Orchestra of the Swan
Formed in 1995, Orchestra of the Swan is a British chamber orchestra which, under the artistic direction of David Le Page, is passionate about audience inclusivity and blurring the lines between genres, through its adventurous and accessible programming.

he Swan presents over 45 concerts a year – both live and digital with a catalogue of over 20 recordings. We are passionate about new music and has premiered more than 70 new works by composers including Joe Cutler, Tansy Davies, Joe Duddell, Alexander Goehr, Roxanna Panufnik, Joseph Phibbs, Dobrinka Tabakova, Errollyn Wallen, Huw Watkins, John Woolrich and many others. Our album ‘Timelapse’ creates a space where sounds of the past and present collide to form a unique musical landscape. Although the pieces were written, in some cases, centuries apart and in culturally disparate eras, it is striking how much these contrasting works inhabit such similar emotional territory. Intriguing pairings of works by Rameau and Radiohead’s Pyramid Song, Schubert, and The Smiths, Adés and Grieg, Satie and Reich, complement each other beautifully and style have become irrelevant.

The Swan has been enormously successful in making a positive and effective contribution to the communities at the heart of its ‘immersive residencies’ in Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Birmingham with an ambitious programme of work in care homes, schools and rural areas growing year by year. Based at the Stratford Play House, in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Swan is proof that an orchestra really can be an indispensable and relevant part of the community with its aim to entertain, educate and engage in a way that truly makes it a living orchestra.

London Chamber Orchestra
Founded by Anthony Bernard in 1921, the London Chamber Orchestra was the UK’s first professional chamber orchestra and has recently celebrated its centenary.

Throughout its 100 years, LCO has enjoyed many successes and become one of the UK’s most compelling and inclusive musical organisations. Committed to supporting new musical voices and championing new compositions, LCO has commissioned and performed UK premieres by Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Poulenc, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan, Freya Waley-Cohen, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gabriel Prokofiev, and Nicholas Korth.

Alongside its performance schedule, LCO runs Music Junction which brings children and young people together from different social and economic backgrounds, and provides them with opportunities to develop artistic and social skills through shared music making experiences.

Simca Heled
Israeli American Simca Heled is a graduate of the Tel-Aviv Academy of Music. At the age of 24 he was appointed by Zubin Mehta to the position of Principal Cellist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He appeared many times as a soloist with that orchestra in Israel and on tours, and recorded a number of concertos with them. Heled's worldwide solo career started immediately after leaving the orchestra. He is also an acclaimed recitalist and chamber musician - and was a member (together with Jonathan Zak and Uri Pianka) of the well-known Yuval Trio for 26 years.

Simca Heled performed in most of the leading musical centers in Europe, North and South America, Australia etc. He was soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the RAI and Jerusalem symphonies, the Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphonies, the Lamoureux Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Frankfurt and Saarbrücken radio orchestras to mention a few. He has appeared as soloist with distinguished conductors like Blomstedt, Comissiona, Dorati, Inbal, Maazel, and Mehta among others.

Simca Heled has been lecturing and giving Master-classes in many prestigious institutions in the U.S, Europe, Australia and South Africa and is a frequent visitor to the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv music academies and universities. Simca Heled has won further praise since his emergence as an active and talented conductor. His career as conductor has won him critical and audience acclaim. He has collaborated with Yoel Levi of the Atlanta Symphony and worked with George Mester of the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

After conducting the Jerusalem Symphony in 1989, Simca Heled was immediately re-invited as guest conductor, and has conducted and recorded with that orchestra many times since. Some other orchestras Maestro Heled conducted are the Westfield Symphony of New Jersey, the Virginia Symphony, the San-Antonio Symphony of Texas, the St. Luke's Orchestra of New York, the Jerusalem Cameratta, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, The Haifa Symphony, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Wroclaw and Bialystok Philharmonics and the Opera Nova of Poland.

In 1994 Mr. Heled was nominated to the position of Chief Conductor of the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Poland, and later on established, for a brief period, the Polish National Chamber Orchestra which was made of the best talent in Poland.

Simca Heled was for many years the Artistic Director of Concerts Plus, a New York concert series praised for its innovative programming that was regularly broadcast on WQXR radio. Mr. Heled was the Music Advisor to the Instituto Tecnologico of Monterrey (Mexico), the SAT in Chihuahua and the University of Mexicali. Simca Heled recorded extensively (close to 100 titles) for DGG, CBS, Connoisseur-Society, In-Sync, Isradisc, MMG-VOX, IMI, Centaur, Relief, and Classico of Denmark.