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London Sinfonietta Junior Academy

The London Sinfonietta Junior Academy supports young musicians aged 11 to 18 to develop their creative skills and explore music from the 20th and 21st centuries through practical workshops and public performances.

Music service partnerships

A strong partnership exists between the London Sinfonietta and the music services of Enfield, Haringey and Waltham Forest, working with young musicians in coaching and performance projects. An ensemble combining the forces of all three boroughs is brought together annually to perform a brand new piece of music side-by-side with London Sinfonietta musicians at the Southbank Centre in our annual concert for primary schools. 

Outside London, we’ve recently partnered with young musicians from the West of England Youth Orchestra and the Southampton Music Hub to focus on minimalism, learning and performing the iconic In C by Terry Riley.

Leverhulme Performers

Launching in 2020, and generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Leverhulme Performers will offer talented young musicians from London and elsewhere in the UK an opportunity to work intensively with London Sinfonietta professionals to explore creative music making and perform  contemporary repertoire. 

This autumn, young musicians from Awards for Young Musicians, Music Masters, and West of England Youth Orchestra came together in an online workshop alongside London Sinfonietta musicians and conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni to rehearse and record Dai Fujikura’s new piece Longing from afar. The piece was written in response to the pandemic to allow musicians to perform together over Zoom. This performance was broadcast as part of London Sinfonietta’s ReAssemble Online.

Composition Masterclasses

During 2020 we worked with school-aged composers from the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department. Students were challenged to write short pieces for small ensemble and then took part in a workshop day with London Sinfonietta musicians who performed and offered feedback on the young composers work. The finished works were performed at the Contemporary Music for All day in East London, and as part of ReAssemble Online.

The London Sinfonietta Junior Academy is generously supported by The Leverhulme Trust.
I really cannot thank the London Sinfonietta musicians enough for their inspiring mentoring - this is an event that our composers are unlikely to forget! Miranda Francis, Head of Junior Programmes, RCM