Are Orchestras in Need of an Update?
Aurora Orchestra. Courtesy of the Orchestra’s official website.
'Where does that leave the symphony orchestra now? Obsolete? A doomed dinosaur?'
These words are from a speech by the American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein given to the American Symphony Orchestra League in 1980. This was his take on the Äproblems of the symphony orchestra.” Although 45 years have passed since then, similar questions are still being discussed in online articles, newspapers, and blogs: are orchestras losing their audiences? What will happen to their funding? Is classical music dying out?
Many orchestras across the UK are struggling; audience numbers are slumping while they face huge cuts to funding. To give just one recent example, Birmingham City Council announced they would be cutting arts funding by 100% in 2025 meaning that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra would lose £630,000 a year. Yet, orchestral music is more popular with young people than it has ever been. The RPO reported in 2022 that 55% of people aged 18-25 listened to classical music and that under 35-year-olds were more likely to be classical fans than their parents. The question for orchestras is how to convert these new orchestral music enthusiasts into concertgoers? Should we find ways of “derigidifying common practice,” as Bernstein said?
One answer has been proposed by the Aurora Orchestra. They believe that to appeal to a new audience you’ve got to remove the barriers put in place by traditional classical concerts. Aurora wants to avoid the risk of alienating new concertgoers,or leaving them baffled after sitting through dauntingly long performances in total silence. Their solution: play entire pieces from memory, add some entertaining commentary about the composer and fascinating breakdowns about how each piece works to create a truly engaging concert. The success and acclaim of the Aurora Orchestra shows that centuries-old pieces can still be performed in captivating new ways.
The Manchester Collective are another ensemble whose novel approach challenges the age-old formulas of traditional orchestral concerts. Instead of focusing almost exclusively on works from the “classical canon,” the chamber group gives imaginative, immersive renditions of pieces by contemporary composers, collaborate with non-classical musicians and commission many new pieces. They also insist on taking their performances beyond the walls of the concert hall into warehouses, nightclubs and even abandoned buildings.
The way we consume music today would look unrecognisable to audiences in the eighteenth century, when the orchestra was first taking shape. To benefit from the recent surge in classical music’s popularity and to attract new audiences, orchestras should embrace the reinvention and experimentation shown by the Aurora Orchestra, Manchester Collective and others. We can be hopeful for the future of orchestral music because clearly the most valuable element remains strong – audiences’ and musicians’ love of the music. Renewed engagement with orchestral music will therefore come, as Bernstein said, “from where it has always come from: it will come from the love of music, the sheer aesthetic delight in this most mysterious and rewarding of all the arts.”