• “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

Highlights

Please browse the links below to read about some of the highlights from our 2010-11 season:

Dies Natalis Project

Project archive (2007-09)

Dies Natalis Project

Click on the links below to hear the children’s compositions.

Crossword

Golden Sunlight

Nothing but a Nightmare

Still in the garden

My childhood

Golden Sunlight - single voice

Now in its second year, the Norfolk Cluster Composition Project works with a group of schools in and around Wymondham. The schools cluster consists of Wymondham College and Wymondham High School and five of their feeder primary schools; Wreningham, Wicklewood, Spooner Row, Barnham Broom and Barford.

A member of the Britten Sinfonia and workshop leader Hannah Conway visited the primary schools, introducing Year 5/6 pupils to Dies Natalis (Day of Birth), a beautiful song-cycle by 20th Century English composer Gerald Finzi.  The children discovered Finzi’s music and its themes of new awakening, birth and transition before writing their own songs based on the themes.

The children had some special help with their composing from musicians from Year 7 at Wymondham College and High School. The Year 7s worked side-by-side with the primary school children, giving the Year 6’s who will soon be moving up to secondary school some time to get to make new friends and ask questions about life at secondary school.

The 170 children who took part in the project will perform their new song-cycle, accompanied by members of the Britten Sinfonia on 7th April at Wymondham High School. The Britten Sinfonia string quintet will also give a performance of Dies Natalis, sung by tenor Ben Johnson, especially for the students.

Project Archive 2007-08
Project Archive 2008-09
Project Archive 2009-10

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