English Chamber Orchestra
Leader: Stephanie Gonley
The English Chamber Orchestra is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world, its discography containing 860 recordings of over 1,500 works by more than 400 composers.
The ECO has also performed in more countries than any other orchestra, and played with many of the world’s greatest musicians. The American radio network CPRN has selected ECO as one of the world’s greatest “living” orchestras. The illustrious history of the orchestra features many major musical figures. Benjamin Britten was the orchestra’s first Patron and a significant musical influence.
The ECO’s long relationship with Daniel Barenboim led to an acclaimed complete cycle of Mozart piano concertos as live performances and recordings, followed later by two further recordings of the complete cycle, with Murray Perahia and Mitsuko Uchida.
Recent tours have included the USA, Bermuda, China, Finland, France, Greece, Slovenia and Austria (culminating in a concert at Vienna’s Musikverein) as well as concerts across the UK and at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Kings Place and Cadogan Hall.
The Orchestra has been chosen to record many successful film soundtracks including Dario Marianelli’s prizewinning scores for Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, and several James Bond soundtracks, and has taken part in a variety of other film and television projects.
The ECO is proud of its outreach programme, Close Encounters, which is run by the musicians in the orchestra and takes music into many settings within communities and schools around the UK and abroad.
Stephanie Gonley has a wide-ranging career as concerto soloist, soloist/director of chamber orchestras, recitalist and chamber musician. She has appeared as soloist with many of the leading orchestras in the UK, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Manchester Camerata, The Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
Stephanie is leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She was the leader of the Vellinger Quartet for some time, and she still enjoys performing chamber music with such ensembles as the Nash Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble.
As Director/Soloist, Stephanie has performed with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Oriol Ensemble Berlin, the Vancouver Symphony, the Academy Of St. Martin in the Fields, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Arensky Chamber Orchestra, Lancashire Sinfonietta and Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra.
Her concerto performances abroad have been with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Hannover Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Noord Nederlands Orkest, RTE National Symphony Orchestra. Regina Symphony (Canada), Norrköping Symphony, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Regensburg Phiharmonic, and the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Her recordings include the Dvorák Romance with the ECO and Sir Charles Mackerras, the Sibelius Violin Concerto and a CD of baroque repertoire which she directed.
Stephanie Gonley is currently Professor of Violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied with David Takeno. She continued her studies with Dorothy DeLay (Juilliard) and Ilan Gronich (Hochschule, Berlin).