As he waves goodbye at Christmas, Executive Director Stuart Burns reflects on his five years working with Orchestras for All
The first time I saw the National Orchestra for All in real life was back in July 2014 outside the Henry Price accommodation blocks at the University of Leeds. I’d been offered the job of NOFA Programme and General Manager a few weeks before, and Marianna and Ella had invited me to see the NOFA Summer Course in action so I could get a flavour of what the work was all about.
My first two reactions were: 1. complete and utter terror seeing all the young people streaming off the coaches and realising that I would soon be responsible for all of this and 2. overwhelming calm thanks to the warmest of welcomes from everyone in the team, percussion tutor Ollie leading the charge with the biggest hug. That really set the tone for the five years to come, and I cannot begin to thank the team and the young people of Orchestras for All for welcoming me into the family.
Since 2014, we’ve grown our programmes to reach hundreds of young people all across the country. We’ve established new schools networks and developed a whole range of ways to support music leaders gain the skills and confidence to lead inclusive ensemble music-making opportunities. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and commitment of our amazing core staff team and team of freelance tutors, and the hardworking music teachers working against the odds to bring music into their schools and communities.
It’s not getting easier for young people to participate in high quality music-making experiences. Declining numbers of music teachers joining the sector each year, squeezed arts budgets in schools and continued pressure on educators to focus on non-arts subjects add to the many barriers already faced by young people with complex lives in accessing the arts.
There’s a great deal of excellent work going on around the UK to support young musicians. But we must make sure that those who might have started an instrument late, not had regular access to lessons, lack the financial, practical or emotional support of their family, live in rurally isolated or culturally deprived areas, or have complex additional support needs can still benefit from high quality collaborative musical experiences.
We’ve spent 2019 talking to young people, parents, teachers, musicians, programme managers, funders and charity partners to find out where we as Orchestras for All can best help. Out of this process we’ve created an ambitious new strategy to take us from 2020-2025. Due to launch in summer 2020, the start of our new strategy will coincide with the start of our ten-year anniversary celebrations.
Over the next five years, Orchestras for All will seek to empower young people, engage music leaders and embed our approach through a range of partners over the next five years, all with the aim of ensuring every young person aged 11-18 has access to opportunities to make music together at a national level. I could not be more delighted to be handing over the reins to Nick Thorne, who brings with him a wealth of experience from his time most recently building the NYO Inspire programme. With the support of our fantastic board of trustees led by the brilliant Susanna Eastburn MBE, Nick will no doubt lead the organisation in exciting new directions over the coming years.
I’m so sad to be waving goodbye to the wonderful staff team at Cecil Sharp House for new adventures north of the border, and will certainly never be able to repay Anna and Myffy in particular for their extremely hard work on my surprise “Modulo Meet” leaving party. More than anything, I will miss working with and being inspired by the extraordinary young musicians in our NOFA and Modulo programmes, but will look forward to coming along to concerts for many years to come to cheer you on – see you at the NOFA Spring Course concert on 9 April 2020!
