The sheer scale of orchestral repertoire severely limits the extent to which it can be exported beyond the confines of the traditional concert hall environment and into the community .
Aurora Orchestra is tackling this problem by taking inspiration from the turn of the 20th century, which saw Beethoven symphonies being played on the piano in homes, and Schoenberg and his pupils making small-scale arrangements of Mahler’s gigantic symphonies to be enjoyed in smaller settings.
Working closely with arranger-in-residence Iain Farrington, Aurora is producing a body of works that reduce orchestral repertoire to 3-player parts, scored flexibly so as to be usable by a variety of possible instrumental ensembles.
Through these small-scale arrangements, Aurora’s musicians are able to take live orchestral music to a huge variety of settings and perform to people with little or no access to more traditional concert environments.
Litte Big Concerts are carefully designed to be appropriate for each individual setting. Participative elements, introductions and other repertoire are combined with the commissioned arrangements to make each concert appropriate for its audience. For example:
- folk songs and familiar music to enable sing-alongs for older audiences
- action songs, puppetry and storytelling for early years
- emotion cards and multi-sensory activities (for example blowing windmills to demonstrate a piece about the wind) for children with learning difficulties
