Royal Ballet Sinfonia

Under Music Director Paul Murphy, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Britain's busiest ballet orchestra, playing for Birmingham Royal Ballet's wide-ranging programme in the UK and abroad.

As well as playing for Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Sinfonia plays for The Royal Ballet and has a long tradition of playing for tours by the world’s leading ballet companies, including Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and The Australian Ballet. They have performed with Het Nationale Ballet, Queensland Ballet and Acosta Danza. They also worked with the Pet Shop Boys on The Most Incredible Thing. On the concert platform, the Sinfonia has also accompanied the National Opera Studio, the Voice of Black Opera competition and Opera North’s production of Carousel. They recorded Edward Loder’s opera Raymond and Agnes with distinguished Australian conductor, Richard Bonynge.

Regular performances of An Evening of Music and Dance play to a sell-out audiences. The orchestra has an extensive library of recordings on CD and DVD. Highlights include DVD performances of Cinderella, Hobson’s Choice, The Nutcracker and Coppélia. CDs include the Sullivan overtures, Addinsell film scores, the ballets Far from the Madding Crowd, Edward II and Cyrano, and three tribute CDs of ballet scores written for Ashton and de Valois. The orchestra also played Stephen Montague’s The King Dances in the 2015 BBC4 documentary The King Who Invented Ballet.

Schemes for the development of young orchestral musicians are in place with the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and for the development of young conductors in the dance world, including the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellowship in partnership with The Royal Ballet. Several players also work with the Company’s Learning Engagement, Access and Participation team in projects around the country.

Paul Murphy

Paul Murphy has been a member of Birmingham Royal Ballet for 31 years since he joined the company in 1992. He was appointed Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Principal Conductor in 1997 and has been instrumental to developing exceptionally talented young ballet conductors through the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellowship.

Paul Murphy is a regular guest conductor for the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden since 1994, working with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. He has also been the conductor for the Royal Ballet School’s annual performance since 2005. He has conducted many of the UK’s finest ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Ulster Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata. Abroad, he has worked with such orchestras as the Bergen Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Osaka Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Washington National Opera Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the Sofia Opera Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo in Sicily.

Paul has also been a guest conductor for New York City Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Dutch National Ballet, The Australian Ballet, BalletBoyz, NDT 1, Acosta Danza, Finnish National Ballet, Sarasota Ballet and the Tokyo Ballet, with whom he conducted performances of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at La Scala, Milan in July 2019. He has been a frequent guest conductor with the National Ballet of Japan since 2008..

He has made numerous recordings for BBC Radio 3, BBC Television, Channel 4, and released CDs with the Hallé, the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has also recorded DVDs of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with the Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, The Tales of Beatrix Potter and Les Patineurs with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Aladdin and Sylvia with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and NHK broadcasts of Coppelia with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Swan Lake with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Paul studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Colin Metters, John Carewe, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 1997.

Conductors

Musicians

Leader
Robert Gibbs

First Violins
Joana ValentinaviciuteCo-Leader
Vanessa David
Amanda Brown
Deborah Schlenther
Philip Aird
Caroline Ferriman
Tutti vacancy

Second Violins
Naori Takahashi (Principal)
Rebecca Jones
Mary Martin
Fiona Robertson
Robert Simmons
Tutti vacancy

Violas
Errika Collins (Principal)
Sub-Principal vacancy
Tutti vacancy
Tutti vacancy

Cellos
António Novais (Principal)
Sub-Principal vacancy
Jane Rainey
Tutti vacancy

Double Basses
Vera Pereira (Principal)
Sub Principal vacancy

Flutes
Anna Wolstenholme (Principal)
Sandra Skipper Piccolo

Oboes
Principal vacancy
Maxwell Spiers Cor anglais

Clarinets
Ian Scott (Principal)
Harry Penny Bass Clarinet

Bassoons
Luke Tucker (Principal)
Contrabassoon vacancy

Horns
Andrew Littlemore (Section Principal)
Neil Mitchell (Sub-Principal)
Chris Pointon (Principal)
Sub-Principal vacancy

Trumpets
Michael Allen (Section Principal)
Christopher Deacon (Principal)

Trombones
Amos Miller (Principal)
Andrew White (Sub Principal)
Bass Trombone vacancy

Tuba
David Gordon Shute (Principal)

Harp
Principal vacancy

Timpani
Grahame King (Principal)

Percussion
Kevin Earley (Principal)
Paul Parker (Sub-Principal)

Orchestra Management

Pianists