Chiara Dellerba on redefining what orchestral engagement looks like in the Midlands.

My first step in shaping my role as a Community Impact Coordinator when I joined Orchestras Live was the Voices of Bolsover project.

Bolsover in Derbyshire, is a former coal-mining district consisting of villages shaped by a strong industrial heritage and it has traditionally had low cultural provision and engagement.

When I joined in autumn 2023, a partnership with Bolsover District Council was emerging. Although we had already collaborated with the Doe Lea Centre and Bramley Vale Primary School in 2022 through The Dancing Flowers of Doe Lea, trust and confidence in building a solid cultural provision with the community didn’t yet feel like a solid step forward for us.

Despite this, I was driven by a mix of enthusiasm for challenges, determination to make an impact through my work and most importantly, I could feel a genuine appetite from some voices in the community for challenging the existing situation and creating new opportunities for change.

This was particularly important in a place shaped by historic socio-cultural and financial underinvestment, limited access to cultural activities, poor transport links and a lack of local infrastructure. This contributed to isolation and a lack of inspiration, particularly for these communities who were already facing geographical barriers.

Working in partnership with Bolsover District Council and Music in the Round, our orchestral partner, we engaged in a musical journey with a group of communities from New Houghton Community Hub, the Doe Lea Centre, the Glapwell Centre, Bramley Vale Primary School, Duckmanton School, and the Pleasley School. Our initial project looked at how we can celebrate the local stories, memories and aspirations of these communities, using music as a tool to help communities to connect, grow and explore their imaginations.

First Steps: listen first; programme later

While I encountered some voices that were excited and keen to explore possibilities for cultural growth, many people were sceptical about the scope and nature of what we had to offer to their communities. One of the most persistent barriers I encountered was a lack of trust in our commitment to long-term engagement. The lack of social, cultural and financial opportunities that people faced, shaped how they perceived new projects and organisations coming into the area. Over time, this contributed to attitudes of scepticism, caution and, in some cases, disengagement, as people had experienced initiatives coming and going without leading to sustained change or long-term impact.

As a result, I realised that participation cannot be created by only extending an invitation. I felt that before asking people to participate, there was a need to build relationships, understand the context and demonstrate that we were prepared to listen and stay.

With this in mind, I began to question what the best approach would be to build trust with a community, and which doors I would need to open to allow us to come together and build something meaningful and long-lasting.

I decided to invest time in understanding the social landscape of the area: where the elderly socialised, where young people spent their time, and how the local school ecosystem connected with the wider community. I was particularly interested in understanding where, how and under what circumstances different generations crossed paths, and what enabled or prevented these interactions from happening.

I came to realise that time and presence would be essential to building relationships and understanding the community, so I committed myself to being there, listening and becoming a familiar face. I spent time listening, taking part in activities and understanding what made people feel comfortable. In doing so, I was able to absorb, reflect on and learn about the needs, wishes and dreams that the community was holding. At the same time, I could question whether the barriers I thought people were facing were the ones they were actually experiencing.

Community Champions Opening Doors

Alongside this, it was fundamental to understand the internal dynamics of the community: who were the community champions, who were the trusted voices, and how, through these relationships, we could develop a vocabulary and a programme that could genuinely speak to the community. Gradually, I began to understand that relevant engagement depended on creating different entry points for people to contribute, as participants, partners, advocates and, importantly, as people with voices and inspirations that could shape the work itself.

I was able to delve into the community fabric while building alliances with people who represented and connected different parts of that community: community centre managers, heads of schools, Community Champions and community ambassadors. In parallel with exploring and becoming part of the community, I was creating bridges between people, but also between them and the creative team, and, most importantly, between the community and us at Orchestras Live.

Through informal and creative consultation sessions we explored what we do as an organisation whose primary mission it is to make orchestral music accessible to everyone, but also what we could offer and, crucially, what the community would like to see happening. Together, we explored what music, formats and approaches might be relevant to them.

The Community as a Critical Friend

Our work shifted when we decided to bring professional musicians to the doorstep of the community. By doing this, we shortened the perceived distance between professional musicians and local people, while enabling the orchestra to enter diverse community settings like community centres, community hubs, youth clubs. This experience allowed the musicians to encounter the different relationships and dynamics that drive people to come together in each space, and to respond to the flow and character of each place. At the same time, being in constant dialogue and sharing thoughts and ideas with the group became an essential part of the approach. Rather than expecting people to cross a number of invisible and practical barriers (transport, confidence, cost, access, unfamiliarity, trust) to access professional music, we began to ask how we could move some of those barriers ourselves.

We began to explore how we could move the model forward. What if the community itself could become a critical friend to us and to the creative team? What if we could bring professional musicians to their doorsteps while also creating opportunities for the community to enter the spaces where musicians are more “at home” to performing, the theatre and concert hall?

From there, we began to ask how we could gently challenge comfort zones, open more doors and build a sense of pride, confidence and appetite within the community, while also encouraging larger cultural venues to open their doors to those communities. Importantly, this was not about asking the community to adapt to the cultural institution but about creating movement in both directions.

This is where the model of the mini-recital tour and Concert Coach emerged: relaxed, small-scale performances with Sinfonia Viva violinist, Sophie Rosa. Each encounter created a pathway between familiar local spaces likes community centres, schools and youth clubs and larger professional concert settings, allowing people to experience high-quality orchestral music close to home, while also building the confidence and curiosity to travel into a major concert venue like Theatre Royal and Nottingham Concert Hall.

The next step in my role as a Community Impact Coordinator in the Midlands is to build on what I have learned through our work in Bolsover by continuing to shift the status quo by questioning where culture happens, who gets to shape it and whose voice is valued. The mini-recital tour, concert coach, our work in the schools and relationships developed with Community Champions across community centres showed how this shift can happen.

The next stage is therefore to deepen and further explore this model of engagement, creating the conditions for communities not only to access existing cultural opportunities, but to shape what those opportunities could look like and, ultimately, to imagine which new doors could open in the future.