Welcome

Kent Sinfonia is a freelance professional orchestra based in the County of Kent, comprising skilled professional musicians from Kent and the surrounding area; many also play with major London orchestras.

We provide:

Live classical concerts
Live opera performances
Arts projects, educational workshops and presentations for schools and the community
Music for corporate and other events
Opportunities for arts funding and sponsorship
Availability to accompany choral societies, opera companies and other performing groups and artists.

Our work aims to build the future of classical orchestral music through programmes for all ages. Our education projects support children’s musical development, especially those lacking exposure to live orchestral music. We affect positively children’s development and overall learning with interactive workshops and concerts, introducing a hugely diverse range of music. Our children’s programme Birds and Beasts! has been performed in multiple venues.

Kent Sinfonia supports contemporary music and has a special interest in performing works by lesser-known 20th century British composers. Our first album, Lost England, featured George Butterworth and Walter Leigh, both killed in World Wars.

Our creative practice is rooted in more than 20 years operating as a professional orchestra and registered charity, with proven ability to deliver diverse concerts and events cost-effectively to a high standard. Examples include three tours to China, regular engagements performing with choral societies, providing an orchestra for opera performances, devising and implementing concerts and workshops for schools.

‘…the Kent Sinfonia responded generously to Nicholas Jenkins’ characteristically expansive direction, not least in the many deftly edged orchestral solos…’ (Mark Pappenheim, ‘Opera’ magazine – Vaughan Williams: ‘The Poisoned Kiss’ with New Sussex Opera).

‘The playing of Kent Sinfonia was a sheer delight as they filled the church with a full-on, well-blended sound, with many opportunities for the individual instrumentalists to shine in Haydn’s masterpiece. Whether playing in their own right or underpinning the soloists and choir, they were consistently superb…’(Haydn: The Creation, with Ashtead Choral Society, conductor Andrew Storey)

Biography

Kent Sinfonia was founded in 1962 by Hungarian conductor Dr Béla de Csilléry, who served as Kent’s inspirational County Music Advisor for more than two decades. It comprises leading professional musicians in Kent and the surrounding region; many play with major London orchestras and opera houses. A strong advocate of contemporary music and of performing works by 20th century British composers, its first album, Lost England, featured George Butterworth and Walter Leigh.

Kent Sinfonia also performs regularly with choral societies in the south of England, has toured three times to China and most recently, in France to Les Musicales de Redon Festival in Brittany. The orchestra has also accompanied opera productions and live film screenings. Kent Sinfonia has a strong commitment to education projects enriching children’s development with interactive workshops and concerts and is a performance partner for Kent-based Medway Music Association.

Royal Throne 0f Kings

Ralph Vaughan Williams loved Shakespeare, and it inspired his music throughout his long composing career. ALBD062 Royal Throne of Kings is a collection of some of that music.

This Shakespeare album has been many years in planning and preparation and has been generously supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation and by many of our members and supporters.

In 1912 and 1913 Vaughan Williams composed and conducted music for Shakespeare plays in the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, where Sir Frank Benson presented plays for many years. He composed some new music, but preferred

to use music of Shakespeare’s own time whenever possible. The album includes a Henry IV Suite assembled from the surviving cues by Malcolm Riley, and a Stratford Suite, put together from a number of plays by Nathaniel Lew.

Vaughan Williams wrote a Henry V Overture in 1913, many years before developing the material into a new work for brass with the same title – David Owen Norris was able to reconstruct the lost 1913 score from the orchestral parts.

Nathaniel Lew has arranged a Richard II Concert Fantasy, using incidental music commissioned from Vaughan Williams by the BBC in 1944 but not used at the time.

Other arrangements include Muir Mathiesons’s Two Shakespeare Sketches from The England of Elizabeth, Malcolm Riley’s arrangement of Dirge for Fidele, and RVW’s 1913 treatment of Greensleeves.

The orchestral music is played by Kent Sinfonia, conducted by James Ross. The recital is broken up by five settings by Vaughan Williams of words found in Shakespeare’s plays, sung here by soprano Eloise Irving, accompanied by Malcolm Riley on the piano.

(from John Francis, Chairman, Ralph Vaughan Williams Society)