Established in the early 1980s as the orchestra of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, the orchestra of Birmingham Royal Ballet became the Royal Ballet Sinfonia when the dance company moved to Birmingham and became Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1990. Under music director Koen Kessels, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Britain’s busiest ballet orchestra. In addition to its role with Birmingham Royal Ballet, the orchestra performs for The Royal Ballet and tours with leading ballet companies including Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet and The Australian Ballet and, more recently, Het Nationale Ballet, Queensland Ballet and Acosta Danza. The Sinfonia has performed with the National Opera Studio and Opera North, and for the Voices of Black Opera competition.

Recordings include the ballets Far from the Madding Crowd, Edward II and Cyrano and Edward Loder’s opera Raymond and Agnes. The orchestra performed Stephen Montague’s The King Dances in the 2015 BBC4 documentary The King Who Invented Ballet.

For more information, visit www.brb.org.uk/sinfonia.

Photo: Caroline Holden

David Lloyd-Jones began his conducting career in 1959 on the music staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This was followed by conducting engagements for orchestral and choral concerts, opera broadcasts and television studio opera productions. He appeared at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera, and at the Wexford, Cheltenham, Edinburgh and Leeds festivals, and conducted most of the major British orchestras.

In 1972 he was appointed assistant music director at English National Opera, where he conducted an extensive repertory, which included the first British stage performance of Prokofiev’s epic War and Peace. In 1978 he founded a new opera company in Leeds with its new orchestra, the English Northern Philharmonia (since renamed The Orchestra of Opera North), of which he became artistic director and principal conductor. During his twelve seasons with Opera North he conducted 50 new productions as well as numerous orchestral concerts including festival appearances.

His active career in the concert hall and opera house took him to leading music centres around the world. For Naxos he recorded works by William Alwyn and Alan Rawsthorne and the seven symphonies of Charles Villiers Stanford. In 2007 he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and he was also chairman of The Berners Trust.