Heading out reach audiences in coastal towns in Lincolnshire with a mission to use music as a tool for social cohesion for communities separated, and individuals isolated, by the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

Our project is inspired by a desire to revive two vibrant elements of early 20th century popular culture: seaside-orchestras and tea dances. We’ll engage audiences with programmes drawn from this heritage – exploring the light classical, tango and Charleston music of tea dances, the daily symphonic programmes of the seaside orchestras.

Each tour day we will perform two to three public concerts in places where seaside orchestras would have been found – beaches, promenades, but also in the town centres and visiting local care settings. We’ll end each day with a free final concert in a local community space –  a “tea dance” –  as we invite people in the community to a musical celebration to inspire and uplift. 

Research and Development Weekend: Friday 28th to Sunday 30th April, London

Our project begins in late Spring when we meet for a research and development weekend to get to know the project and each other – musically and socially – a little better. The weekend will offer a series of workshops on all aspects of performance. From music communication, holistic wellbeing, outdoor performance tools and workshops in presentation, ensemble singing, movement and learning a new dance style together. We hope to bring you experiences and tools to broaden your artistry and offer the chance to think holistically about musicianship. On top of this we will learn together about the elements of tea dances and seaside orchestras, and will be partnering with a number of local and national experts to offer understanding into the needs of the communities we will be meeting on tour.

Summer Tour: Saturday 19th to Monday 28th August (with check-in on evening of 18th August), Lincolnshire Coastline.

Our tour begins with a four day rehearsal period to work on a long and highly genre-diverse repertoire list for the tour – typically around 30 piece of 3-10 minutes – from which we draw a tailor-made shorter programme for each concert location based on our audience (and of course practical, space and acoustic considerations!). We’ll collaborate with upcoming composers and soloists on specially commissioned repertoire, as well as music inspired by tea dances and seaside orchestras.

Street Orchestra Live (SOL) is England’s pop up orchestra with a mission to bring music to anyone, everywhere.

SOL was founded in 2016 with the belief that access to live music is a vital and enriching part of life and everyone has an equal right to its benefits. Everyone in SOL believes passionately that music, especially so-called classical music, should not be exclusive and found only in a concert hall, but available to anyone that would like to listen. We offer our concerts with an open hand for listeners to take from it what they wish or what they need. Some dance. Some sing along. Some take inspiration. Many people tell us how uplifted they feel watching and listening to us.

During our tours we visit public spaces such as shopping centres, parks and hospitals, and closed settings like nursing homes, prisons and schools. Our players come from across the UK, and many are at music college, study music at university, or are at the start of their career. All aspire to be excellent musicians rooted in their communities. 

Since our beginnings in 2016 we’ve toured regions, cities and towns throughout the UK including Liverpool, Leicester, Newcastle, Colchester, West Midlands, Birmingham and London.

In 2020 – what would have been Ravi Shankar’s 101st year – Street Orchestra Live set about exploring his legacy from which collaborative musicians directly benefit today. Guided by experts and Ravi Shankar’s own collaborators, we began a journey into the musics of India, and surveyed their influence on western music, both classical and definitely not classical! The result was our “Ravi Shankar 101” project from 2021-2022. Read more about it here.