A high standard of music-making, adventurous repertoire, and the rewards of outreach work are what make the Nonesuch Orchestra unique.
The Nonesuch Orchestra was founded in 1961 to enable good amateur string players to rehearse and perform in north London at a time that did not clash with other evening commitments and childcare obligations – on Thursday mornings, as we still do now.
We find that sharing orchestral music with audiences who may never have experienced it before is hugely enriching for players and listeners alike. In the past the orchestra has performed at hospices and hospital wards and is now focussed on working with schools around London. We hold lively and very popular workshops in primary schools, where children have the opportunity to experience – often for the first time – the excitement of a live orchestra up close.
We also give public concerts of familiar and unfamiliar string works. With conductor and leader who are both professional string players, and students from the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music as our principal cello and bass, we perform challenging masterpieces such as Stravinsky’s Apollon musagete and Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra. And each summer we organise a Play Day, where we invite friends to join us for an intensive rehearsal, followed by a performance, of a special piece from the string repertoire - recent works have included John Adams’ Shaker Loops and Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht.
Charity registration number 801054
Patron: Julian Lloyd Webber
Dan Shilladay, conductor
Our conductor, Dan Shilladay, is a graduate of the Universities of Birmingham and York and the Royal College of Music. As a viola player has worked with, among others, the Hanover Band (with whom he is co-principal viola), the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Britten Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra. Dan is also in demand as a conductor and educator and in addition to Nonesuch Orchestra directs the Stoneleigh Youth Training Orchestra. He has also appeared as a guest conductor with Kingston Philharmonia and Barnet Symphony Orchestra.
Stephanie Waite, leader
Our leader, Stephanie Waite, began playing the violin at the age of two and then studied in the Junior department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Later, while reading English Literature at Cambridge University she studied violin with Levon Chilingirian. After a gap of several years, during which she ran arts and music projects for prison inmates, she returned to her playing, studying intensively with Diana Cummings. Now she enjoys a diverse career performing in many orchestras and string ensembles, and teaching a small but cherished group of students.