A little history...

Salomon Orchestra is celebrating its 60th birthday in the 2023/24 season. Conceived by Nicholas Braithwaite and a group of his contemporaries in Vienna in 1963, Salomon is one of London's oldest non-professional symphony orchestras and is widely described as one of its finest.

If you would like to join Salomon Orchestra, then please
email admin@salomonorchestra.org with your details and experience.

Salomon promotes high-quality performances of a broad range of symphonic repertoire: it puts on three concerts a year in central London, each with a different professional conductor.

Over the last 60 years, Salomon has worked with many now-familiar conductors including Adrian Brown, Adrian Leaper, Andrew Davis, Andrew Gourlay, David Atherton, Edmon Colomer, Holly Mathieson, Howard Williams, John Eliot Gardiner, John Lubbock, Mark Elder, Martyn Brabbins (our president), Nicholas Braithwaite, Nicholas Collon, Nick Steinitz, Philipo Ellis, Philip Hesketh, Rebecca Miller, Richard Hickox, Sian Edwards, and last, but by no means least, Simon Rattle.

Salomon has also performed with many soloists, including Felicity Lott, Jean Rigby, Howard Shelley, Nigel Kennedy, Helena Dix, Raphael Wallfisch, Stephen Isserlis, Julian Lloyd-Webber, Barry Douglas, Piers Lane, Fenella Humphreys, Michael Collins, Paul Crossley and Ronan O'Hora. Some were at the beginning of their professional careers when they performed with Salomon and have since become established names in British music-making.

The orchestra was named after violinist, composer and impresario Johann Peter Salomon, who brought Haydn to England in 1791, and, in the early days, the orchestra's repertoire choices reflected that.

Later, the orchestra became known for performing late Romantic and 20th-century works. In 1990, the Salomon Orchestra received the Enterprise Award from the Performing Rights Society for its continued initiative in promoting contemporary music performance.

In October 1988, the orchestra celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where we gave the first performance of Giles Swayne's The Song of the Leviathan, specially commissioned for the occasion. The orchestra continued to promote challenging programming, including Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphonie and Tippett's 4th Symphony in 1993. In 1998, programmes included contemporary British works by John McCabe and John Pickard. And, in May 1999, the orchestra performed Mahler's 8th Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall, conducted by our President, Martyn Brabbins, with the Huddersfield Choral Society, Crouch End Festival Chorus and Finchley Children's Music Group.

For the 40th anniversary concert in October 2003, we assembled the huge orchestra forces required for Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony, directed by founding conductor Nicholas Braithwaite. February 2005, Salomon performed Sir Michael Tippett's Concerto for Orchestra to mark the centenary of his birth.

In 2013, we celebrated our 50th-anniversary with Nicholas Braithwaite at St John's Smith Square, performing Richard Strauss's Vienna Philharmonic Fanfare, Till Eulenspiegels lustige streiche, his Four Songs with soprano soloist Emma Dogliani, and Shostakovich's 'Leningrad' Symphony.

More recently, we have performed Mahler's Totenfeier (2019), Stravinsky's Petrushka (2019), and Hindemith's Mathis der Maler (2021).

In common with most arts organisations, both amateur and professional, Salomon was severely hit by Covid-19 but marked its return to St John's in 2023 with some exciting programmes, including Fenella Humphreys' performance of Grace Williams's Violin Concerto and Robert Gerhard's Soirées de Barcelona.

Now we are sixty.

Sixty years of music-making by non-professional players from all walks of life, but who all share a love of music, who understand and value its power to heal, to challenge, and to give joy.

Now, we look forward to our next concert on February 11, our 60th birthday celebration on June 1, and continuing to perform great music for our audience into the future.

If you would like to join the Salomon Orchestra, then please
email admin@salomonorchestra.org with your details and experience.