2023 is a significant year for the Hallam Sinfonia, marking our 50th anniversary. Set up as a chamber orchestra, our repertoire nowadays extends from the baroque to the 21st century, including large-scale romantic works, and from the mainstream classics to film music and children’s concerts. We also enjoy collaborations: we have a partnership with Hallam Choral Society, with whom we work regularly, and 2023 saw our biggest collaborative effort yet, involving not just HCS but also Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler’s Second Symphony.

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One of our ventures, Passenger Seats, involves some of the audience sitting amongst the orchestra and experiencing the music from within. We started these in 2015 and are delighted to be resuming them post-pandemic this year. The concerts are popular with families, but not all the passengers are children! We also, in 2018, gave Sheffield’s first concert for 0-3 year olds and their grown-ups, in partnership with Concerteenies, repeated this in 2019, and again, post-pandemic, are looking towards further collaborations in the future.

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Anniversary celebrations include the Coronation concert in May with our former Musical Director, Natalia Luis-Bassa, who returned as guest conductor specially for the occasion, and, in October,  our first concert with our new Musical Director Jon Malaxetxebarria. The programme for this includes Beethoven’s First Symphony, which was performed at the very first Hallam Sinfonia concert, and a new fanfare commissioned from a member of the orchestra.

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Over the years the Hallam Sinfonia has worked with many distinguished soloists, including members of Ensemble 360. The most recent of these ventures involved the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Leonore Trio, conducted by Richard Laing, an old friend of the orchestra. Under Jon’s direction we expect to be planning many more exciting collaborations in the coming years.

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We rehearse at High Storrs School, where we give many of our concerts. Rehearsals are on Thursdays and Fridays, in blocks, usually during the three weeks before the concert. Players interested in joining us are welcome to make enquiries. Although we may not have a vacancy we are always interested in knowing who’s out there!

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We are always interested to hear from potential new players. If you're interested in playing with us, please email hallam.sinfonia@gmail.com