This February the annual Association of British Orchestras (ABO) conference was at The Glasshouse, Newcastle, a fantastic place for our Scotland Manager and Deputy CEO Alison Reeves to share thoughts and discussion on how to support all orchestras to flourish.
There are around 50 professional orchestras in the UK – Making Music has over 500 leisure-time orchestras in its membership. So, although I was very pleased to be representing our orchestral members at the ABO conference in February, I was wondering if the concerns of professional ensembles were useful for us to be part of. But the packed programme of discussion sessions had much useful thinking, advice and development ideas for all ensembles. And it only took a few minutes of chatting to find someone who plays in or leads one of our member orchestras in their leisure time, so we are understood and valued at conference.
Alison at The Glasshouse for ABO's conference
The three-day event was focussed on looking to the future of orchestras and their role in wider society as well as their artistic development. Some sessions spoke directly to the opportunities for leisure-time orchestras: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra talked about their civic responsibility and how they were working to reach all citizens, performing in stations and shopping centres; Danish audience development consultants Rasmussennordic introduced their toolkit for orchestras looking to attract more and a wider diversity of people; Orchestras Live led a session on social prescribing and harnessing the impacts of music on health; musicians from Chineke Orchestra spoke movingly on how an inclusive orchestral environment gives Black and ethnically diverse musicians the opportunity to excel. Of course music education was a hot topic, not only how to open up pathways for young people to become professional orchestral musicians, as demonstrated by the work of Young Sounds UK, but also how to direct musicians to the valuable and aspirational lifelong playing opportunities in leisure-time orchestras for those who don’t choose to make it their career.
Across the three days, I felt the view of Making Music was heard; that the future of orchestral music has to take note of the contribution of the wealth of leisure-time ensembles in this country. On day one, the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts, and Tourism, Sir Chris Bryant MP introduced the DCMS’s intention to write a 10-point plan for music; the example of UK excellence he gave was The Cory Band, a brass band of leisure-time players. Making Music’s intention is to keep pushing this issue in our advocacy work, including continuing to attend the ABO conference each year.
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