Northern Sinfonia

The Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, based initially in Newcastle upon Tyne, and currently in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave the bulk of its concerts at the City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne. Since 2004, the orchestra has been resident at The Sage Gateshead. The Northern Sinfonia Chorus is affiliated with the orchestra.

Michael Hall founded the ensemble in 1958 as the first permanent chamber orchestra in Britain. The ensemble gave its first concert on 24 September 1958 as the 'Sinfonia Orchestra', at the City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, and gave 6 concerts in its first season, 1958-1959. Hall acted as the organisation's single leader, in effect as "general manager, secretary, artistic director, conductor, and fund-raiser", though without a formal title. The word "Northern" was added to the orchestra's name in 1959. The orchestra became an established institution in 1959, with Humphrey Noble chosen as the first chairman of the ensemble's management committee. Hall resigned from the orchestra in 1964, but returned as a guest conductor in subsequent years. After Hall's departure, Rudolf Schwarz and Boris Brott took over musical leadership of the ensemble in parallel, with Schwarz being the first titled artistic director of the ensemble. Keith Statham served as the orchestra's general manager from 1966 to 1974. PLAYERS The late James Joseph was the first principal clarinet of the Orchestra. He was a brilliant player with a most beautiful tone. He had been a pupil of the great Frederick (Jack) Thurston at the Royal college of Music.Colin Parr and George McDonald played next to him in the early days under Michael Hall's baton. George McDonald went on to be first clarinet when Mr Joseph left. YOUTH ORCHESTRA - Michael Hall also founded the Youth Orchestra called The Junior Philharmonic which was tutored by players from the orchestra

The current music director of the Northern Sinfonia is Thomas Zehetmair, who was named to the post in November 2001, starting with the 2002-2003 season, for an initial contract of 3 years and 6 weeks of concerts each season. In August 2005, he extended his contract for another 3 years through 2008. He continues as the orchestra's music director as of the 2008-2009 season.

The orchestra has recorded for the NMC and Naxos labels, among others.