St Woolos Sinfonia

Our Orchestra in Residence

The Orchestra

The St Woolos Sinfonia was founded in 2008 by Prof. Brian Peeling, Dr. Christoph Mädler and Jeanette Massocchi (the Orchestra’s first conductor) as a new venture to bring orchestral music to Newport Cathedral.

We are proud to be Orchestra in Residence at the Cathedral. The Orchestra has also performed in many other venues in South Wales, including elsewhere in Newport, Cardiff, Usk, Abergavenny, Llantilio Crossenny, Devauden, Itton, and as far afield as Newport, Pembrokeshire. We perform symphonic and chamber orchestra repertoire, ranging from compositions of the 17th century to the present day. Many of our players are also experienced chamber music musicians, performing in our annual `Music in Two Newports’ series.

Another important strand of the Orchestra’s work is accompanying choirs. In 2016 we accompanied a ‘Come and Sing Messiah’. In 2020 we brought together singers from Wales and the West of England for a ‘Come and Sing’ event at Rougemont School and performed Haydn’s Nelson Mass.

In October 2021 we held another successful workshop and concert, performing Matthew Coleridge’s ‘Requiem’ at Newport Cathedral, led by the composer himself.   This was the Welsh premiere of ‘Requiem’ and the first UK performance with an orchestra.

We are always interested to hear from choirs and choral societies and to discuss ideas for collaboration and joint concerts.

For more details, please visit the Orchestra’s website:

Conductor

Worthy of mention is the exceptionally gifted New Zealand conductor, Tianyi Lu (2017/18 Gustavo Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) who has taken St Woolos Sinfonia as Guest, and more recently as Principal Conductor, to highly acclaimed concert performances.

Supporting The Sinfonia

The St Woolos Sinfonia has provided some wonderful entertainment over past years and we look forward to hearing more from them in future.

Would you like to learn more about the orchestra and other events they have planned in Newport?  You can visit them here.

St Woolos Sinfonia

Newport Cathedral