Welcome to the Welsh Sinfonia web site.

Our orchestra, leader Robin Stowell, is formed from a core of free lance professional musicians and guests from the BBC Now Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera. As well as performing orchestral concerts we also accompany some of the Principality's best choirs in a wide choral repertoire.

The aim of this site, first uploaded in June 2002, is to provide a source of information about the orchestra and its members. Visitors can view our Concert Guide, see sample programmes on the Repertoire Pages, learn about some of our regular members and the choirs we work with, get details of our educational services and of course how to hire us for YOUR event.

If you are a professional musician interested in an audition for freelance work with the Welsh Sinfonia please get in touch, details are on our the contacts page.

Recently, The Welsh Sinfonia has been awarded a grant for Chamber Orchestras in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government, and is planning to tour a programme of well-loved classics to venues across Wales that are not normally able to promote performances by professional orchestras. These concerts will be linked to education projects for schools and will include matinee performances of 'Peter & the Wolf' by Prokofiev and the 'First Dragon' by Welsh composer Mervyn Burtch.

A brief history of the Welsh Sinfonia

Founded in 1989, the Welsh Sinfonia has gained a fine reputation for its sensitive and musical accompaniments to a variety of choral performances in South East Wales.

Robin Stowell, a writer and a Professor of Music at Cardiff University, is the leader of the Welsh Sinfonia, a group of distinguished and dedicated professional players who live in Wales.

The Sinfonia's 'solo' Cardiff debut, in the Coal Exchange, Cardiff Bay in 1996, was acclaimed for its enterprising programme and high professional standards.

In June of 1998, an offshoot of the Welsh Sinfonia, the Welsh Sinfonia String Ensemble, made its debut in a Summer Serenade Concert, conducted by Andrew Greenwood at the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, National Museum of Wales. It offered a programme contrasting classical masterpieces with more recent music by Bartok and Tippett.

Byngarw Park has twice been host to the Orchestra in its 'Summer in the Park' Festival. The first, in 1998, took on a Classic FM type flavour and 1999, an operatic evening which brought standing ovations from the audience.

The Orchestra has played under the baton of Vernon Handley, Andrew Greenwood, Fraser Goulding, Richard McNicol and Robert Mandell. Well known for its versatility, the orchestra's repertoire ranges from Gershwin to Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi to Tippett.

Apart from its work in the concert hall, the orchestra has recorded background music for a variety of films, including the music by John Hardy for the award- winning film "Hedd Wynn"

The Sinfonia continues to accompany first class choirs including the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, Newport Philharmonic, Cwmbran Baroque Singers, Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society, and Crickhowell Choral Society. During these choral concerts the Orchestra often performs solo pieces such as Bernstein Candide, Der Freischutz Overture, Haydn Symphonies or one of the various concertos from our repertoire.