Young concert producers

Orchestras Live is a national music charity that brings orchestral music to thousands of people in underserved areas across England. With a mission to inspire, motivate and empower the widest range of people through live orchestral music, we have been pioneering First Time Live Youth concerts which put young people in charge of every aspect of producing a concert. Following a successful two-year programme which toured with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia (CLS) to ten locations and reached 12,000 young people, we have extended and developed the programme further to target post-16 year olds as orchestral concert producers.

They went out and spoke with people on the street for their thoughts on various life-stage events and wove those video interviews into the concert

Last year, with long-standing partners South Holland District Council, we challenged Youth Takeover, a producers group of young people aged between 16 and 22, some in full-time education, others in work, based at South Holland Centre in Spalding, to create and produce their own orchestral concert with City of London Sinfonia. Youth Takeover is part of Lincolnshire One Venues’ collaborative three-year project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It focuses on engaging young people aged 12 to 25 as audiences, participants and decision-makers at ten venues across the county.

The group decided from the outset that the concert should not only have a strong narrative but would also showcase talented young musicians. Ethan, one of the Takeover group members, was not initially keen on classical music but after listening to it he really got into it. He said: “We decided to invite local young musicians and bands, which perform regularly for the group, to collaborate with the orchestra. Youth Takeover chose the acts that we felt would really benefit from such a fantastic opportunity. It was a great chance for the young musicians to expand their experience in the music industry, to really help develop them as artists and with their future careers.”

This is something Orchestras Live has been championing and has become the norm in our MusicMix concerts with the BBC Concert Orchestra, where local rock bands have performed with the orchestra as part of the concert.

The group worked with music leader John K Miles and members of the orchestra to select music that reflected the things everyone shared and to show how music can bring people together. That is how they came up with the name ‘Lifetime’ for the concert. They went out and spoke with people on the street for their thoughts on various life-stage events and wove those video interviews into the concert. Local singer-songwriters Alfie Jack and Tommy Loose performed their own work arranged by John K Miles, accompanied by the orchestra. The concert at South Holland Centre in November also featured music by Mozart, Vaughan Williams, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Mussorgsky and Handel, woven between videos and spoken word. They also organised a mass ‘mingling session’ in the cafe after the concert where Alfie and Tommy played some of their own songs and people had a chance to talk to the orchestra and Youth Takeover members.

Having previously worked with young producers who were mainly under 16 and based in school, this was a very different experience for us and CLS. We were impressed by the creativity, imagination and enthusiasm of the group. The maturity of the group and their life experiences brought a whole new dimension to the work. As they were not constrained by a school timetable there were practical difficulties in terms of commitment and time-keeping. They could in theory come and go as they please, and they did. However, they received firm and timely reminders of where they had to be and what they had to do which helped to keep them focussed and produce a professional, high-quality concert.

Jan Ford is Partnership Manager of Orchestras Live.
www.orchestraslive.org.uk
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