Our project work is a fundamental part of what we do. As well as playing in our world-class chamber orchestra, many of our musicians take music out into the world.
CLS projects are extremely wide-ranging and form a crucial part of what sets us apart from other orchestras. Recently, our project work has catalysed the development of new productions and concerts for the stage (for example, see REST).
For over 35 years we have been sharing and creating music with people outside of our performance venues. We were one of the first orchestras to work with young people in children’s hospitals and over time we have broadened our work in health and wellbeing to include care homes as part of our Room to Room Music project where we create bespoke pieces of music with residents in isolation, as well as hospices, with survivors of brain injuries, with families, older people, and in GP surgeries as part of social prescribing programmes.
In 2020, we won the Royal Philharmonic Society Impact Award for Sound Young Minds, our music-making project where we work with young people who are patients at psychiatric hospital schools.
‘The ability to reach beyond through music creation is a massive and treasured gift that CLS bring. The progression of the whole project over time is magnificent: It unfolds and develops continually. Long may it continue.’
—Staff at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School
Our flagship projects
Sound Young Minds
Making music with young people in psychiatric hospitals
Room to Room Music
Connecting with the most isolated residents in care homes
REST
Bringing community projects to the concert stage
Music and Wellbeing
Complementing healthcare with creative music making
Children’s hospitals
Celebrating 30 years of partnership
‘Everyone feels better afterwards. That is the power of music.’
—Headway member
‘[Collaborating sound artist] Gawain varies the pace and the feel of each session but always takes his cue from the members. It made for huge variety of music making over these three days. I felt challenged and deeply fulfilled as a musician.’
—CLS Musician
‘What [the musicians] can do in a short space of time for our pupils is great. They are bringing something to our school that you can’t get anywhere else.’
—Teacher at Evelina Children’s Hospital School
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