A journey through passion, destiny and the power of sound
Saturday 18th October 2025, 7:00pm
The Sinfonia proudly opens its 2025/26 season with Threads of Fate, a concert that also marks the orchestra’s 10th Anniversary. This milestone year begins in celebratory style with Amy Beach’s sparkling Bal Masque, a vibrant work alive with dazzling colour, elegance, and the joy of dance. The spotlight then turns to Adrian Sutton—best known for his acclaimed music for the National Theatre’s War Horse. His striking Violin Concerto, written for and premiered by the brilliant Fenella Humphreys in 2023, combines lyrical beauty with compelling drama, offering a fresh and deeply expressive voice for the instrument.
Closing the programme is one of the great Romantic symphonies: Tchaikovsky’s mighty Fifth. Rich with sweeping melodies and emotional intensity, it is a work that confronts fate head-on, moving from brooding darkness to an exultant, radiant triumph. A thrilling opening to a landmark season, Threads of Fate is a celebration of music’s power to move, inspire, and endure.
Date and Time
Saturday 18th October, 7:00pm
Venue
Memorial Hall, Bishop’s Stortford College, Maze Green Road, Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 2PQ
Conductor
Rebecca Miller
Soloist:
Fenella Humphreys
Box Office Tickets available here.
Fenella Humphreys – Violinist
Fenella Humphreys, winner of both the 2025 and 2023 BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording Award, has attracted critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her remarkable performances.
With her playing described in the press as “alluring”, “unforgettable” and “a wonder”, Fenella is one of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists, having also won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award. She enjoys a busy career combining chamber music with solo work, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world and is frequently broadcast on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala Radio and international radio stations.
Fenella performs widely as a soloist. Her recent album of Sibelius’ solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and George Vass has been featured in BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library, Gramophone Magazine’s Guide to the Concerto, and was Album of the Week on Scala Radio. BBC Music Magazine has written of the recording: “it takes an unusually fine artist to be able to bridge the two extremes. Fenella Humphreys’s playing is a genuine revelation in the way it brings out the music’s dark and introspective qualities, with no shortage of technical panache meanwhile.”
Fenella has given the first performances of scores by a vast range of composers, most notably Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sally Beamish, Gordon Crosse, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Freya Waley-Cohen and Adrian Sutton. In June 2023, Fenella premiered a new violin concerto, dedicated to her by Adrian Sutton, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fenella subsequently recorded the work, with the BBC Philharmonic and Michael Seal, for Chandos Records, with The Strad noting upon its release “Humphreys brings to her endlessly unfurling violin lines a taut, silvery weightlessness. The recording beautifully captures her duets with woodwind, and a tremendous dynamic range…” The disc went on to win the 2025 BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording Award.
Fenella’s latest recording on Rubicon Classics, Prism, revisits the medium of unaccompanied violin repertoire – from new music written by young British composers to iconic recent works by Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery and George Walker, with Fenella’s new arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue BWV565 at its heart. Immediately picked up by BBC Music Magazine as their June ‘Instrumental Choice’, the album is described as “a hugely accomplished release, fearlessly and vibrantly performed…” (BBC Music Magazine).
Throughout the 2025/26 season, Fenella will be resident at Wigmore Hall as part of a three-concert series where she will explore a variety of solo and chamber violin repertoire.
For the launch of Apple Music Classical in April 2023, Fenella was one of a handful of artists invited to record a ‘Classical Session’ at home, alongside Daniel Barenboim, Beatrice Rana and Gautier Capuçon.
Fenella is grateful for the support of the Royal Philharmonic Society, Harriet’s Trust and Arts Council England for their support to keep making music during the Covid Pandemic. Fenella plays on a G.B. Guadagnini violin kindly on loan from Jonathan Sparey.
Bishop's Stortford Sinfonia 