Corrie's blog

Who?

The Imperial College Sinfonietta, one of the orchestras at Imperial – not the flagship orchestra, but better! (In my opinion…)

Why?

Me at a Sinfon Concert

Well, I learned to play violin. I used to be quite good, so I thought, yeah, good idea, I’ll join an orchestra!

What and Where?

We meet once a week in the Great Hall, Level 2 of the Sherfield Building. We rehearse from 6.15 to about 8.45, with Dan Capps, our fantastic conductor whose fulltime job is conducting the Royal Opera House. He started the orchestra years ago, and it’s still going strong.

We tend to play a pretty big orchestral piece, a slightly smaller one and a concerto-type each term. At the moment we are playing Mahler 1, Finlandia and selections from La Boheme. We do really good stuff, and have fun doing it too – we recently did Elgar Enigma Variations, Tschaikovsky 6 and a load more which I can’t remember (my memory for pieces I’ve played is rubbish).

We sometimes rehearse on a Sunday, and normally have an extra rehearsal before the concert.

One of the best things about Sinfonietta is that we get free biscuits and tea in the break between halves of the rehearsal. Win!

In the summer term there are only a couple of rehearsals, as most people have too much to do by way of coursework and exams. It works out pretty well, and nice to have a reunion when we haven’t seen each other for ages!

Social?

Some of the boys busking in Berlin.

After rehearsals on Mondays we go to the Holland Club, a rather exclusive privilege as it’s normally only open to post-grads. This is open till 11 pm, and normally well attended.

After Sunday rehearsals there is normally a social (we do a barn dance at least once a term), and these normally have extra-special tea breaks.

We also do a weekend away, having been to Salisbury the past two years and Canterbury the years before that. The whole orchestra decamps to the town on a Saturday morning (very early) and rehearses during the day. The night involves a quiz, partying and ‘sleeping’ in the youth hostel, followed by a light rehearsal on Sunday. The last two years has given members of the orchestra a chance to conduct, to stop everyone thinking it’s so easy!

TOUR! Sinfonietta is the only orchestra at IC which goes on tour to a foreign place once a year. In recent years they have been to Croatia, Romania and Germany…this year, we are off to Portugal. Next year, who knows!

Concerts?

Principle oboist does her thing.

We do one in the winter and spring terms. Summer term is mainly just tour rehearsals, and in a typical tour we have two or three.

Audition?

If you’re a string player, you don’t have to audition (undoubtedly the only reason I’m in this orchestra – I did try get into ICSO, but failed miserably, and I’m not bitter, no, no, not at all….). Yay! For this reason, we have about 40 desks of second violins, and 29 firsts…OK, so I’m joking, but it is near. The woodwind players do have to, and I think some of the brass do, but others don’t…not really sure on this count, but if you don’t play a string instrument you can pretty much count on it to prevent disappointment!

Cost?