The group's founding director, Stevie Wishart, conceived of Sinfonye as a group combining improvisatory skills derived from historical research, and where possible informed by related traditional music. In 1987 Sinfonye was awarded the highest prize in the Festival van Vlaanderen in Bruges and made their first recording, Bella Domna. Following an acclaimed London debut in 1988, Sinfonye performed at Wigmore Hall and made their debut tour.
Since then Stevie Wishart and Sinfonye have been at the forefront of the promotion and presentation of medieval music with much of their work being regarded as seminal in its influence of a new generation of performers.
Recordings include medieval music for Glossa Music (Spain), Celestial Harmonies (USA), and Hyperion Records (UK). With Sinfonye, she is directing an on-going project to record the complete works of Hildegard of Bingen in a 5-6 cd cycle, which includes a multi-media performance and contemporary realisation of selected songs.