ABOUT
The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow is a flexible chamber orchestra based in central London. The ensemble is made up of outstanding non-professional musicians who play to a high standard but have chosen not to pursue a career in performance.
The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow performs around six major concerts a year across the city and holds a residency at the historic church of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London. The orchestra is flexible in number, enjoying a huge variety of repertoire from well-known symphonic masterworks to more intimate concerts of Baroque and Classical repertoire and chamber music. Though the ensemble is regularly directed by its Artistic Director, Alex Fryer, it also frequently engages guest conductors and guest leaders for un-conducted performances.
The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow was formed with the aim of providing young professionals the opportunity to continue making high-quality music upon leaving universities and music colleges throughout the country. The orchestra performed its debut concert in the church of St Mary-le-Bow in August 2016, with BBC Young Musician of the Year finalist Ben Goldsheider as soloist. Under the stewardship of a dedicated committee of players, the orchestra has gone from strength to strength and is now in its ninth season, having performed over 40 concerts across five London boroughs and collaborated with numerous guest conductors, leaders and soloists. To keep up to date with concerts, join our mailing list.
JOIN THE ORCHESTRA
The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow is always keen to hear from prospective players. The orchestra does not hold auditions, but asks potential players to provide information on their musical experience and, based on this, invites players to a trial project when a space becomes available. The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow is targeted at players who have trained to a high level but not pursued performance as a full-time career; therefore, we expect players to be at least that of conservatoire entry level.
Many of the orchestras' players have completed degrees at conservatoires, studied music at university or been heavily involved in their university orchestras/ensembles and/or were part of the National Youth Orchestra or junior conservatoire departments or similar organisations. You can find out more about the orchestra on Instagram, by coming to one of our concerts, or by viewing our governing document here.
If you are interested in joining us, please email info@academyofstmarylebow.com with a brief musical C.V. or a short paragraph outlining your playing experience, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.