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Step inside The Mahler Experiment

Tue 9 Jun 2026

We’re delighted to welcome you to Smith Square Hall for The Mahler Experiment.

From symphonies to string quartets, Baroque to new commissions, nothing is off limits with Sinfonia Smith Square. Since our founding in 2002, we’ve explored the question, ‘how can we experience concerts differently?’. Previous immersive concerts have seen audiences lie among the orchestra beneath projections of the universe, wander through an ‘orchestral forest’, and encounter performances from entirely new perspectives.

Sinfonia Smith Square first collaborated with Tom Morris for the National Theatre’s production of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour in 2009 / 2010, a critically-acclaimed production described as ‘immensely powerful’ and ‘leaving you almost begging for more’ (London Theatre).

The Mahler Experiment sees Sinfonia Smith Square collaborate with Tom Morris again in a project conducted by Stephanie Childress. The concert unpacks the fabric of Mahler’s epic first symphony, dispersing the musicians around the Hall and inviting the audience to walk within the orchestra itself, experiencing the symphony from within.

I get to work with a room full of extraordinarily gifted musicians and explore Mahler’s First Symphony. We’ve been working out how we can create a performance in which the audience are invited to experience the symphony from the inside – literally, to hear it in the same way the orchestra do when they are playing it.

Tom Morris OBE

The artists

Sinfonia Smith Square
Haim Choi Leader
Stephanie Childress Conductor
Tom Morris OBE Director
Oscar Simms Assistant Director
George Andrews Lighting Designer

Sinfonia Smith Square

Each year, 34 of the world’s most promising emerging musicians embark on Sinfonia Smith Square’s renowned orchestral Fellowship programme.

With the opportunity to collaborate with the greatest names in the industry, perform in world-famous venues, and explore a variety of genres, Sinfonia Smith Square’s musicians benefit from the highest level of expertise and take their careers to new heights. It is a community where exciting talents find their voice and creative strengths, fulfil personal goals, and make lasting contacts.

With over 700 alumni, musicians who have completed Sinfonia Smith Square’s Fellowship can be found worldwide in leading orchestras and acclaimed chamber ensembles, as inspiring music educators, and pioneering their own entrepreneurial musical ventures.

VIOLIN I
Haim Choi**
Seren Ann Nickson
Lorenzo Narici*
Malgorzata Podlinska
Amelia Harding*
Evan Lawrence

VIOLIN II
Natasha Sutanto
Noelani Perry
Elizabeth Webb
Sophia Miao
Kelvin Ng

VIOLA
Jasmine Ong
Sara Ramírez Rodríguez
Gavin Marnoch
Melody Cheng

CELLO
Chian-Chian Hsu
Daniel Shearer
Haydn Wynn
Hei Chit Wong

DOUBLE BASS
Maximilian Lamprecht
William Taber

FLUTE
Brioni Crowe
Lloyd Hampton

OBOE
Annabelle Pizzey
Alex Fryer

CLARINET
Christian Hoddinott
Latchen Kinghorn-Perry

BASSOON
Verity Burcombe
Will Hartley

HORN
Jack Bradley-Buxton
Nicola Robinson
Hannah Williams*
Caoime Glavin**
Remi Faggiani*

TRUMPET
Eoin O’Gorman
Callum Robb
Erika Curbelo*

TROMBONE
William Brown**
Jim Alexander**

PERCUSSION
Tobias Engelbrektsson
Claudia Goncalves**

HARP
Chris Clarke**

* Alumni
** Guest musician

Stephanie Childress

Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress has already established herself firmly on both sides of the Atlantic through her poise, musicianship and forward-thinking approach to the concert-going experience.

Childress’s 24/25 season concluded with debuts with the San Francisco, Houston and San Diego Symphony Orchestras, alongside a return to The Cleveland Orchestra to conduct Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony for the closing concert of the Blossom Festival. Her 25/26 season began with a jump-in at the Hollywood Bowl in a debut with the LA Philharmonic. She then led the east coast premiere of Anna Clyne’s Palette at The Juilliard School, followed by Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony. She continues her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC) with programmes featuring Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto and Schumann’s Second Symphony. The latter marks the beginning of an exploration of the symphonic works of Schumann performed throughout the season with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and Minnesota Orchestra. She will also have debuts with the Zürich Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and her Australian debut in April 2026 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. A passionate collaborator, in June 2026 she works with director Tom Morris on a re-imagining of Mahler’s Symphony no. 1 at Smith Square Hall.

During the past few seasons, performances of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Hamburg Staatsoper), Don Giovanni and Le Nozze de Figaro (Glyndebourne) marked the development of a fine Mozartian, hailed by the Guardian for the “lithe vitality” (The Guardian 2022) of her interpretations. An advocate for contemporary opera, she has also conducted Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves with Detroit Opera and Simon Voseček’s Ogres at the Prague State Opera. This season marks her first production of Verdi’s La Traviata at the Finnish National Opera alongside a gala performance with l’Opéra de Paris at the Palais Garnier.

Childress enjoys strong ties to the French cultural scene following her second-prize win at the conducting competition ‘La Maestra’ in 2020. Since then, she has conducted l’Orchestre de Paris, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre National de Montpellier, and will debut with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine in the 25/26 season. A reflection of her transatlantic presence, Childress previously undertook a residency at the Villa Albertine, a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States and is a member of the Franco-British Young Leaders’ Program.

A relentless supporter of youth music programs, Childress enjoys a close connection to the Sun Valley Music Festival Institute, where she was previously Associate Conductor, and is a regular faculty member at the Sarasota Music Festival. During her own training, she served as Assistant Conductor of the St Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève from 2021 to 2023 and was one of the first conductors to join l’Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris.

Tom Morris OBE

Tom Morris OBE is a Tony Award-winning English theatre director, writer and producer. He was the artistic director at Battersea Arts Centre from 1995 to 2004 and the artistic director of Bristol Old Vic from 2009 to 2022. He was associate director at the National Theatre from 2004 to 2024.

Directing credits include War Horse (as co-director for National Theatre; 2011 Tony Award for Best Director); Breaking the Waves (Scottish Opera/ Opera Ventures with Edinburgh International Festival); The Death of Klinghoffer (ENO & Metropolitan Opera); Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (National Theatre).

Haim Choi

Born in Germany, South Korean violinist Haim Choi is based in London and enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader.

Haim studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Royal College of Music as an Orpheus Scholar, where she was awarded full scholarships to complete her BMus (First Class Honours), MPerf (Distinction) and Artist Diploma in Performance.

In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal and performed at Buckingham Palace. In the same year, she performed Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Sarasate’s Navarra alongside Maxim Vengerov, from whom she received regular tutelage between 2018 and 2022.

Haim has appeared as a soloist with ensembles including Sinfonia Cymru, Oxford Sinfonia, Thames Philharmonia, LGT Young Soloists, the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra and the Royal College of Music Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, Haim is a founding member and first violinist of the Salomé Quartet, with whom she enjoys unique collaborations with contemporary composers, visual artists and theatre makers.

Alongside her chamber work, Haim is an avid orchestral musician. She is Leader of Sinfonia Cymru and Assistant Leader of the Glyndebourne Sinfonia, and appears as a guest principal with orchestras across the UK, including the London Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Manchester Collective, the Hallé, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chineke Orchestra. She also performs regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and English National Opera Orchestra, as well as with chamber orchestras such as the City of London Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

The artists

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