As a large symphonic band, Philharmonie Gelre performs around eight times each year, both in concert halls and in the open air. In April and May we give yearly recurring concerts in the city of Arnhem: for the celebration of Queen’s Day and for the Remembrance of the Dead on the fourth of May.
In the summer period, we seek opportunities for special (open air) concerts. In 2007 we traveled to the southernmost part of the Netherlands for a concert in Vaals and in 2009 we performed in the beautiful park 'Forstgarten' in Kleve, Germany. In 2012, our orchestra was invited to give an open air concert at the Floriade, which is an international exhibition of flowers and gardening, held every ten years in the Netherlands.
Our winter programme is centred around our large concert in Arnhem’s concert hall Musis Sacrum, one of the most renowned concert halls in the Netherlands. On this yearly event, we play classic and modern symphonic repertoire from famous composers such as Gershwin, Barnes, Sjostakovitsj and others. In November 2009 we performed Shéhérazade by Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov. In 2010, the concert was about complicated love (photos), with pieces by Verdi (La Forza del Destino), Prokofiev (Suite from Romeo and Juliet) and Bernstein (Symphonic Dances from West Side Story). The next year we performed Orff's Carmina Burana, in collaboration with 'Toonkunst Zutphen', a large choir with 90 members. Our concert of 2013 was entitled Music from the New World, which refers to Dvořák's famous 9th Symphony.
Once every four years we participate in national band contests, where we have reached good results in the first division. In november 2008 we booked a great result in the yearly national band contest in Zaandam. Every two to four years we make a musical trip abroad. In 2004 we visited Catalonia, and in May 2008 we played in the Moselle region in Germany. In May 2010 we visited the Como region in the north of Italy, and in 2013 we travelled to Berlin, where we participated in the International Wind Orchestra Festival.