The English Symphony Orchestra and the English String Orchestra (collectively abbreviated as ESO) are two iterations of a British professional orchestra based in the city of Worcester, Worcestershire, in the West Midlands of England.
Founded in 1978 as the English String Orchestra by conductor William Boughton, the orchestra was first based in Malvern and quickly established a reputation for its performances of music in the English Romantic and national styles prevalent in the early decades of the 20th century. Over time, the English String Orchestra's embrace of larger works, especially those requiring woodwind, brass or percussion, caused its adoption of the name English Symphony Orchestra to reflect its often augmented instrumentation.
Partnerships with other British or British-based musicians of great renown, including Nigel Kennedy, Steven Isserlis, Daniel Hope and John Lill helped bring the orchestra national recognition.
Yehudi Menuhin served as the orchestra's principal guest conductor from 1991 until his death in 1999. Boughton stood down as artistic director in 2006. Vernon Handley became principal conductor in 2007, and held the post until his death in 2008. In 2012. the ESO named Kenneth Woods as director of its Malvern concert series.[1] He became principal conductor in 2013.[2] In 2016, his remit was expanded to artistic director. During Woods' tenure, the ESO has extended its longstanding commitment to British music to include a major commitment to 21st Century British music. In addition to its own active commissioning programme, the ESO work closely with soloists, festivals and record labels to develop co-commissioning projects. In 2017, the ESO launched the 21st Century Symphony Project, and effort to reinvigorate the modern symphonic repertoire by commissioning, premiering and recording nine symphonies by nine leading composers. The project began with the premiere of Philip Sawyers' Third Symphony in 2017 and continues in 2018 with the premieres of David Matthews' Ninth Symphony[3] and Matthew Taylor's Fifth Symphony.
The orchestra has also promoted the music of composers whose music was suppressed by the Nazis before and during World War II, to include performances and recordings of works by Ernst Krenek, Hans Gál, Michael Tippett and Viktor Ullmann.
The ESO was one of the first orchestras in the UK to return to working safely during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, and developed an online series of pre-recorded concerts in partnership with Wyastone Concert Hall which are shared on their ESO Digital platform.
Adrian Williams is the orchestra's current John McCabe Composer-in-Association. Philip Sawyers, the prior composer-in-association, has the title of composer laureate with the ESO. April Frederick is the current artist-in-residence of the ESO. The ESO's current leader is Zoe Beyers. In August 2020, Andrew Farquharson was appointed as the first chief executive officer of the ESO.
