Reaching for the next generation: UK orchestras

Across Britain, music educators are facing up to a steady decline in the number of students choosing to pursue music education at a higher level. On GCSE results day this year, it was reported that entries for GCSE Music have fallen by 19 per cent since 2011, resulting in associated job losses for music teachers in the process.

It's no surprise that musical organisations have been quick to adapt to dwindling numbers of young people accessing creative subjects, providing stimulating experiences for existing students, and in turn trying to inspire the next generation of musicians and audiences. Between 2013 and 2016, the Association of British Orchestras reported a whopping 35 per cent increase in education and outreach projects by its members. By January 2020, the same organisation was able to estimate that around 700,000 people attended education and outreach events organised by partner orchestras.

We're now in a situation where nearly every orchestra in the land has some form of outreach department. They provide a key service in usual times, providing relief, stimulation, and company through a variety of projects outside of the concert hall. But many have become beacons of hope over the past year and a half. The ability for students to keep going through the pandemic, particularly those pursuing creative disciplines, has been hugely stretched, but outreach departments have been able to provide key resources to enliven classroom Zooms.

I spoke to representatives from three UK orchestras to find out how they're supporting students at a crucial time for both music education and the return of live music.

Beyond Beethoven

Manchester Camerata was one of the first orchestras in the UK to embrace the possibilities of outreach work. Camerata in the Community's work with people living with dementia in the North West has been particularly ground-breaking – their award-winning Music in Mind programme has worked with over 500 people since it began in 2012. Alongside their work with older citizens, the department works closely with young people, from nursery through to university level. They're keen to work with all types of young music makers, from those pursuing music qualifications to youth and community groups experiencing music outside of educational frameworks.

Of particular interest, given the political events of the past year, is their recently concluded project Hidden Histories, as Emma Arnold, Camerata in the Community project manager, explains. ‘Hidden Histories was dreamt up during last summer's Black Lives Matter protests. One of our musicians said, “We know Beethoven, we know Mozart, we know these white male composers. But many of us don't know composers of colour or female composers from these periods”. We thought it would be cool to devise a whole programme on female composers and composers of colour, and write music with older pupils inspired by their music.’

The project involved four groups of pupils from two schools in Cheshire West and the Wirral. Across 16 workshops led by young Philharmonic Society practitioner James B. Wilson, the groups (a mixture of Year 8, Year 10, and Year 12 students) came together to compose and perform works based on the life and work of four composers previously overlooked on syllabuses due to their ethnicity or gender – Florence Price, Joseph Bologne, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Lili Boulanger. The results of the project can be heard online, having been filmed and recorded by a professional five-piece ensemble over the past few weeks.

Depth and relevance

Another organisation aiming to diversify their educational programme is the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). ‘The agendas of diversifying repertoire and representation are coming through more and more, and those agendas sit very closely within the BSO's ethos,’ says Lucy Warren, head of BSO Participate. ‘Within an education setting, it's about interrogating what the syllabus is, how that's analysed, and ensuring representation. There's obviously really positive change underfoot.’

For the BSO, who already had significant digital infrastructure in place before the pandemic, the key to making the digital switch-up of their existing GCSE setworks project was to make something suited for the new format. ‘We were really careful that it wasn't just a replication of something that would happen in person. What we were able to do is produce something with real depth and relevance.’

Their blended setworks programme was devised in partnership with associate musician Patrick Bailey, breaking down elements of the existing GCSE setworks (from J.S. Bach's fifth Brandenburg Concerto through to music like The Chinese Room's award-winning Little Orpheus video game) into small, easy-to-manage chunks, with parts of the sheet music appearing on the screen and a presenter taking students through the music's different elements. ‘It meant we could delve deeper than usual, and create something that's hopefully really accessible,’ says Warren. The orchestra's digital engagement expanded significantly through the programme; 10 music hubs from across the South West signed up, eventually reaching 3,370 students.

© LPO

Still from LPO playing Mozart in Repertoire Unlocked

Global reach

Across at London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), their own GCSE project Repertoire Unlocked also helped expand their reach. ‘We know that the YouTube viewer figures are just the tip of the iceberg really,’ says Talia Lash, education and community manager at the LPO. ‘Lots of teachers stream these things to full groups of students. One view on YouTube could actually be 20, 50, 100 real people.’ The digital format of their work also ties in with recent developments of the LPO's digital brand – the orchestra recently branched out into TikTok, and their watch-along videos of Mahler symphonies and The Rite of Spring have proved huge online hits. ‘YouTube is the medium where we've released all our school resources. It's all free, it's there, and it's searchable. Anybody from across the globe can find it if they want to. In that sense, it's made our work wide open to absolutely anybody with an internet connection and a device to be able to watch it, rather than just the people who physically live close enough to the Royal Festival Hall to come and hear us.’

Repertoire Unlocked adds to celebrated projects from pre-Covid times. BrightSparks, LPO's annual sell-out GCSE concert in the Royal Festival Hall with full orchestra and presenter, works on the biggest scale, whereas the LPO Soundworks Studio works with 15- to 19-year-olds on compositional projects that reference to other art forms like film, dance, theatre and, more recently, video games.

Repertoire Unlocked was a way of translating the BrightSparks to the digital world, filming a selection of set works and teaming up with presenter Rachel Leach to make informative films. They've proved a key resource for GCSE students. ‘You miss out on the live aspects, which is kind of the magic,’ Lash concedes, ‘but there are lots of benefits. Students can watch it many times, rewind it, watch it again for revision – loads of organisations have been opening their eyes to the benefits of digital.’

Reusable resources

The digital turn that Covid forced has also proved beneficial for the BSO, who cover the whole of the South West region with their outreach work. ‘One of the biggest challenges for us is working over such a large region,’ says Warren. ‘We know that more people are able to access our work if it's online. We actually had feedback, specifically from classroom settings, about having something digital where people can watch it at a time that sits within their school day – they can pause, they can go back to it; it's an ongoing resource that is really valuable.’ Arnold notes the personal importance that digital longevity affords for Camerata participants. ‘Usually, we'd put on a concert with a five-piece ensemble, and all the kids would come and sing and the parents would come and watch. This year, we've recorded the songs and either made CDs or films of the tracks. That's been really nice, because it's a tangible thing you get to keep forever after you've made them, rather than seeing them in a concert and then not having them anymore.’

All three orchestras are cautiously looking to the future via these programmes. For Warren, ‘The dream is always that you inspire a relationship through a bespoke programme, and then somebody becomes a season ticket holder – hopefully, some GCSE students also tune in every week to our live stream content.’ It's hoped that these blended digital/in-person resources will continue to support music students and interested young people for years to come.

ABO statistics: bit.ly/3hU66REmanchestercamerata.co.uk/hidden-historiesbsolive.com/participatewww.lpo.org.uk/education