The City of London Sinfonia (CLS) is a chamber orchestra based in London, England. In London, the CLS performs regularly at Cadogan Hall and St Paul's Cathedral. It is also the resident orchestra at Opera Holland Park. The CLS has annual residencies in four towns in Southern England: Ipswich, King's Lynn, High Wycombe and Chatham. It records regularly and makes an overseas tour every year.

Richard Hickox founded the CLS in 1971 and remained its music director until his death in November 2008.^[1] The CLS performs chamber orchestra and ensemble repertoire from the Baroque period to the present day, and has a particularly strong reputation for its programming focus on the human voice.

The Orchestra's achievements have been recognised over the years with prestigious awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society's Large Ensemble Award, the 'Best Opera Recording' Grammy for its recording of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, and the Arts, Business and Sustainability Award from national organisation Arts & Business, in recognition of the achievements of its partnership with principal sponsor MMC.

The Orchestra carries out a variety of education and community activities all over the UK. Musicians spend around 100 days a year making music with a wide range of community groups, young and old, across the UK. CLS aims to take music to those who might find the environment of the concert hall to be a barrier, whether geographically or socially, and to bring the fun and inspiration of live music into the community.

The Orchestra is particularly renowned for its award-winning professional skills development programme, Development Through Music, which was one of the first music-based business training programmes in the country. The scheme uses music as a means of exploring behaviours and attitudes in business and professional organisations. Since its inception in 2000, the CLS team of highly-trained musicians (all skilled faciliators as well as expert performers) has brought insights from the world of professional performance to companies and public sector organisations throughout the UK and beyond.

As of 2009, the orchestra's leader is Nicholas Ward. The principal guest conductor of the CLS is Douglas Boyd.

[edit] Music directors

• Richard Hickox (1971-2008)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• City of London Sinfonia Website

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