Louder!

The inventory gives you an idea of the breadth of work we do. Here’s 2023 – 24 in numbers.

23,252 participants
14,463 live audience
63 concerts
381 workshops

48 primary schools
4 secondary schools
6 SEN settings
3 university settings

…in 26 towns, cities and villages across England.

The numbers, of course, only tell a part of the story. The powerful connections between the musicians of the OAE and the participants are what really makes the magic. Our Education Director, Cherry Forbes, writes in her introduction to the Annual Review:

“What I love about the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is the rich and varied repertoire, fascinating season themes, wonderful instruments and most importantly, the people who make up the OAE, from players to management and Board to our fabulous supporters and volunteers. Having our home base at Acland Burghley School is also a gift – every day we mix with the school community and music has become the soundtrack of the playground.

Each year our OAE Education programme seems to grow and flourish and 2023 / 24 has been no exception with thousands of young people from across the country, as well as the youngest (and oldest!) music lovers joining us for creative projects inspired by the music performed by the OAE.

One of many highlights of the year for me was our performance as part of the OAE’s Southbank Centre season of The Fairy Queen: Three Wishes, a beautiful new imagining of this famous story by Hazel Gould and James Redwood and not forgetting Henry Purcell! We were joined by nearly 200 performers on stage including our fabulous soloists Kirsty Hopkins, Simone Ibbett Brown, Tim Dickinson and Adam Courting, a 90 strong primary chorus from three Camden primary schools, nine primary child actors, a community choir from across our national residencies, dancers and musicians from Acland Burghley and Northgate secondary schools as well as the OAE.

We are thrilled that we have been awarded a strategic touring grant from Arts Council England (ACE) to support us to take this project on tour to County Durham, York, King’s Lynn, Plymouth, Wiltshire and Lincolnshire over the next three years – what a treat for thousands more people to experience this magical work!

We also look forward to bringing our next community opera The Magic Flute and the Bird That Would Be Free to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 26 June 2025. Another wonderful adaptation by Hazel Gould and James Redwood, intertwined by the brilliance of Mozart’s original masterpiece. Do join us to see whether Kirsty, our bird can be set free. With the Queen of the Night’s trials whatever could go wrong?

We have called this season Louder! – from the Beginnings and Endings of the OAE’s season to the huge amount of work the OAE does on, off and around the platform we must shout loudly for the transformative power of the arts, every day and everywhere.

And finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has taken part in our OAE Education programme during 2023 / 24 and to those who support it and to those who come to listen to our work. As we move into the OAE’s season of Enigmas may 2024 / 25 be ‘Full of Surprises’ for us all!”