Orchestra of the Swan

The Orchestra of the Swan maintains a wide touring schedule throughout the United Kingdom and in other countries, regularly designing programs that interleave newly commissioned scores with twentieth-century pieces and core repertoire works. Its performances and repeated residencies have embedded the ensemble within the cultural life of central England.

Stratford-upon-Avon functions as the home base, with the Civic Hall serving as the primary local concert venue. Conductor David Curtis established the orchestra in 1995, after which David Le Page took over as artistic director. Roughly thirty musicians make up the roster, many of whom have sustained long-term membership. Ongoing residencies are maintained at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the Courtyard in Hereford, and the Stratford Playhouse. The group presents approximately forty-five concerts each year and appears frequently at the Number 8 Community Arts Centre in Pershore, Malvern Theatres, and Cheltenham Town Hall. Engagements also take place in London, where the 5,272-seat Royal Albert Hall has sold out, as well as in Coventry, Warwick, and at the Stratford Music Festival. International activity has included a 2014 tour of China, performances in the U.S. and Mexico during 2017 and 2018, and an appearance at the Istanbul International Festival in 2016. Dementia-care initiatives represent another consistent focus: since 2014 the orchestra has delivered more than six hundred live performance workshops in care homes and dementia cafés. Commitment to contemporary music remains strong, evidenced by commissions of over seventy works from composers such as Roxanna Panufnik, Alexander Goehr, and Joe Cutler. Programs likewise incorporate twentieth-century music written for chamber orchestra.

Recordings have appeared on multiple labels, among them Somm, Signum Classics, and Avie. On the last of these, under Kenneth Woods, the ensemble has released a cycle of world-premiere recordings of the symphonies of Hans Gál (1890-1987). In 2021 the orchestra issued the album Vivaldi Sleep on Signum Classics.