EAST LONDON SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS FESTIVAL

25/2/25 - 6pm - EartH Theatre (N16 8BH)

Featuring young people from Tower Hamlets and Hackney performing with Wyatt Sinfonia's professional orchestral musicians

East London School Orchestras Festival (ELSOF) 2025 invited young people from nine different schools and organisations to work and perform with our professional musicians in a one-night festival concert at EartH Theatre in Dalston. This special collaborative concert included performances from:

Secondary school orchestras
Combined primary schools
Young instrumentalists from Hackney Music Service
A brand-new piece, written by young people and professional composer Will Donaldson

All performed alongside professional musicians in front of family, friends and the local community!

The Concert

East London School Orchestras Festival

Our final event was a huge success, with over 200 pupils involved in the performance, all of whom gave extremely positive feedback. Pupils came together from across 9 different organisations, performing a range of styles of music alongside our professional orchestra. The finale was 'Flight', co-written by pupils and professional composer William Donaldson.

“It was so inspiring to watch and play with a professional orchestra, as it helped us see and experience what we can be aiming for with our musical journeys.”

Pupil from participating school

The lead up to the festival...

JANUARY 2025

Workshops have started in all three secondary and all five primary schools in Tower Hamlets and Hackney! Wyatt Sinfonia's professional musicians have been inspiring pupils and helping them to prepare orchestra pieces for the ELSOF festival concert at the end of next month.

DECEMBER 2024

Pupils from Bow School's music group took part in a workshop led by four of Wyatt Sinfonia's musicians on bassoon, trumpet, violin and percussion. The pupils had a great session working with the professionals on music for their upcoming Christmas performances!

October 2024

Professional composer William Donaldson worked with pupils from St Paul's Way Trust School and Bow School to create ideas for a new piece commissioned for the finale of the concert. Pupils from both schools enjoyed the opportunity to workshop their ideas, as well as learn more about the process of finalising multi-media compositions and the chance to ask questions about all things composition.

Students participating in a composing workshop led by composer Will Donaldson. Photo permissions obtained.

Why:

Everyone should be able to take part in music opportunities. ELSOF aims:

To give young people an exciting, inspiring opportunity to perform in a public concert
To give young people the opportunity to work and perform alongside our active professional musicians
To build a musical community, where young people are inspired by their peers and shown additional musical opportunities available in the local area
To make musical opportunities accessible to all

ELSOF is free to all young people participating. If you feel able to contribute towards the running costs of the project, please consider donating online.

Donate now

Thank you!

Wyatt Sinfonia is incredibly grateful to the numerous people who are supporting the project. We are grateful to the generous individual donors, as well as the musicians and teachers for their work and commitment.

Wyatt Sinfonia is particularly grateful to the following organisations for their significant support of the project:

The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
The Foyle Foundation
King Charles III Charitable Fund
The Scops Arts Trust
The Skinners' Charitable Foundation
Tower Hamlets Council