The Bardi Symphony Orchestra

The Bardi Symphony Orchestra was formed by Andrew Constantine in 1986 with the aim of providing a new standard of amateur orchestral playing in Leicestershire. The quality of performances has received considerable acclaim from the press, distinguished musicians and its large regular audience. 

The name Bardi comes from the Italian Count Giovanni Bardi who, in the late sixteenth century, was associated with new ideas and approaches to the performance of music. High in the Appennine Mountains in Italy sits the eleventh-century castle and tiny village of Bardi. (It seems that somewhere in their history the Bardi family were financiers and made the mistake of lending money to the King of England!)

The Orchestra is a unique and fascinating musical enterprise, made up of instrumentalists, many trained to the highest level, who choose to earn their livings outside music, but who take time from their chosen fields to re-live their experience of performing orchestrally at a professional level. Their commitment, their enthusiasm and their achievement, under Andrew Constantine’s direction, have drawn soloists of high quality to play with them, including the Tchaikovsky prize-winners Berezovsky, Orchinikov, Kaler, and Demidenko, in their regular series of concerts at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Over the last few years the Bardi Symphony Orchestra has raised thousands of pounds for charity, notably for Save the Children, both the Laser and Jacqueline du Pré Appeals, the Malcolm Sargent Concert Hall Trust, and Motor Neurone Disease.

In 1994, the Orchestra undertook its first highly successful venture abroad to St Petersburg, followed in 1996 by a major concert tour to the Czech Republic. Their concert in the Rudolfinum in Prague was recorded live and is available on CD.

Their Easter 1998 tour, with the full Bardi Chorus, included concerts in the prestigious Arsenal concert hall in Metz, the Congresshalle in Saarbrücken, and the Conservatoire in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg concert was sponsored by Her Majesty’s Ambassador, Nicholas Elam, to celebrate Britain’s Presidency of the European Union.

Since then, the Orchestra has said goodbye to its founder Andrew Constantine, following his appointment first to the Baltimore, and, more recently the Reading Symphony Orchestras. Our Principal Guest Conductor, Claus Efland, was appointed in 2006.

“The word ‘amateur’ doesn’t seem quite the right adjective to use about the standard of playing we have heard tonight.”

Dame Janet Baker, describing the Bardi’s performance at St. John’s, Smith Square, London on 26 January 1997