Orkney Camerata was formed in 1995, and celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025.
Here are just some of the concerts we have given over the years.
2025
30th Anniversary Concert
Sunday 18 May
Saturday 8 March 2025
2024
Concert in aid of Malawi Music Fund
with the Winter Choir, Junior Camerata and the Mayfield Singers
Sunday 15 December 2024
Concert Programme
St Magnus Festival 2024
2023
Concert Programme
Christmas concert with the Winter Choir
in aid of Malawi Music Fund
Sunday 10 December 2023
Concert programme
2022
Concert programme
Words into Music: Continuity and Change
a collaboration with the GMB Fellowship for the centenary of the birth of George Mackay Brown
Sunday 22 May 2022
Concert Programme
2021
Christmas Concert
with the Winter Choir and the Nø Boys
in aid of Malawi Music Fund
Sunday 12 December 2021
Concert Programme
A midwinter celebration of music and poems
Sunday 2 February 2021
Concert Programme
2019
2018
2017
English and French Music
Sunday 21 May 2017
Concert Programme
Mayfield Singers
Orkney Camerata
Finzi Magnificat
Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine
Vaughan Williams Mass in G minor
Milhaud La Cheminée du Roi René, for wind quintet
plus music by Elgar, Grainger, Rameau, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns
Camerata performs Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons
Sunday 12 March 2017
Soloist: Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne violin
The main work in our March concert is Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and we’re delighted to have the opportunity of working with Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne in rehearsing and performing this iconic work for violin and string orchestra.
Born in Poland, Rafal studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Royal Northern College of Music and subsequently in Vienna. A former winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, he has appeared as concerto soloist with orchestras throughout Europe and the UK and at many of the world’s leading concert venues. In demand as an orchestral leader, he has led major orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and is leader of the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra.
The concert programme will also include Airs for the Seasons by the 18th century Scottish composer James Oswald and Telemann’s delightful Don Quixote suite.
Admission, at the door, is £10; schoolchildren free.
We hope to see you on 12th March!
Remembering Max
An Orkney Celebration of the music of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
St Magnus Cathedral, 7.45pm Sunday 18 September
Orkney Camerata will join a host of local and visiting performers in a concert celebrating Max’s huge contribution to the cultural life of Orkney and the wider musical world. The programme includes music written over a period of 40 years for local choirs, schools, instrumental groups and drama productions and as gifts for friends. Camerata will perform Start Point and join young string players from Sanday School for Wendy’s Wedding Music. Other local performers will include the Winter Choir, KGS String Ensemble, Papdale pupils, Mayfield Singers, Nø Boys and Kirkwall City Pipe Band.
Distinguished oboist Nicholas Daniel and virtuoso violinist Fenella Humphreys will perform music which Max composed especially for them and composers Sally Beamish, Steve King and Alasdair Nicolson will contribute new pieces in memory of Max.
Thanks to the support of Orkney Islands Council this is a free, ticketed event.
Tickets from Pier Arts Centre, Stromness or Kirkness & Gorie, Kirkwall and online at www.stmagnusfestival.com
Retiring collection for Help Musicians UK
Orkney Camerata at the 2016 St Magnus Festival
This year Camarata are delighted to be performing a late night concert in St Magnus Cathedral on Sunday 19th June.
Details from the festival website:
Elizabeth Sullivan Artistic Director
Sulkhan Tsintsadze Miniatures
Sheena Phillips Night Airs *World Premiere*
Komitas Music for Strings
Bartok Romanian Dances
Andra Patterson The world was all before them *World Premiere*
Arvo Pärt Cantus After Benjamin Britten
Maxwell Davies 4 Sanday Tunes
Eastern Europe is represented by the unique musical character of the Armenian composer (and priest) Komitas alongside the folk music-inspired works of the Hungarian composer Bartok and Georgian composer Tsintzadze.
The music of Pärt has become universally recognised but here the Estonian composer pays tribute to Britten in a dark and moving commemoration. Two new works specially created for the 40th anniversary of the Festival complete the programme alongside music very close to home by the Festival’s founder.
2014
Orkney Camerata & Winter Choir
St Magnus Cathedral
14th December 2014, 7.30pm
Martyn Brabbins Conductor
Paul Rendall Tenor
Michael Bawtree Organ
For our annual December concert in St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney Camerata will join with the Winter Choir under the baton of conductor Martyn Brabbins to perform two of Handel’s sparkling Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest and The King Shall Rejpice. Camerata’s artistic director Elizabeth Sullivan and flautist Gemma McGregor will be soloists in Vivaldi’s Concerto in G minor for flute and violin, and Camerata strings will play Vaughan Williams’ evocative arrangements of two well-known Welsh hymn tunes.
The second half of the concert will feature the Winter Choir in a single work – Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Solstice of Light, for choir, tenor soloist and organ. Tenor Paul Rendall and organist Michael Bawtree will travel to Orkney to take part in this setting of George Mackay Brown’s poetic history of the islands, and we’re delighted that Max will join us for this performance, which represents one of the final musical events of his 80th birthday year.
Proceeds from the concert will support the Malawi Music Fund. Now in its 8th year, the project provides musical and educational opportunities for some of Malawi’s poorest and most vulnerable orphaned children. Secondary education is not free in Malawi and funds raised will help to cover the costs of school fees, uniforms, books and shoes, enabling the children to continue their secondary education.
Tickets (adults £10; children £5) are available in Kirkwall from Sheila Fleet and Kirkness & Gorie, and in Stromness from the Pier Arts Centre.
Christmas Concert with the Winter Choir
in aid of Malawi Music Fund
Sunday 3 December 2017
Following last year’s sell-out performance of Handel’s Messiah, this year’s concert will feature Benjamin Britten’s cantata St Nicolas. This dramatic and moving piece tells the story of the original ‘Santa Claus’, the 4th century Bishop of Myra who became patron saint of children, travellers and seamen. St Nicolas is a great piece for community performance and Camerata and the Winter Choir will be joined by singers from Kirkwall Grammar School and percussionists from Stromness Academy. The soloist, in the role of Nicolas, will be the tenor Paul Rendall.
The programme will also include Vivaldi’s Magnificat and music inspired by the Magnus 900 commemorations, including a piece based on the 12th century Hymn to St Magnus by Kirkwall Grammar School pupil Gareth Flett.
Proceeds from the concert will contribute to the Malawi Music Fund, the Orkney charity which uses music and arts to provide educational opportunities for some of Malawi’s most vulnerable and needy orphaned children.
Tickets are available in Kirkwall from Kirkness & Gorie and Sheila Fleet, and in Stromness from the Pier Arts Centre. Adults £10; children £5.
We do hope you can join us!
2015
2014
Concert for Christina
Saturday 17 May 2014
7.30pm St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall
Orkney Camerata performed in St Magnus Cathedral to celebrate the life of oboist and artist Christina Sargent who died in August 2013.
The concert featured Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, a piece of music Christina loved, with Camerata’s director, Elizabeth Sullivan, as violin soloist.
Christina’s family also took part: her daughter Islay Roberts played Bach’s Prelude and Allemande from Suite No 2 for solo cello and her son Lorien Roberts joined his sister in an arrangement of ”Farewell to Stromness” for guitar and cello.
Michael Lee (tenor), Glenys Hughes (harpsichord) and Valerie Webster (cello) performed Handel’s Dove Sei? and Thomas Arne’s setting of Shakespeare’s song, “Where the Bee Sucks”.
Saturday 23rd November, 7:30pm, St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall.
Christina’s former pupil, Matthew Wilkinson, currently studying oboe at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, returned as soloist in the Oboe Concerto in C by Cimarosa and in Schumann’s Three Romances in Matthew’s own arrangement for oboe and string quartet.
Woodwind, strings and harpsichord played excerpts from Bach’s Goldberg Variations and KGS flute group played a Mozart Divertimento.
Christmas Concert
with St. Magnus Festival Chorus
Handel – Messiah Vivaldi – Gloria
Vivaldi – Winter from The Four Seasons Britten – A Ceremony of Carols
2013
Britten and Purcell Concert 23.11.13
A joint concert with the Mayfield Singers to celebrate St. Cecilia’s Day and the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten.
Purcell – Chacony (arr. Britten)
Bridge – Folk Song Arrangements
Britten – Simple Symphony
http://www.mayfieldsingers.com
Summer Concert
Sunday 2 June 2013
In a varied programme of music spanning 300 years, Cathedral organist Heather Rendall will join Camerata for the famous Adagio for organ and strings attributed to the 18th century Venetian composer, Tomaso Albinoni. Mezzo soprano Anna Whelan will join the ensemble to perform arias by Handel and Cherubini.
The programme also features music by two of England’s greatest 20th century composers – Elgar and Vaughan Williams. Elgar is represented by his ever-popular Serenade for Strings and Vaughan Williams by two of his evocative hymn-tune preludes, for which the strings are joined by flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. Strings and wind also combine for a lively dance movement by the 17th century Italian composer Jean-Baptiste Lully.
The concert culminates in an arrangement for string orchestra of a vibrant set of Armenian traditional songs and dances.
Stronsay Concert
Saturday 30 March 2013
Members of Orkney Camerata in concert with Stronsay’s Silver Darlings.
Music by Boccherini, Oswald, Bartok, Joplin, O’Connor and Boyce.
Moncur Memorial Church, 2pm.
Concert with Aaron McGregor
Sunday 17 March 2013
Programme
Mozart Divertimento in F, K.138
O’Connor Appalachia Waltz
Oswald Sonata on Scots Themes
Boyce Symphonies No.1 and No.7 in Bb
Telemann Violin Concerto in G Major, TWV 51:G5
Grainger My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone and Molly on the Shore
Soloist: Aaron McGregor (violin)
2012
Messiah with Martyn Brabbins and the
St Magnus Festival Chorus
Saturday 8 December 2012
Orkney Camerata are accompanying the St. Magnus Festival Chorus in a production of Handel’s Messiah on Saturday 8th December in St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
Westray Concert
28 September 2012
Six members of Orkney Camerata are heading to Westray on Friday 28th September to run a music workshop for the school pupils.
There will be a concert in the school at 7:30pm of classical, ragtime and tango music including pieces by Astor Piazzolla, Scott Joplin, Thomas Albinoni, Bella Bartok and more. All welcome.