‘The quartet delivered near-orchestral landscapes while preserving every nuance and detail.’ – Jeffrey Pike, Islington Proms
Pocket Sinfonia are reinterpreting orchestral masterpieces with the fresh spontaneity and intimacy of a chamber group.
Rosie Bowker – flute
Eleanor Corr – violin
Thomas Isaac – cello
Emil Duncumb – piano/fortepiano
Inspired by the transcriptions of Mozart, Beethoven and Weber by J. N. Hummel, Pocket Sinfonia has created and commissioned new arrangements of orchestral works by Grieg, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, which we perform alongside pre-existing transcriptions and traditional chamber works on both modern and period instruments.
Pocket Sinfonia are one of the five selected chamber groups for the 2018/19 Brighton Early Music Festival’s prestigious Early Music Live! Scheme. They have also been selected as finalists for the London International Festival of Early Music’s Young Ensmeble Competition which will take place in November 2018. Pocket Sinfonia have performed across the UK and Norway including concerts at Universitetets Aulaen, Oslo, Asker kulturhus, Petworth Festival, Sherborne Abbey Festival, The East Devon Festival, and at the Royal Academy of Music’s Piano Festival. They have plans to record a CD of works by Mozart arr. Hummel on period instruments, and will be performing a selection of this repertoire as part of their upcoming performance at Brighton Early Music Festival and at the final of the Early Music Young Ensemble Competition. Other upcoming performances include at Norway’s Mozart Festival performing Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne as a ‘Pocket Opera’ and at Herne Hill Festival.
Between them the members of the quartet have performed to great acclaim at venues including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Royal Albert Hall, Buckingham Palace, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Oslo Konserthus, Gamle Logen and the Sage Gateshead and have worked in orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
‘The concert was magical, so impressed by the way that you all played, didn’t matter at all that it was only four musicians and not a full orchestra.’ – John Baker, Festival Director at Sherborne Abbey Festival
‘The essence of Mozart, distilled by Hummel, and performed with skill and panache by Pocket Sinfonia, four accomplished individuals who combine as a mightily effective chamber ensemble. The quartet delivered near-orchestral soundscapes while preserving every nuance and detail.’ – Jeffery Pike, Islington Proms
‘they were stunning… they were so expressive and perfectly together’ – audience member
‘It is not every day that you get the opportunity to listen to some of Britain’s most talented musicians… the music was uplifting and rather wonderful.’ – audience member