• “The reasons for Britten Sinfonia’s incremental rise in the past 20 years are various, but among them are a commitment to interesting programmes and the assiduous building of relationships”

  Financial Times

• “The playing was marked by the kind of luminous and infectious beauty that only comes from a true marriage of mastery and love”

  The Guardian

• “The UK’s most consistently dynamic chamber ensemble”

  The New Statesman

• “I haven’t heard a chamber orchestra performing with such extrovert character and unflagging energy for years.”

  The Times

• “But as always with this orchestra there was more to savour than just stellar perfomance. The programme was ingeniously shaped.”

  The Daily Telegraph, Ivan Hewett

For Business

Sinfonia at Work is Britten Sinfonia’s new programme for businesses. Working alongside experienced facilitators, Britten Sinfonia musicians offer an inspiring insight into their world, and lead participants through a series of exercises designed to promote teamwork, communication and creativity in the workplace.

Recent sessions with South Poland Business Link in Krakow and the Judge Business School have demonstrated the effectiveness of this way of working:

“The Britten Sinfonia workshop was fantastic. It showed how the creation of music involves both scientific logic and discipline, and emotion and freedom. It was a great model for business learning.” Carlo De Stefanis, Judge Business School (former Sales Manager, Steel Industry)

“The Britten Sinfonia workshop demonstrated that what you create together is more important than individual competition. It expanded our thinking outside the business school ‘box’ and demonstrated that individuality and teamwork are both necessary components of creative harmony.” Daniel Vankov, Judge Business School (former Finance Manager, Publishing Industry)

“Maybe every big business should employ a musician from time to time to help them suspend appraisal and see all work as creative and all workers as artists fulfilling a small part of an orchestrated whole.” Lindsay Davidson (South Poland Business Link event attendee)

What does music have to offer to business?

Musicians have a number of skills and qualities which are also of interest to business:

 
• Team work: an orchestra only performs if everyone commits to being part of a team.   Communication: short rehearsal time means that musicians have to be highly efficient in their decision making. Non-verbal communication is essential in a performance situation.
 
• Leadership: musicians find themselves inhabiting a variety of different roles, from playing under a conductor to playing in a small ensemble or as a soloist. They need to bring different qualities of leadership or “followership” to each of these roles.
 
• Creativity: aiming to bring fresh ideas even to a piece of music they have played hundreds of times before, musicians work in an environment where creativity is paramount.
 
• Flexibility: freelance musicians perform in a number of different ensembles, playing a wide variety of repertoire. With often only a few hours to rehearse, they have to be extremely adaptable to meet the challenges which this brings.
 
• Presentation: by audiences, critics and their peers, musicians are judged on their public performances. From breathing techniques to rehearsal skills, they develop many qualities which ensure they are able to perform to the highest standard.

Britten Sinfonia’s artistic policy means that our musicians have a unique outlook. Playing wherever possible without a conductor, our players have more responsibility than most. Many are international soloists in their own right – and have to be able to play both at the front of the stage and the back. We aim to bring a chamber music quality to our playing, whether the ensemble is four strong or 40. And our repertoire encompasses jazz and world music alongside new commissions and classical repertoire.

To discuss how Sinfonia at Work can benefit your business, please call Isobel Timms, Creative Learning Director on 01223 300795 or email us.

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