Participation

We want music to be open and accessible to everyone by making people part of it, to experience it in their own way giving them a sense of ownership and connection.

For over 30 years we’ve been working with different people outside of performance venues as part of our participation programme. We were one of the first orchestras (just over 30 years ago) to work in children’s hospitals and over time this work has evolved so that the majority of our work is in health and wellbeing including care homes as part of our Room to Room Music project where we create bespoke pieces of music with residents in isolation, hospices such as St Christophers, with survivors of brain injuries, with families, older people and in GP surgeries as part of social prescribing programmes. And in November 2020, we won the Royal Philharmonic Society Impact Award for our Sound Young Minds, our music making project where we work with young people who are patients at psychiatric hospital schools.

Being recognised for Impact and the positive difference we can make to someone’s life in a dark time through music, reminds us of what we as an orchestra can do.

The drive of this work is not about our musicians playing music TO people, it’s about making music WITH people and creating a shared personal experience together that’s empowering, unique and we hope, brings a moment of joy.