History of the Sinfonia
“The Sinfonia strives to offer to the community free classical music concerts and to encourage young artists in their musical endeavors.”
Founded in 1972
The Sinfonia was founded in 1972 by Juilliard trained flutist and composer Joy Robin Dronge, who passed away in 2022. She played flute with the orchestra until just before her death. The 2022 program included "Yom Kippur" composed by Joy Robin Dronge for Shofar and Brass Quintet.
We are a 52-year-old community orchestra of some 65 players — amateurs and professionals from teenage to the nineties — who get together in the summer to rehearse and perform classical music. We rehearse on Saturday mornings from May through August at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, and we perform several free concerts throughout Berkshire County each August.
Our Conductor and Music Director, in her sixth season with us, is Tracy Wilson. Tracy was the Executive Director of the Berkshire Music School for many years, and she is also currently the Director of the Stockbridge Festival Chorus. Prior to that, she was Director of the Annual Fund and Community Relations for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tracy has a degree in music and arts administration from the University of Nebraska and is an accomplished pianist and an amateur cellist.
50th Anniversary
The 2022 program honored Mother Earth with Antonin Dvořák's "In Nature's Realm;" Ludwig van Beethoven's Sixth Symphony ("Pastoral"); and the premiere of the second movement of Alice Spatz' "Berkshire Triptych." Also, for the 2022 Gala Anniversary Concert at Saint James Place, the Sinfonia presented "O, Colored Earth" by Steve Heitzig in a special arrangement co-commissioned and performed by the Sinfonia together with the Berkshire Children's Chorus, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022.
