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10 September 2020

THE ARTS COLUMN
Orchestras are revolutionising

schools by moving in with

the pupils

Richard Morrison

Almost guiltily, at a time when performers across the UK are struggling to survive, can

I bring you some good news from the music world? In London and Birmingham, two orchestras

have raised their sights above the chaos, and dared to dream. Actually, do much more than

dream. In different ways they are planning interventions into education that could have

revolutionary consequences for arts organisations and school pupils everywhere.
Because it’s happening right now, let’s talk first about the plans of the Orchestra of the Age of

Enlightenment (OAE). Britain’s senior period-instrument orchestra is moving — lock, stock and

baroque bassoons — out of its present home (the Kings Place arts complex at King’s Cross) and

into a big north London comprehensive school.

Incongruous though it may seem, by the end of this month Acland Burghley School in Tufnell

Park will house this internationally acclaimed orchestra’s administration, library and recording

studio, while the school’s grade II listed assembly hall — a once-acclaimed brutalist hexagon
scheduled for restoration — will be used for OAE rehearsals.