Who We Are

The Orchestra of Opera North is the only ensemble in the country to have a year-round dual role in the opera house and concert hall.

The Orchestra plays a significant part in the major concert series of the region. It appears with numerous international guest conductors and soloists. An important relationship with Leeds International Concert Season sees the Orchestra performing regular concerts of major symphonic repertoire and a series of gala concerts, often in combination with the region's choral societies. It is also the resident Orchestra for the Leeds Conductors Competition.

There are a number of fine chamber ensembles within the Orchestra, including Arcturus, The Café Band, CSQ, Mirage, Music Serenade and Yorkshire Classic Brass. All of these ensembles give regular concerts throughout the region and further afield.

The Autumn of 2003 saw the Orchestra take over the running of the concert series in Huddersfield Town Hall. It has also continued to manage the concert series in Dewsbury, in collaboration with Kirklees Cultural Services.

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Education

The musicians of the Orchestra of Opera North share a strong commitment to educational and community projects, both collectively and in collaboration with Opera North Education. Most recently, the Orchestra participated in a 3-day "Orchestra 1" workshop in Kirklees to complement the orchestral concert season. Musicians from the Orchestra worked with students in a local high school to explore Stravinsky's Petrushka. With the musicians' help, the students created a new musical score of their own, which they then performed to teachers and fellow classmates.

Many of the players in the Orchestra of Opera North are outstanding teachers, and several hold professorships at the Royal Northern College of Music and at universities within the region.

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Recordings

Under their recording name of English Northern Philharmonia, the Orchestra has received international recognition for its recordings. These include releases on ASV, Chandos, Collins Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Hyperion and Nimbus.

A close relationship with Naxos has produced a series of highly acclaimed recordings of William Walton's orchestral music, conducted by former Opera North Music Director Paul Daniel. They have also released works by Bliss, Delius, Lambert and Vaughan Williams conducted by the Orchestra's founder conductor, David Lloyd-Jones. In the operatic field Opera North has made several important recordings, including Walton's Troilus and Cressida, conducted by Richard Hickox, which won the prestigious Gramophone Award for best opera recording.

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Tours

Outside the region, the Orchestra has toured abroad, both with the whole Company - to the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, the Monaco Dance Forum, and the Ravenna Festival in Italy - and independently in concert, at the Contemporary Music Festivals in Vienna and Strasbourg. In this country, it has regularly performed in London at Sadler's Wells, the BBC Proms, South Bank and at the Hampton Court Festival.

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