of the Furies to almost master Bulla’s Subway Stomp. Onya Dorks!” – Ward 6A Monitor

“The deliberate use of disharmony works well in this performance” – Aircellist Weekly

“A triumph” – Royal Perth Review