City of London Sinfonia (CLS) is the Orchestra that promises to surprise and move you. We involve people from all ages and backgrounds in life-enhancing music experiences to create an exciting and harmonious future together.

CLS performances represent outstanding musicianship, but also take the audiences on a journey which goes beyond the music to surprise and move: cross-arts collaborations with the world of dance, film, theatre, visual art, spoken word or a different music genre. This approach applies across the wide range of our performance venues from East London clubs to traditional Central London concert halls and at festivals across the UK including Spitalfields, Cheltenham, Brighton and BBC Proms.

CLS was one of the first orchestras to establish a programme dedicated to making music in schools, hospitals and communities. Our Meet the Music programme spends over 170 days in the community every year making music with over 14,000 people. Current projects include Wellbeing through Music in healthcare settings, where the very same outstanding musicians who create our high quality concerts deliver performances, often at patients’ bedsides, and end of term projects for young children in major London teaching hospitals including Great Ormond Street. They also undertake regular visits to care homes in North London, making music with Holocaust survivors or those suffering from dementia. Our education projects, Growth through Music, see our musicians working with very young children (aged 3-7) in communities that are geographically or economically isolated, including rural Suffolk and Tower Hamlets. Working closely with schools and Music Education Hubs we address a significant gap in provision for children at a crucial time in their academic and social development.

We perform regularly with outstanding partners who share our passions both in the UK and internationally. At home we are Orchestra-in-Residence at the critically acclaimed Opera Holland Park, and count St Paul’s Cathedral as one of our close friends, with performances throughout the year including highly popular Christmas events. We have developed close links with joint venture partners in Mexico and Japan, touring Mexico in May 2015 with British Council support, and will be embarking on a concert tour to Japan in March 2017 which will include many Meet the Music projects.

CLS continue to be active in the recording studio. We have a heritage of over 100 recordings and still seek opportunities to use recordings to enhance our live performances. Upcoming projects include recordings of Japanese and South American music for Orchestra in 2016.

With a history stretching back 45 years, 43 of the UK’s most outstanding musicians as members of the Orchestra, we can look forward to an exciting and engaging future.