The group's founding director, Stevie Wishart, conceived of Sinfonye as a group combining improvisatory skills derived from traditional music with performance practices recreated from historical research and is particularly interested in repertories sung, inspired or composed by women. In 1987, Sinfonye was awarded the highest prize in the Festival van Vlaanderen in Brugge and, joined by Andrew Lawrence King, made their first recording, Bella Domna, for Hyperion. Following an acclaimed London debut in 1988, Sinfonye performed at the Wigmore Hall for the International Prizewinners series, and, joined by Vivien Ellis in 1989, made a second Wigmore Hall appearance as part of their debut British tour for the Early Music Network.

Sinfonye has performed at the major European music festivals and made its American debut in 1990. Other recent projects included working with traditional musicians in Portugal and southern France whose culture relates back to medieval performance practices, and taking part in a Channel Four documentary on improvised music. In 1993 the group gave the British premiere of the recently discovered Cantigas de Amor of Dom Dinis, and have performed the Cantigas de Santa Maria at the Glasgow Early Music Festival with Cantabrian folk singer, Equidad Bares, and also presented a multi-media performance of the works of Hildegard of Bingen at the Cardiff Music Festival.