"Musical Hemispheres"
Artists
Imperial College Symphony Orchestra
Established in 1948, 
Imperial College Symphony Orchestra (ICSO) has been a mainstay of music at Imperial College for over sixty years and continues to flourish under the baton of its internationally renowned musical director, Richard Dickins. Most notably winning the coveted title of ‘Orchestra of the Year 2008’ in the inaugural SymphUni competition which was sponsored by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and performing to capacity crowds in London’s Cadogan Hall with the IC Choir and Thomas Hardye Singers in December 2008. ICSO is therefore rightly recognized as one of the finest university orchestras in the United Kingdom. Its seventy players comprise both staff and students of Imperial College. The orchestra is run by a dedicated committee of full-time students, who, together with the musical director, organise every aspect of the orchestra’s operation.
The orchestra’s recent repertoire has included established favourites such as Mahler’s Symphony No.1, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, as well as exciting contemporary works such as Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams. ICSO also frequently joins forces with choirs to perform choral works such as the iconic Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven, Verdi’s Requiem and more recently Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. Aside regular concerts at The Great Hall at Imperial College’s South Kensington campus, the orchestra performs further afield, travelling annually to Dorchester to perform with the Thomas Hardye Singers. Recent years have also involved the orchestra performing at The Dragon School, Oxford, at The Lighthouse, Poole and at London’s prestigious Cadogan Hall.
ICSO has been privileged to work not only with the very best soloists from Imperial College, but alongside highly-respected artists, such as pianists Charles Owen, violinist Corina Belcea-Fisher and guitarist Gary Ryan.
On 
more than one occasion, ICSO has appeared on television; firstly in the acclaimed Channel 4 series Faking It. With some help from ICSO, Richard Dickins successfully transformed punk singer Chris Sweeney into a conductor capable of conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in only four weeks. The series won a BAFTA in 2002, and the above episode won the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux television award. In 2003, ICSO spent two days filming at the Royal College of Music for Professor Robert Winston’s BBC documentary series The Human Mind, which was broadcast in October that year.
2003 saw ICSO recommence their long-neglected tradition of orchestral tours with a week in Montecatini Terme (Tuscany) to capacity audiences. In 2005, the orchestra visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The most recent tour in 2007 saw the orchestra visit Catalonia returning via Paris, where their performance at the world-famous Madeleine Church attracted an audience in excess of two thousand people.