25 Years of RPO Resound

The RPO believes in the power of the arts to support health and wellbeing and regularly work in clinical settings such as hospitals, care homes and outpatient units to deliver these benefits to patients, carers and staff. STROKESTRA is a pioneering stroke rehabilitation programme that harnesses the power of group creative music-making alongside professional musicians and clinicians to drive patient-led recovery in stroke patients and their carers. Developed in partnership with the Hull and East Riding Community Stroke Services, the programme has received world-wide interest for its outstanding patient outcomes in social, emotional, physical and cognitive recovery and is now being rolled out as a three-year programme in Hull and East Riding, UK, reaching up to 300 stroke survivors and their families.

RPO Resound reaches out to anyone who can use music to improve their life. We recently teamed up with Cambridge Live and The Phoenix Centre – a specialised eating disorder unit for young people aged 12-18 based at the Ida Darwin Hospital in Cambridge – to deliver a creative music-making project. The project used poetry, lyric-writing and group composition to improve mental health, encourage self-exploration and boost confidence through creativity.

RPO Resound uses creative projects to connect the Orchestra and guest artists with the local communities they perform to. In 2016, Dame Evelyn Glennie and RPO Resound teamed up with Year 9 and 10 students from Netherhall School in Cambridge to devise an original piece celebrating Dame Evelyn’s unusual journey from rural farm dweller to international deaf soloist. Using a visit to the National Trust’s Wimpole Home Farm as a starting point, the students and musicians explored how we create, listen to and interpret sounds as music in a brand new avant-garde composition performed side-by-side with the Orchestra during the RPO’s concert at Cambridge Corn Exchange.

RPO Resound aims to break down barriers and bring the magic of orchestral music to everyone in ways that are relevant and meaningful to all. One flagship programme, Sound Around, gives teams of secondary-age ‘Young Producers’ the chance to plan, programme and present concerts for their peers. Beginning with choosing the repertoire and theme and ending with running the sound and lighting desks and looking after the orchestra backstage, young people are given the chance to work with industry professionals to put on orchestral concerts unlike anything you’ve seen before. From Mannequin Challenges to musical boxing rings, no ideas are off limits as the Orchestra take their orders from the young people themselves to create bespoke concerts by and for local school pupils.

RPO Resound regularly works with people with special educational needs and disabilities, ensuring that all people have access to high quality music regardless of ability. Projects in special schools aim to give young people the chance to experience world-class music, work alongside others and express themselves in ways they may not normally be able to. This powerful strand of work delivers great benefits not only to participants, but to school staff and musicians as well.