ABO Conference and Awards
Classical Music Magazine reported on the refreshed 2024 ABO Classical Music Awards which recognised the achievements of Scottish Ensemble, the Recruiting Classical consortium, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s Music & Health team and Manchester Camerata’s principal flute and resident music therapist, Amina Hussain.
Bristol Beacon’s chief executive Louise Mitchell was awarded with the prestigious annual ABO Award. The ABO Award is presented annually to the individual or institution considered by the membership to have made the most important contribution to the orchestral life of the UK. The ABO Award is unique among the many prestigious awards and prizes in the music world because its recipient is nominated by the member orchestras themselves.
Orchestras Live and the ABO presented a new report which revealed a need for greater flexibility within UK symphony orchestras to allow them to reap the benefits of engaging with the healthcare sector. The Orchestras in Healthcare report found that 79% of ABO member orchestras are engaging with health and social care settings, with a further 7% hoping to do so in the future.
News from the ABO
The ABO welcomed the permanent extension to the higher 45% rate of Orchestral Tax Relief. We are delighted that the government has recognised the value of culture, following the collective case made by the ABO, alongside theatres, museums and galleries.
#MusicThatMovesYou Campaign Launch - On 21st May 2024, the ABO, along with its over 200 members, launched a bold, nationwide public engagement campaign to celebrate the power and value of classical music and the UK’s orchestras. Join us in celebrating the Power of Connection of classical music and the joy that it brings to our everyday lives. See the launch here.
Inclusive Recruitment in Orchestras - The ABO, Musicians’ Union and Black Lives in Music presented a 10-point plan for inclusive recruitment in orchestras at the ABO Conference, following an extensive consultation process with members over the past year,. 33 Orchestras have signed up for the programme which includes training, support and resources and started in May 2024.
General Election - The ABO welcomes Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer as the UK’s Prime Minister and sets out the hopes and expectations of the UK’s orchestral sector from the new Labour Government. See the statement here.
ABO Award winners at the ABO Conference in Bristol 2024
Orchestras in Education
Spitalfields Music have created a Neighbourhood Schools Project performing ‘Cries of London’ as a part of their Summer 2024 Festival, and they wanted to introduce some of their Neighbourhood Schools students to this fascinating topic, which links into many different parts of the school curriculum.
Hallé Inspire is a long-term partnership programme delivering creative music workshops with primary schools that aims to raise aspirations in communities across Greater Manchester.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Inspiration for All project collaborates with schools across Scotland with young people of all ages, inspiring young people to get excited about music and creativity.
Manchester's Chetham's School of Music & The Stoller Hall's Terra Musica is the first of their new family series for Key Stage 1 students. These workshops, based on musical heritages and cultures, have been created in partnership with Olympias Music Foundation Migrant Voices artists.
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) and Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) are collaborating on a Youth Assembly, a joint initiative to embed young voices into the heart of each organisation. The Youth Assembly serves in an advisory capacity for strengthening youth engagement in both organisations.
For graduates in the North of England, Manchester Camerata’s new year-long training programme, Camerata 360°, is built upon decades of excellence and diverse experience to train the next generation of musicians.
The Royal Academy of Music’s Open Academy welcomed ensemble Temporal Harmonies Inc to Tower Hamlets primary Neighbourhood Schools for this year’s Schools’ Tour. The ensemble (Mikołaj Piszczorowicz cello; Lydia Walquist flute; Xiaowen Shang piano) will be visiting six Neighbourhood Schools over the course of the week, introducing them to contemporary classical music through an immersive and interactive workshop experience. This is in collaboration with Spitalfield’s Music.
The Independent Society of Musicians (ISM) Trust has just announced a new, free resource aimed at helping teachers to understand and overcome the barriers to singing for children, young people and adults of all cultures and backgrounds. ‘Breaking the Singing Barrier’ consists of four webinars, designed, developed and produced by the ISM Trust, in partnership with the Voices Foundation, and supported by the Schools Music Association (SMA).
The Access and Participation team at Guildhall School of Music and Drama are now accepting applications for Participation Bursaries for Short Courses. Participation Bursaries provide financial support to those living in low-income households, enabling participation in selected Short Courses by providing a full or half bursary to cover the course costs.
The Mozartists run an ambitious outreach programme, which seeks to make classical music accessible to children across Ealing. To date they have worked with over 1200 children, including pupils in ARP schools through a new strand of SEND workshops. Alongside their education partner, Ealing Music Service, they engage with students and teachers across the borough, inspiring them through Mozart’s music, getting them participating directly in their own musicmaking and fuelling their creativity.
The National Children’s Orchestra’s campaign Music Matters emphasises why music is important for health and wellbeing, especially in children’s development. Find out more here.
A Proud Future features the star performers and composers from the LGBTQ+ student bodies of London’s conservatoires. LGBTQ+ students from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance give a series of concerts of LGBTQ+ music that has personal meaning for them.
The charities Music Masters and Black Lives in Music, working with Birmingham City University’s School of Education and Social Work, will fund two places on the Musicians of Change PGCEi as part of a drive to create a more representative and diverse music teaching workforce.
Spitalfield’s Music Cries of London
Diverse & Inclusive Orchestras
Orchestras Live and Britten Sinfonia collaborated on Deaf Perspectives: Past and Present This project in collaboration with Suffolk Archives has a focus on the deaf community in Bury St Edmunds. A collection of archive photographs are the inspiration for young people to create music and photography exploring their own lives and locality, working together with a diverse range of professional artists.
Scottish Ensemble's Music for Wellbeing is a part of a multi-year research partnership with cancer charity Maggie’s, and in partnership with the Central and West Integration Network. The project has developed to support the New Scots community - refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers living in Glasgow, boosting mental wellbeing.
Black Lives In Music and the Royal Opera House have collaborated on Overture: ROH Orchestral Mentorship 2023-24 season. Overture was open to applicants aged 18 –25 with a global majority or other unrepresented background who are based in the U.K. and play orchestral instruments. They will be partnered with a musician from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (OROH) of their instrument who will mentor them from October 2023 – July 2024.
Pegasus Opera, in partnership with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra present Windrush, The Journey. Today, they are paying tribute to Windrush, showcasing a rich tapestry of music and storytelling, and celebrating Black classical composers: past, present and future.
RLPo and Pegasus Opera’s Windrush: The Journey
Britten Sinfonia’s Music On Your Doorstep residencies bring Britten Sinfonia musicians into culturally under-served parts of the region for performances, interactive workshops and activities for all ages.
Sinfonia Viva and Orchestras Live project working with asylum seeking young people, Culture Café Makes Music, is a music workshop program developed with Learning Through Arts.
Classical Pride: LSO with Oliver Zeffman & Nick Grimshaw with ViiV Healthcare & GAY TIMES. The culmination of 2024’s Classical Pride, the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Oliver Zeffman celebrate LGBTQ+ classical music in this diverse programme presented by Nick Grimshaw. Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man precedes a world premiere by US composer Jake Heggie and librettist Taylor Mac featuring soprano Pumeza Matshikiza. Pavel Kolesnikov performs Saint-Saëns’ virtuosic and charming Piano Concerto No 2 and an encore of Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale. Szymanowski’s Symphony No 3, Song of the Night, with tenor soloist Russell Thomas and our LGBTQ+ Community Choir concludes the programme, a nocturnal vision of profound peace within the universe mingled with passion.
Women’s leadership programme Music Leaders Network has opened applications for September 2024. Led by Remi Harris MBE and Tamara Gal-On, the initiative aims to transform the career development of women with between five and 25 years of music industry experience.
The East Riding Schools’ Music Service (ERSMS), in collaboration with Orchestras Live and the Hallé Orchestra, is thrilled to announce the launch of a groundbreaking inclusive music project in Goole. The project will see students from Goole Academy and Riverside School join forces with professional musicians from the prestigious Hallé Orchestra, as well as educators from the East Riding Schools’ Music Service. Read more here.
Classical Pride: London Symphony Orchestra by @MatthewJohnsonPhotographer
Green Orchestras
Through a string of public performances, the Royal Northern College of Music brings a focus to climate change and the natural world with The Future is Green. This special initiative provides opportunities for students, staff, audience members and the wider community to learn, understand and think about the role we all play, whilst also highlighting the sustainability measures in place across their Manchester estate.
Bristol Beacon is partnering with First Bus, to encourage audiences to travel sustainably to their venue. In addition to offering a discount to all Bristol Beacon audiences, First Bus will supply free bus travel for around 1,300 primary school children at the 13 schools across the city that participate in their unique ‘Earthsong’ music education programme.
Orchestras Live have announced their digital sustainability pledge for 2024/25, focussing on how they can reduce their digital carbon footprint. In this blog, they have shared useful insights on their website guidelines, how they’ve progressed, and their hopes for an even greener future.
Orchestras in Local Community & Healthcare
City of London Sinfonia has created the project Room to Room. Room to Room Music brings CLS musicians into care homes where they use responsive, spontaneous music-making to connect with the most isolated residents and staff. Connection, validation and mutual respect is at the core of the project.
Orchestras Live and the Philharmonia’s Hear and Now
Scottish Chamber Orchestras Reconnect programme provides a series of music sessions for people with dementia and their carers and family members
Orchestras Live and the Philharmonia are collaborating with Music 4 Memory on Hear and Now, an award-winning, intergenerational community creative project that unites the old and the young in music making.
Manchester's Chetham's School of Music & The Stoller Hall work with community day centres and carer networks to perform Relaxed Lunchtime Concerts. These are designed to welcome people with a learning disability or sensory and communication conditions, or anyone that would benefit from a more relaxed performance environment.
The Hallé works with a number of care homes that specialise in caring for the elderly and those suffering from dementia and similar health conditions. Hallé players are trained the impact of dementia on both patients and carers and deliver sessions in Care Homes around Greater Manchester as part of their Care Home Projects.
Welsh National Opera’s programme Cradle is an intergenerational project designed to enrich the lives of people affected by dementia and raise awareness of the disease within school children.
Orchestras Live’s project Good Company, a collaborative, two-year programme which aims to support people living with dementia and their family carers in the Borough of Brentwood and the South Essex locality, involving them in an inclusive creative company together with a range of professional artists including orchestral musicians.
Britten Sinfonia has been running the ‘Musical Memories’ programme. Since December, the musicians, in partnership with Orchestras Live and Mid Suffolk Council District, have been holding workshops with older residents and people living with long-term health conditions, such as dementia and Parkinson’s, across the district.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is celebrating their Cornwall residency in 2024 through variety of music-making initiatives. Engaging with, and playing music with other people is known to forge connections, enhance mental well-being and even to improve mental abilities like cognition and memory. With this in mind, we’re delighted to play music at Cake Concerts and Care Home performances across Cornwall, as well as presenting creative health care training with partners at Exeter University in Truro and a Wellbeing Orchestra Residency in association with IntoBodmin.
City of London Sinfonia’s Room to Room Music
Britten Sinfonia’s ‘Musical Memories’
Orchestras making change
The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s program Crisis Creates is a project offering creative performance opportunities to adults who have experienced or are at risk of homelessness. Working with national charity Crisis UK, they aim to improve participants’ wellbeing and confidence through self-expression, collaboration and developing creative skills.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Open Sound Ensemble courses run three times a year in school holidays and develop musical skills in a supportive and creative environment. Using a mixture of traditional and accessible digital instruments to explore sounds, rhythms and melodies they use these techniques to make music together.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra created Soundbox, an artist development programme offering a platform for music creators from any musical or cultural background to experiment with the chamber music format, expand their creative practice and explore new ideas, new sounds and new music.
PRS for Music announced a new partnership with Help Musicians to provide its members with unique access to Co-Pilot: the Musicians’ Mentoring Network. Together, the new offering provides an invaluable opportunity to engage with seasoned industry mentors, gaining invaluable insights and guidance to advance their careers.
Ulster Orchestra’s Move to the Music project is targeted at older people who may feel isolated and people at risk of social exclusion across Northern Ireland. The project provides free access to selected Ulster Orchestra season concerts, engagement opportunities and sustained projects for community groups,.
Co-Pilot: the Musicians’ Mentoring Network project by PRS for Music and Help Musicicans
Digital Orchestras
The Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields has created a new digital project SoundWalk with the Royal Academy of Music. Titled ‘A City Full of Stories’, it takes individuals on a journey along the streets of London, beginning at St Martin-in-the-Fields, through Covent Garden and back.
The Academy of Ancient Music has launched the AAMbition Fund, which includes the AAM A-list, a new catalogue of high-quality films that will be made available for free online, with repertoire to include much-loved favourites by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven alongside lesser-known works. Find out more about AAMbition here.
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s digital care packages are concert recordings. These are available for free to anyone living or working in care homes, hospices, healthcare settings or homecare, and part of a three-part series of recorded performances.
Tenebrae have launched some online Digital Singing Resources for the classroom. They are completely free to use, and have been put together by the workshops team in Tenebrae’s education strand. Choose one video from each step to build your session, and mix it up every time. You don’t need any special equipment, just make sure you’re comfortable, have a little bit of space around you, and that the pupils can see and hear the videos.
Opera North’s #ONTour is a live orchestral performance from Skipton Town Hall aimed at KS2 children to introduce them to orchestras in a fun and interactive format. It is now available as a resource to stream.
Opera North’s #ONTour