Meet the Orchestra
Sarah Maynard, Flute
I’ve been playing the Flute since I was 9 years old and did a maths and music degree. I have been playing in orchestras all my life. I enjoy playing in small ensembles and chamber groups. I have been a member of the Sinfonia since it was founded nearly 20 years ago.
Helena Roche, Cello
I played cello when I was a kid and stopped at 17. Later I took it up again, did Grade 7 again then Grade 8 and performance diploma, and I’ve played more or less continuously since then.
Everyone needs something for themselves and this is mine. I have a job that’s full on and oh! orchestral playing!. I don’t know the pieces but sometimes it can just be a small snatch of the tune or a phrase, and you just think, wow! I sometimes struggle with the rhythms but I just ask and listen, communicating with others is the key as it is in life.
Fiona Chamberlain, 2nd Violin
My musical journey started with Piano lessons at the age of 5 and violin was added when I reached 7 years and this soon became my preferred instrument. I’ve played in a number of different orchestras throughout my adult life and have also played with a quartet and a ceilidh band. I added learning the cello to my musical repertoire during lockdown. I have non musical interests too and these include walking in the countryside, gardening, watercolour painting and baking.
Ed Cook, Clarinet
Ed has played with the Sinfonia since moving to Leicestershire in 2018. He plays a range of clarinets including as well as the standard orchestral instrument, piccolo E flat, basset horn and bass clarinet.
Ed is very active in the Sinfonia’s wind chamber music ensemble, who perform in various venues apart from the main orchestra season.
Jeremy Oakley, Viola
I’m Leicester born and bred, and I started playing the violin at school when I was 14. I started playing viola in 1988, I was playing in a community orchestra and their regular viola player asked me if I could take it up to play on a forthcoming tour she was unable to go on, and I eventually took over as leader of that section.
I love the dark veiled sound of the instrument (Much appreciated by composers such as Mozart and Brahms) and filling the important middle ground of the orchestra. I still play the violin though – I am a long standing second fiddle with the LSO.
Lez, Bullwer, Bassoon
Lez is the Principal Bassoonist. She started as a one-off stand-in – and stayed on! She started playing the clarinet at the age of 10, but then gave up after leaving school.
At 22 she rediscovered her love of playing and took up the oboe at 24 and went onto achieve first class honours in Music from Sheffield University where she won the Mary Stewart prize for music.
She finally took up bassoon on her 50th birthday and now has grade 3 in all three instruments.