Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra

Formed in 2013 The Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra initially brought together students from Oxford and Bristol Universities to perform together. Through principle conductor Sam Poppleton's apprenticeship with the Orchestra of St John Smith's Square, ZCO gave a Moving Music concert in the Jaqueline du Prez Music Room, Oxford, playing excerpts of Mozart and new compositions to dementia patients. Since then ZCO has galvanised into a settled group giving concerts whenever possible. Their performance of Handel's Messiah in aid of the Holy Cross Centre Trust at St Giles in the Fields was praised by countertenor Michael Chance CBE for the ‘virtuosity and thoughtfulness’ and they now draw players from recent alumni of Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol Universities, as well as all the London Conservatoires. ZCO's principal players can also be seen performing with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, European and National Youth Orchestras as well as the Southbank Sinfonia. In the last twelve months they have performed at the Farley Festival, which the Salisbury journal praised for being 'played with wonderful verve, precision and understanding of the music’s shifting moods'; and premiered a new orchestration of James Burton's Convergence of the Twain at the Exon Singers' Festival. Burton's response to this was 'the players were very committed to the piece, and worked really quickly to get to the heart of it. They make a beautiful sound and the performance was thrilling' the Plymouth Herald described it as 'the perfect concert.'