After their most successful year of performances to date, including a concert tour to Austria, their Spring 2012 season will showcase the immense talent found in the Orpheus Sinfonia’s musicians. 

Two evening concerts on February 1 and March 22 will feature the outstanding players of the Orpheus Sinfonia in performances of celebrated orchestral music, and several current members of the orchestra will also perform in a series of free lunchtime recitals in February and March. All events will take place at Orpheus Sinfonia’s home venue of St George’s Church, Hanover Square. 

The season, which has been created by Orpheus' orchestral manager Katie Manasse, opens on Wednesday 1 February with the Orpheus Sinfonia conducted by Achim Holub, in ‘Rising Stars’. The concert title reflects both the performers and the repertoire: all the pieces in this concert, which features Bizet and Tchaikovsky’s first symphonies, were written when their composers were in their youth and establishing a reputation, and are now acknowledged as masterpieces. 

Acclaimed young violinist Leonard Schreiber will be joined by Veronika Shoot for the opening lunchtime recital on 8 February; their programme will range from the seventeenth century to Schnittke's 1978 interpretation of 'Silent Night'. The Pythagoras Quartet is led by Orpheus Sinfonia’s principal Viola, Clifton Harrison; their exciting TangoFugue recital on 22 February combines Mozart's string interpretation of fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Mendelssohn's own treatment of fugue and Clifton Harrison's arrangements of ÁstorPiazzolla. The season will also feature recitals by the Glendower Duo, featuring regular Orpheus pianist Thomas Besnard, and the Busch Ensemble, with the Sinfonia’s Principal Cello Jonathan Bloxham. 

The season will conclude by exploring the influence of different epochs in musical history, with an orchestral performance entitled ‘A Dance to the Music of Time’. On Thursday 22 March the Orpheus Sinfonia, conducted by Toby Purser, will perform Prokofiev's 20th-century 'Classical' Symphony, Britten's revision of Purcell's Chacony, Ravel's elegiac Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Beethoven's timeless Seventh Symphony. 

Orpheus Foundation Patron, Dame Judi Dench: ‘We are all looking forward immensely to a stunning showcase of music from our talented young musicians’. Orchestral manager Katie Manasse: ‘Providing professional opportunities for young orchestral musicians is at the heart of Orpheus Foundation’s mission. It’s fantastic to have an entire concert season devoted to our orchestra’. 

The Orpheus Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation working to provide professional opportunities for some of the finest young musicians in London. By enabling young artists to showcase their achievements in a central London concert platform and by providing a mechanism for intercollegiate collaboration while working in our orchestra the Orpheus Sinfonia, the Orpheus Foundation deliers a broad range of opportunities to soloists, conductors, ensembles and orchestral players to further their professional development.