After graduating with honours from the Royal College of Music, Maestro Dodd founded the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble that included the finest of the Royal College's graduates. He secured the necessary support to allow the orchestra to mount and develop regular season programmes and to regularly perform in London. The Chelsea Symphony orchestra toured in Europe, including performances in Switzerland and Paris, where the audiences showed their enthusiasm by awarding Maestro Dodd and the Orchestra a ten-minute standing ovation.