Our Impact 2024/25
This latest Review captures the direct impact we had in 2024/25 on communities across England, and on the wider orchestral and culture sectors in the UK.
We believe orchestras are for everyone
At the heart of our charitable mission is our belief that people from all backgrounds and regions should be able to engage with high-quality music opportunities throughout their lives.
We work as a national producer to widen access to world-class music experiences across England.
Our focus is on communities who currently face more barriers to experiencing music and participating in the performing arts. We support orchestras to consider their impact beyond the stage—on the people they work with, and the places they work in.
2025 marks sixty years of bringing orchestral music to communities across England—a milestone shaped by the people, partnerships and places at the heart of our work.
Our work in 2024/25 has resulted in...
The most important thing for me was the collaboration as it helps network with other artists. This will show that I have the skills needed which will give me more opportunities in the music industry.
Able Orchestra Pioneers participant
We work with a diverse range of partners and communities across England.
Our projects use orchestral music to support people to live well, connect with others in their communities, and fulfil their potential.
We work nationally with a regional focus in the East, North and the Midlands. Many of our projects take place in coastal and rural communities—where access to high-quality music experiences are often limited.
Each project is shaped by one or more of our core areas of work:
- Community collaboration – placing local people at the heart of orchestral events
- Inspiring children and young people – creating first encounters with live orchestral music
- Workforce development – training musicians and leaders, and nurturing new talent
- Creative Health – using music to support emotional and physical wellbeing
As we celebrate six decades of connecting orchestras and communities across the UK, we are looking ahead with renewed energy and purpose. The next 60 years will demand boldness, creativity, and a commitment to ensuring orchestral music remains an essential and valued part of our national life.
Sarah Derbyshire MBE, Orchestras Live CEO
2025 is a momentous year for us as we celebrate six decades of bringing world-class orchestral music to communities across England.
Founded in 1965 as the Eastern Authorities Orchestral Association (EAOA), we emerged during a transformative period in British cultural life with a singular mission: to ensure orchestral music could reach everyone, regardless of geographical or socioeconomic barriers.
For sixty years, our pioneering and innovative organisation has remained the only one of its kind in the UK orchestral sector, driven by our passionate belief that orchestras are for everyone.
Working with Orchestras Live means we can collaborate with a first-class, inspirational orchestra and deliver meaningful, life-impacting projects.
Nottinghamshire Music Hub
We continue to lead and influence across the orchestral and wider cultural sectors.
We invest in tools that help measure impact, contribute to national conversations on key strategic areas like health and wellbeing, and model sustainable growth—even as our team expands.
We take part in collaborative research and sector-wide learning that prioritises equity, especially for communities who have historically been under-represented in the sector.
Across all areas of our work, we advocate for orchestral practice that is inclusive, responsive and sustainable long-term.
It was wonderful to interact with [the live musicians] and they made every single one of us feel we mattered. It was sheer joy to listen to them.
Project Participant
We are extremely grateful for the support we have received from our funders and partners in 2024/25, which allowed our vital work to flourish.
In particular, for the financial support we received from:
Arts Council England, Scops Arts Trust, and the Garfield Weston Foundation.
