Keep believing that music can change lives.

These days the accusations of “elitism” against classical music and opera have become so relentless that we perhaps forget how far they fall from the truth. We are at risk of losing sight of how radical the composers of the age were. Not just in their art but in their human message. We underestimate its power to transform.

We moved into a school.

As in Mozart and Beethoven’s time, there is currently a need for a radical rethinking about how our society works and the role that culture and creativity plays in that. In our opinion there is an opportunity to work together with everyone in our communities to put classical music and opera at the heart of our ambitions as a nation..

In 2020 the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment became the first orchestra in the UK to transfer its rehearsal space, offices and music library to a state school when it moved into Acland Burghley School in north London. It is a school in an area of high economic inequalities (32% of students are eligible for free school meals) that faces considerable challenges with positive leadership. Our programmes provide curricular and extracurricular enrichment, professional skills training, impactful therapies for students with special educational needs and disabilities, and have contributed to improvements in GCSE pass rates.

We are all creators of our world.

Being in a school is not about making every child a violinist. The students make costumes with us. They dance with us. They make films with us. They get absorbed in Excel spreadsheets (yes, really!). It is about empowering the students and the wider community to see creativity as the gateway to a world of freedom and equality.

Excellence is absolutely essential.

We cannot be a world-class period instrument orchestra today without being useful to the wider community. We will also hold to the last breath, and the last bow stroke, that we cannot be useful to any community if we are not playing Mozart brilliantly.

Every penny spent on the arts is a penny spent on education.

Access to culture should be a normal part of growing up in the UK for every child. We seek to work with government at all levels, educators, funders, musicians and artists to facilitate investing in similar initiatives that could harness the arts to transform the lives and opportunities of millions of young people across the country. 

Imagine having an OAE – or an company or a dance troupe or a poet – resident every day in every school in the country. That is our dream. Alongside that the OAE and all our colleagues will thrive and grow.