About Us
We are City of London Sinfonia, a chamber orchestra with big ideas. Founded by Richard Hickox in 1971 as the Richard Hickox Orchestra, CLS has evolved into a dynamic, future-facing organisation pushing the boundaries of what music can do.
The orchestra plays for over 35,000 people a year in concert halls, theatres, parks, care settings, and relaxed, ‘non-velvet’ performance spaces. We are home to 45 regular orchestral players, hundreds more emerging and mid-career musicians and music makers, and thousands more audiences. We collaborate with artists from a wide range of art forms and backgrounds and connect strategically with other orchestras, music venues, and community settings across the UK and internationally.
Productions
As well as performing standard concert repertoire with world-class musicians, we produce different kinds of concerts that explore interdisciplinary collaborations, new works, unusual partnerships, and deeper connections to themes through music. From our first commission in 1971 (Fancies, by John Rutter), we have worked with the most exciting contemporary composers for the past 50 years and continue to do so today. Recent commissions include works by Huw Watkins, Dobrinka Tabakova, Cheryl Francis-Hoad, and Donghoon Shin. Read more about our pioneering new commissions and collaborative work on our Productions page.
Projects
We also produce creative music projects in many settings outside the concert hall. Our groundbreaking participation work began in 1988, when we were one of the first orchestras to work in children’s hospitals. Over 30 years, the programme has grown into a broad range of projects created with healthcare and community partners including work with young people in psychiatric hospital schools, isolated and dependent residents in care homes, survivors of brain injuries, and outpatients in hospices and healthcare centres as part of social prescribing programmes. Read more about our current and upcoming work on our Projects page.
Players
We work with outstanding musicians as an ensemble under our Leader Alexandra Wood, often playing without a conductor. Our players work together to perform and bring music to audiences in different contexts. Meet the musicians of CLS on the Players page.
The CLS leadership team includes Alexandra Wood as Creative Director and Rowan Rutter as CEO (former High Tide Executive Director and CEO). Our leadership and Board are supported by an Artists Council.
Mission, vision, and values
Following the appointment of CEO Rowan Rutter shortly after our 50th anniversary celebrations, CLS has undertaken a year-long investigation into our purpose. We have concluded that – drawing from our charitable status – we as an orchestra want to be a more significant vehicle for social change and impact. We do this through music, using orchestral music as the medium to communicate important stories with, and connect with, audiences and stakeholders.