Candida Thompson

Candida Thompson has been concertmaster of Amsterdam Sinfonietta since 1995, as well as its artistic director since 2003. When leading an orchestral project she values the individual input of all the orchestra members. Her musical approach elicits maximum involvement and total dedication from the musicians.

Candida Thompson studied with the renowned pedagogue David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she obtained her soloist diploma with distinction. She continued her studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Subsequently she won various prizes at competitions, including the Internationale Jeunesses Musicales in Belgrade. Candida has appeared as a soloist with various orchestras in Europe, the United States and East Asia, including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, English String Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. 

Candida is a passionate chamber musician. She has performed with musicians including Isaac Stern, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Isabelle Faust and Bruno Giuranna. She founded the Hamlet Piano Trio together with the cellist Xenia Jancovic and pianist Paolo Giacometti. Candida has regularly been invited to perform at the Kuhmo Festival in Finland and La Musica in the United States and has been a guest at the Canossa Masterclasses in Reggio Emilia, the Gubbio Festival in Italy and the Ernen Chamber Music Festival in Switzerland.
From an early age Candida was already leading chamber orchestras in Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain. She has been concertmaster of Amsterdam Sinfonietta since 1995, as well as its artistic director since 2003. Under her leadership Amsterdam Sinfonietta has recorded nine CDs to date. The very first ‘Verdi Tchaikovsky’ recording was immediately voted ‘Editor’s Choice’ by the leading music magazine The Gramophone. The following ‘Beethoven Walton’ CD was proclaimed The Gramophone’s ‘Disc of the Month’. The Dutch newspaper NRC described ‘The Mahler Album’ (2011) as ‘hyper-Mahlerian and superbly performed.’ The ‘Britten’ CD (2012) was enthusiastically reviewed by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant: ‘In Britten’s Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge Amsterdam Sinfonietta emphatically demonstrated why a specialised string orchestra is indispensable to the music scene. The range of colours is truly astounding (…)’. Following the much lauded ‘Shostakovich Weinberg’ CD (2013) - with Candida as soloist in Weinberg’s rarely performed Concertino - ‘The Argentinian Album’ was released in October 2014 featuring her as soloist in Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons. Candida Thompson has been living in Amsterdam since 1992. She plays on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin.