The ECO is one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras, having performed in more countries than any other orchestra, recorded over 1,200 works and played with the world’s greatest musicians.

Benjamin Britten, the Orchestra’s first Patron, was a tremendous musical influence on the Orchestra until his death in 1976. The ECO also enjoyed a long relationship with Daniel Barenboim, one of the highlights of which was the performance and recording (EMI) of the complete cycle of Mozart Piano Concertos. The 1980s were marked by the appointment of Jeffrey Tate as the ECO’s first Principal Conductor (succeeded by Ralf Gothoni in 2000) and recordings of the complete Mozart Symphonies and late Haydn Symphonies along with two further celebrated cycles of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos (recorded for CBS with Murray Perahia and for Phillips with Mitsuko Uchida). The Orchestra continues to attract musicians of the stature few chamber orchestras can match.

This Winter/Spring the ECO tours to Brussels, Istanbul and Prague and continues its residency in Bristol and its London Series at Cadogan Hall and Wigmore Hall, with guest artists including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax and Sir Colin Davis. Maxim Vengerov, Kiri te Kanawa, Yefim Bronfman and Mischa Maisky also appear with the ECO during the current season, whilst the Orchestra will tour summer festivals in France, Germany and the UK with Hilary Hahn and Roy Goodman before returning to France for further concerts with Ralf Gothóni.

Since its inception the ECO has regularly commissioned new works, most recently Sir John Tavener’s Pratirupa (premiered in London in November 2004), Simon Proctor’s Concertino for Bassoon (premiered in Bristol in November 2005) and Anthony Gilbert’s Sheer (to be premiered at Prague Spring Festival in May 2006).

The ECO is proud of its outreach programme, Close Encounters, which takes music into communities and schools around the UK and overseas.

ANTHONY PIKE is much in demand as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician. He studied with Julian Farrel whilst at Magdalen College, Oxford, and completed his studies with Thea King at the Royal College of Music and Robert Marcellus in Chicago. He is principal clarinet with the London Festival Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and has played as guest-principal with most of the major London orchestras. Anthony Pike made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1989 and recent solo and chamber appearances have taken him to venues as far apart as Hong Kong, New York, Guatemala and Norway. He is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music in London.

STEPHANIE GONLEY, leader of the English Chamber Ensembe, is one of the leading British violinists of her generation. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Juillard School in New York and the Hochschule in Berlin, and has forged for herself a wide-ranging career as concerto soloist, director and solooist of chamber orchestras, recitalist, and chamber musician. Stephanie regularly appears with the English Chamber Orchestra both as leader and soloist, and has toured with them throughout the world. As a soloist she has appeared with the LPO, the Philharmonia, the Halle orchestra, the RLPO and many of the BBC orchestras. She has given concerto performances with many international orchestras including the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve. She has recently performed the Mozart D major violin concerto with the Regensburg Philharmonic orchestra and Britten’s Double Concerto with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra and violist Paul Silverthorne. Stephanie has appeared as director and soloist with the Oriol Ensemble Berlin, and until recently she was the leader of the Vellinger Quartet.