A highlight a year!

As we approach our 20th Birthday season we've been looking back at some of the highlights over the past twenty years. We've selected a highlight a year (but you can also read what else we were up to each year here).

1992

Britten Sinfonia launches following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognise the need for a world class orchestra in the East of England.

1993

Britten Sinfonia’s part in Jonathan Miller’s production of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos provides the orchestra’s first critical success.

1994

The number of concerts increases from 12 in 1993 to 27 in 1994, including the orchestra’s first foreign tour, a residency at the Wratislava Cantans Festival in Poland.

1995

Britten Sinfonia’s debut CD is released to critical acclaim, featuring David Pyatt in the Strauss Horn Concertos and the Duet-concertino and Serenade for Wind Op.7. It wins a Gramophone Award.

1996

Orchestra works with tenor Ian Bostridge for the first time, with a young Daniel Harding conducting. This successful collaboration leads to other concerts and an EMI recording of Britten repertoire including Our Hunting Fathers.

1997

Britten Sinfonia awarded £150,000 from the Arts Council’s Arts for Everyone scheme for the development of its work in the East of England.

1998

Landmark concert series Frank Zappa and the Fathers of Invention, setting Zappa’s music against Bach, Stravinsky, Varese, Ives and Steve Reich

Proms debut

1999

Britten Sinfonia makes its BBC Proms debut, featuring a new symphony by David Matthews.

2000

Britten Sinfoina’s first tour to Germany includes performances at Munich’s Gasteig and Frankfurt’s Alte Oper.

2001

Joanna MacGregor directs a 10 date tour – Light and Shade - featuring music by Arvo Pärt, Lou Harrison, Schnittke and a new work from Nitin Sawhney. The tour is featured in a Joanna MacGregor South Bank Show profile for LWT.

2002

Celebrations for the orchestra’s 10th Anniversary begin with a national tour featuring Evelyn Glennie.

2003

Following a national review of the chamber orchestra sector, Arts Council England announces 100% increase in Britten Sinfonia’s funding.

2004

A major tour with Nitin Sawhney takes the ensemble to Brussels and around the UK in the autumn, including a debut at the Royal Festival Hall.

2005

We launched our first ever lunchtime series, Britten Sinfonia at Lunch, at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.

Jacqueline Shave was appointed leader in September.

2006

Lux Aeterna, our Hyperion recording of music by Morten Lauridsen, was nominated for a Grammy award.

2007

The ‘Britten Sinfonia at Lunch’ tour continued to be recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and the tour expanded to include Krakow (Poland), Aldeburgh, Cambridge and Norwich. 

2008

In a truly unique production that attracted a great deal of press and attention, Britten Sinfonia joined the Michael Clark Company for the Stravinsky Project at the Barbican.

2009

Britten Sinfonia appears at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk , the first classical group to appear at the festival.

Latitude Festival 2009 - photographer: Rebecca Walsh

2010

Nico Muhly was in residence with Britten Sinfonia throughout January and February 2010. A new work by the composer featured as part of Britten Sinfonia’s award-winning lunchtime series in January, and Impossible Things, a major commission for voice and violin, premiered as part of an acclaimed 14 date European tour which brought together Mark Padmore and Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto.

2011

The orchestra launched a new residency at Brighton Dome and Festival and founded its own choir, Britten Sinfonia Voices.

2012

Britten Sinfonia became Associate Ensemble at the Barbican.

We will be clebrating our 20th Birthday with special concerts at the Barbican and in Cambridge and Norwich

Iconic Musical Buildings

The concert hall is the natural home of the orchestra and although Britten Sinfonia regularly perform in alternative spaces (Latitude, Colchester Heritage Weekend etc) the concert hall is where we are more than likely to be found. During January the orchestra will be performing in many concert halls throughout the UK (Cambridge’s West Road Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Birmingham Town Hall) and also the Netherlands. However, perhaps the two most iconic music buildings we’ll be playing in this month are London’s Roundhouse followed by Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. What makes these buildings so special though?

The Roundhouse started life as a Victorian steam engine repair shed before becoming the legendary cultural venue it is today. It was first used as an arts venue in 1964 when playwright Arnold Wesker established Centre 42. In 2006 following extensive refurbishment the Grade II listed building was opened as one of the major venues in London and since then has hosted the BBC Electric Proms, James Brown, Paul McCartney and Jarvis Cocker amongst others. Although not a traditional concert hall, this month the Roundhouse hosts Reverb, a series that explores the many sides classical music. Reverb is about introducing new audiences to classical music and breaking down the barriers that exist for audiences.

The final date of Britten Sinfonia’s tour to the Netherlands is the orchestra’s debut performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Literally meaning concert hall, the Concertgebouw is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world. Bernard Haitnik once described Concertgebouw as the best instrument in the orchestra it houses. This must have been what the great and the good of Amsterdam had in mind in 1881, when they decided that the Dutch capital should have a proper concert hall worthy of the name. Seven years later, in the marshy fields just outside the city limits, there stood a wonder of neoclassical architecture, the Concertgebouw. Acoustics were something of a black art (some may say they still are) so when the Concertgebouw was built designers drew upon what had worked in the past without entirely understanding the underlying science. When the building was completed, the acoustics were not perfect, and a lot of effort went into fine-tuning the aural ambience. During later restorations, particular care has been taken not to alter the materials used for interior decoration with this in mind. The building now enjoys a worldwide reputation.

We’re very much looking forward to performing at both of these venues. At the Roundhouse on the 23rd January we’ll be joined by pianist Joanna MacGregor - find out more here. Then on the 24th January (also at the Roundhouse) young American composer, Nico Muhly will direct and perform Britten Sinfonia in a programme of his own compositions alongside works by Steve Reich and Philip Glass - find out more here. On 31st January Britten Sinfonia perform a programme of music from both sides of the Atlantic at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw including music by Purcell, Tippett, Britten, Steve Reich, Nico Muhly and John Adams - find out more here.

Latitude Video

In July 2009 Britten Sinfonia were the first orchestra to perform at Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Here is a video which brings to life what it was like to perform at this brilliant festival.

Britten Sinfonia at Latitude from washmedia on Vimeo.

A breath of fresh air?

Conductor Charles Hazlewood's article in the Guardian the other day certainly seems pretty ironic here, when last month we actually played to more people outdoors than inside concert halls. It is, I realise, the silly season, but as there is increasingly limited coverage of serious music in the press, you would think editors could commission better-researched pieces. Traffic on our twitter feed overwhelmingly disagrees with him, too.

Lizzie Ball's Latitude BBC video diary

Check out Lizzie Ball's video diary, made for the BBC on Saturday at Latitude.