About Us
The Isis Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1983, and takes its name from the alternative name for the upper reaches of the River Thames. We give several concerts per year in and around Oxfordshire.
Caroline Hobbs-Smith
From Autumn 2023, we are delighted to welcome our new principal conductor: Caroline Hobbs-Smith.
South African born conductor Caroline Hobbs-Smith graduated from the Royal College of Music in London with an M.Mus specialising in flute performance. She has developed her passions for performing, teaching and conducting, and over the past 14 years she has had the opportunity to conduct many orchestras, including the Oxfordshire Schools' Symphony Orchestra, Oxfordshire Youth Flute Choir, the National Children's Orchestras of Great Britain, the Kent County Youth Orchestra, the Birmingham Schools' Symphony Orchestra, as well as the All Saints Singers Sutton Courtenay and the Festival Children’s Chorus and orchestra for the Music at Oxford Avro Pärt Festival 2022. She recently accepted the position of musical director and conductor for the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra and is very excited to be joining them in September 2023 as well as the Isis Chamber Orchestra.
Previously, our principal conductor was Paul Cox, and we also played under several other conductors, including (in recent years) Nick Barton, Neil Farrow, Chris Gill, Alex Harper, Caroline Hobbs-Smith, Mark Hooper, Peter McMullin, John Oxlade, Alexander Walker, and Ben Winters.
- Chair: Sharon Curtis chair@isischamberborchestra.org.uk
- Committee: Charles Bryant, Gillian Evison, Trevor Howell, Lorraine Jarvis, Frances Petty, Mike Smith, David Terrett
- Leader: Andrew Lack
The orchestra has vacancies on the committee. If you are interested in helping, either on the committee,
or with smaller one-off tasks, please get in touch.