ur guiding ambition is to bring classical music to a broad audience that is ready to be challenged and to embrace new musical experiences. In doing this we will complement and enrich the existing musical excellence in the region.
We aim to make inspiring music, to create new links and relationships with other art forms and scientific disciplines and, as befits an Orchestra In Residence at the University of East Anglia, to explore new ideas in music and beyond.
Our founding in 2001 marked the first time in the UK that a professional orchestra has been created through the initiative of a university.
Since then, Chamber Orchestra Anglia has built an enthusiastic following, taken newly commissioned and established works to audiences in London and the East of England, and winning a deserved reputation for bold, imaginative programming.
To date performances include the world premiere of Mahler’s
Das Lied von der Erde in Chinese for the BBC Proms and Benjamin Britten’s Juvenilia. Concert programmes range from
Tango in the Open Air to works of Haydn, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Brahms, Schnittke and Schoenberg. COA has also commissioned exciting new works including Nicola Le Fanu’s
Concertino for Chamber Orchestra and Joyce
Koh’s Fors.
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‘How exciting, to be
able to work with an
entire orchestra
behind me...
...or in front of me,
but some of the time,
I hope, I’ll get the tempo right!’
Griff Rhys Jones
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COA has also worked with great conductors and personalities. Alongside its own Conductor and Artistic Director, Sharon Choa these include Sir Colin Davis, Jiří Bělohlávek, Alan Rickman, Griff Rhys Jones and presenters including Jamie Crick and Christopher Cook.
As we approach our 10th anniversary, the Orchestra is moving into the next stage of its development. We will take our programmes to audiences across the region and to London, giving people greater access to live orchestral music of the highest quality. We are also building on our international connections, developing relationships with festivals, composers and promoters in order to expand our programme significantly in the years ahead.
We also want to expand and develop new strands for our education activities, nurturing the musicians of the future by creating world-class opportunities for the children of the region. In 2005, for example, we collaborated with our patron, Sir Colin Davis, to hold an enormously successful orchestral workshop for talented young musicians and in 2006 we held a similar event with distinguished Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek.
For Chamber Orchestra Anglia, and for our clients, audiences and young musicians, these are exciting times.
