The Orchestras Live team recently attended the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) Conference in Gateshead, where we joined sector leaders, orchestras, and industry professionals to explore key challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

With five team members representing our work across production, innovation, and leadership, we engaged in discussions on impact measurement, audience development, creative health, and inclusivity. In this blog, some of our team share their key highlights and reflections from the event.

Focusing on Impact Measurement and Social Value

Cimeon Ellerton-Kay, Business Innovation Manager

The growing interest in measuring community impact stood out prominently this year. Of particular note was the continued interest in impact measurement and social value. I attended the session 'Improving Impact Measurement to Attract New Cultural Funding'. A range of views and approaches were put forward, with real-world examples from Live Music Now, Rambert and Figurative.

There is a growing appetite for measuring social impact and the potential this has for new sources of financing to support the important work that orchestras do. What seemed to generate most discussion from the audience was the gap between very involved bespoke impact research and the already capacity-stretching evaluation and data collection requirements of key funders. Which could not have been a better set up for the following session delivered by Orchestras Live.

Building Bridges Between Tradition and Innovation

Stuart Bruce, Senior Creative Producer

The ever-deepening financial challenges are, in part, why orchestras constantly look to broaden their audiences. In the session ‘What is classical music anyway? Embracing plurality and reaching new audiences’ we heard about a range of ways in which the Southbank Centre is trialling different formats for presenting concerts to attract different audiences.

Similarly, in the ‘Deep Dive – Thriving Orchestras: A positive vision for the future’ the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra outlined their realisation of the need to better understand and connect with the city and its diverse community, on the basis that the future can embrace both tradition and innovation. Trying new things is not about compromising the integrity of the artform. The Controller of BBC Radio 3 urged us all to beconfident about the orchestral genreand continue to consult and understand audiences.

Manchester Camerata’s philosophy of ‘different music for and with different people’ also raised the question about what does ‘classical music’ mean to different people? New repertoire is being created from different classical repertoires, and there is a need to be authentic about each classical repertoire to truly collaborate.

Whilst the orchestral industry is highly competitive, it was good to hear from Aurora Orchestra that in their early days they were supported by the London Symphony Orchestra to bring a new kind of artistic offer to LSO St Lukes. Ultimately, everyone gains from a collaborative orchestral sector and the shared development of audiences.

Social prescribing and the NHS
On the theme of creative health and wellbeing, the scene was set in the session ‘Social Prescribing – A myth-busting session for orchestras’ with Orchestras Live’s most recent Orchestras in Healthcare report which found that less than 50% of orchestras are working with social prescribing.

The National Centre for Creative Health outlined how their Creative Health Associates were appointed to get inside the NHS system, and there is now greater understanding and demand for creative health within the NHS, with social prescribing being just one element of non-clinical intervention in the shift from treatment to prevention, with increasing devolvement to local stakeholders.

Consulting and collaborating with local partners is very much how Orchestras Live operates, so a more community-led social prescribing landscape could offer us, and the numerous orchestras we work with, some interesting new opportunities for creative health activity. The words “Be realistic about what you can do, but don’t underestimate what your contribution could be” felt very pertinent.

Finally, ‘The next decade of inclusivity’ session gave us some sobering reminders about the lack of diversity in the orchestral sector, both in terms of players and management. Diversity and inclusion initiatives within the sector over the last ten years have not yet increased diversity in orchestras. Whilst it is easy to feel despondent about this, the panelists urged delegates to continue challenging conventions, unconscious bias and the myth of meritocracy. Small steps can and must be meaningful. We all have a part to play in ensuring the next ten years does bring about real change.

Community Engagement and Artistic Excellence

Becky West, Regional Producer - North

A conference highlight was the wonderful Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS) performance with pianist Vikingur Ólafsson, showcasing RNS at their finest. It’s fair to say Vikingur, as a lifelong Newcastle United fan, won the audience over not just with his extraordinary musicality but his evident pleasure performing in The Glasshouse and seeing his football team at St James’ Park for the first time that week. The orchestra are in great form and we’re looking forward to our partnership performances with them later this year.

One of the deep dive discussions explored Thriving Orchestras, looking at artistic approaches that are driving innovation that sits alongside tradition. The recommendation to talk to someone in your community every week is something that is at the heart of Orchestras Live’s longstanding partnership approach. No week goes by without a plethora of meetings with our wide range of partners that help keep us focused on embedding community voice into our programmes and trialling new approaches.

A fascinating session explored full time residencies in schools, with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Saffron Hall and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra eloquently describing how the development of these partnerships over time is positively influencing their artistic approach.

Focused sessions on approaches to nurturing opportunities for musicians with disabilities and female conductors reminded us all that there is much work still to be done to create a step change in our sector in our approach to inclusivity and nurturing new artistic voices.

When surveys say two thirds of people ‘avoid talking to people with disabilities as they don’t know what to say’ and in an Musicians Union survey the small minority who declared an impairment had all faced discrimination in the workplace, it is evident there is much more work to do.

After all, the health of our art form depends on us creating space for a broad range of creative voices to spark new ideas and create vibrant new work that will positively drive forward our artistry in the twenty-first century.

The conference reinforced the value of collaboration and innovation in orchestral music. As we move forward, Orchestras Live remains committed to:

• Embedding community voices in our programs
• Supporting innovative artistic approaches
• Making orchestral music more accessible and relevant to all
• Creating pathways for a diversity of creative voices

As we continue to champion meaningful change in the orchestral community, we look forward to building on these insights and working with our partners to ensure orchestral music remains relevant, inclusive, and accessible to all.