The Campaign will underpin the Orchestra’s programme to our 75th Anniversary in 2020 and beyond. The funds raised will allow the Philharmonia to achieve our vision that the orchestra – both live and digitally – will have a transformative impact on the widest possible audience by strengthening the Philharmonia and ensuring that it continues to thrive. An integral aspect of this will be through our education programmes, including our award-winning schools concerts, Orchestra Unwrapped.
Orchestra Unwrapped is an ambitious, performing arts project that offers thousands of children aged 7-11 the opportunity to experience a world-class orchestral concert accompanied by the educational resources to fully understand it. The project offers children, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, access to high quality live music education through:
- A dynamic programme of interactive schools concerts;
- Bespoke cross-curricular educational materials for the classroom;
- Teacher training;
- Online learning guides.
The project aims to offer every child the same opportunity irrespective of their social, ethnic or economic background.
The Project
Through the Philharmonia Future 75 Campaign and with the support of the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation, during the 2018/19 academic year we would like to achieve the following:
- Two new Orchestra Unwrapped concerts in Leicester, one in Basingstoke and a concert each in Bedford and Canterbury;
- 5,500 schoolchildren, many of whom will not have experienced a live symphony orchestra before, attending the specially-designed schools concerts and benefiting from classroom resources and preparation in the lead-up to the concerts;
- We will commission a makaton sign and symbol language version of the audience participation piece for all the attending SEN schools to better access this part of the concert;
- Music education specialist Paul Rissmann will lead his specially-commissioned audience participation piece that, taking inspiration from Bedford, Canterbury and Leicester’s past and present as well as looking to the future;
- A number of in-school workshops will deepen the learning for schools, celebrating the communities’ location and history;
- A parallel art project will take place in participating schools where children will be asked to create pictures depicting key aspects of their town/city’s history. Some of these drawings will be displayed in the concert on the large screen.