The Skaparis Orchestra

England's Skaparis Orchestra are a modern orchestra, flexible in size and able to adapt to any genre of music; they came to wide awareness after backing Gary Numan on his 2018 tour. The Skaparis Orchestra (from the Old Norse skapari, "creator") was formed in 2016 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester by Simon Robertshaw, who was taking a conducting course there. A longtime orchestral violinist (and onetime bassist for metal band Vice), he had long dreamt of becoming a conductor. The orchestra was designed to be flexible in size, easily adapting from small chamber pieces to full-scale symphonic works. Their first professional engagement, in August 2017, was "Classical Uproar," a collaboration with acid house legend Suddi Raval (whose group Together had scored a 1990 U.K. number 12 hit with "Hardcore Uproar"), wherein dance classics were reimagined in an orchestral style. The event, covered by the BBC, led to further concerts and an appearance at the Leeds International Festival. The Skaparis came to much wider attention after backing synth pop/electro-industrial pioneer Gary Numan on his 2018 Savage tour; their work appears on the live album When the Sky Came Down, recorded at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. Later they performed at the 2019 U.K. Harry Potter Convention. All the while, Robertshaw continued working on his first symphony, which he planned for the orchestra to premiere. ~ John D. Buchanan