The St.Helens Sinfonietta is an orchestra of professional musicians providing live classical music on a regular basis to the town of St.Helens and its environs.  The founder and conductor is Alan Free.

Established in 1997, the Sinfonietta gives four or five orchestral concerts a year with ensembles of varying size, and also presents other musical events, including lunchtime and evening recitals of widely varying and often innovative character.   Its home venue is the United Reformed Church, a modern building in the town centre with a comfortable and acoustically excellent auditorium.  St.Helens Town Hall is a favoured location for larger orchestral concerts.  The Sinfonietta also takes on educational work, including orchestral "workshops" in local schools.

The St.Helens Sinfonietta organisation (Registered Charity No. 1116343) is funded by ticket sales, donations, grants, sponsorship and fund-raising activities.  Officers, Committee and helpers give their services.

St.Helens is a flourishing town in south-west Lancashire, U.K., widely known for its eminence in the glass industry through the work of the pioneering firm Pilkington Brothers, founded as long ago as 1829.  Another pillar of St.Helens' industry for many years was the famous pharmaceutical company presided over by Sir Joseph Beecham -- and In the field of classical music, the town's chief claim to fame is as the birthplace of Sir Joseph's son, Sir Thomas Beecham, one of the great conductors of the twentieth century, who made his debut in 1899, at the age of 20, in that same St.Helens Town Hall (top left above).

St.Helens is also the home of one of the leading teams in the top flight of the game of Rugby League -- the king of football games, now played in many parts of the world, but created, and still deeply rooted, in the North of England.