City of London Sinfonia (CLS) is an English

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

based in London. CLS performs regularly across the city of London in venues from East London clubs to traditional Central London concert halls. CLS is orchestra-in-residence at

Opera Holland Park Opera Holland Park is a summer opera company which produces an annual season of opera performances, staged under a temporary canopy in front of the remains of Holland House, a Blitz-damaged building in Holland Park, west central London. The venue ...

since 2004 and holds a residency at

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

. The orchestra has developed close links with joint venture partners in Mexico and Japan, having toured to Mexico in May 2015 and to Japan in March 2017. It is a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

under English law. CLS performs chamber orchestra and ensemble repertoire from the Baroque period to the present day, and has a programming focus on the human voice. Now under the direction of creative director and leader Alexandra Wood, City of London Sinfonia collaborates with artists including Tony Adigun,

Jessica Cottis Jessica Cottis (born 13 December 1979, Sale, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian-British conductor. She is currently artistic director and chief conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Early life Cottis was born at RAAF Base East Sal ...

Soumik Datta Soumik Datta (born c. 1983) is a Bengali-born British Indian musician and composer, who specialises in the sarod. He was born in Mumbai and brought up in London. His brother is the photographer and filmmaker Souvid Datta. Sons of banker father Sou ...

Brett Dean Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961) is an Australian composer, violist and conductor. Biography Brett Dean was born, raised and educated in Brisbane. He started learning violin at the age of eight, and later studied viola with Elizabeth Morgan a ...

Sian Edwards Sian Edwards (born 27 August 1959) is an English conductor, best known as music director of English National Opera in the 1990s. Early life Sian Edwards was born in West Chiltington, West Sussex. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Mus ...

, Sam Lee and

Roderick Williams Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE (born 1965) is a British baritone and composer. Biography Williams was born in North London to a Welsh father and a Jamaican mother. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford and Haberdashers' ...

History

Richard Hickox Richard Sidney Hickox (5 March 1948 – 23 November 2008) was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music. Early life Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family. After attending the Royal Gram ...

founded City of London Sinfonia in 1971 and remained its music director and artistic director until his death in November 2008. Past principal guest conductors have included

Marin Alsop Marin Alsop ( �mɛər.ɪn ˈæːl.sɑːp born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate ...

and

Douglas Boyd Douglas Boyd (born 1959, Glasgow, Scotland) is a British oboist and conductor. Biography Boyd studied oboe at the Royal Academy of Music, London, as a pupil of Janet Craxton. He later was a student with Maurice Bourgue in Paris. In 1984 he w ...

. In November 2009, CLS announced the appointment of

Stephen Layton Stephen David Layton (born 23 December 1966) is an English conductor. Biography Layton was raised in Derby, where his father was a church organist. He was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and subsequently won scholarships to Eton College a ...

as its second artistic director, effective with the 2010–2011 season. Simultaneously, CLS announced the appointment of Michael Collins also as principal conductor, effective in September 2010. In 2016, violinist Alexandra Wood was named creative director. City of London Sinfonia has won various awards, such as the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

's Large Ensemble Award, the "Best Opera Recording" Grammy for its recording of Benjamin Britten's ''

Peter Grimes ''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional ...

'' (

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

), and the Arts, Business and Sustainability Award from the national organisation Arts & Business, in recognition of the achievements of its partnership with principal sponsor MMC. CLS has recorded chamber orchestra and opera repertoire for a number of labels, including Chandos and Hyperion, and has worked on a number of choral albums with

John Rutter John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. Biography Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutte ...

and the

Cambridge Singers The Cambridge Singers is an English mixed voice chamber choir formed in 1981 by their director John Rutter with the primary purpose of making recordings under their own label Collegium Records. The group initially comprised former singers from ...

for

Collegium Records Collegium Records is an English classical music record label founded in 1984 by British composer and conductor John Rutter, primarily to record his work with the Cambridge Singers.Gramophone - Volume 69 Page 11 1992 "The success of Rutter's own ...

Artistic directors

(1971 – 23 November 2008) *

(September 2010 – 2016) * Michael Collins (September 2010 – 2017) * Alexandra Wood (creative director; 2017–present)

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1971 London orchestras Chamber orchestras Charities based in England Erato Records artists