The Planets: Beyond Earth

Young people from Tower Hamlets and Hackney composing and performing their own new choir parts for Gustav Holst's 'The Planets'

'The Planets: Beyond Earth’ gives young people from Tower Hamlets and Hackney the chance to compose music for vocal parts to go with Gustav Holst’s famous orchestral suite ‘The Planets’, and perform in the premiere performance of this new version of 'The Planets' in November 2026.

In Spring 2026, Wyatt Sinfonia and acclaimed composer David Önaç delivered 6 workshops to young people, helping them to explore Holst’s exciting music and create their own musical ideas in response.

From September later this year, Wyatt Sinfonia’s professional musicians will visit local schools to support young people to rehearse their new piece. Ensembles from Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Services (THAMES) and Hackney Music Service (HMS) will also receive workshops to prepare to perform side-by-side with our professional orchestra. In November, over 350 young people will come together for a day of rehearsals, supported by Wyatt Sinfonia’s professional orchestra and singers, before the concert premiere of their new version of ‘The Planets’, performed to an audience of friends, family and the local community at Evolutionary Arts Theatre, Hackney.

The story so far...

February/March 2026

Professional composer David Önaç and Wyatt Sinfonia professional musicians led six workshops with young people from primary and secondary schools to create their own music inspired by Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’.

Young people’s imaginative and creative ideas are going to be synthesised into a single piece by Önaç over the next few months, ahead of the new version’s first performance in November.

'I got the freedom for creativity... to contribute to something big'

Pupil from participating school

Why:

Everyone should be able to take part in music opportunities. We aim:

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
To promote and celebrate diversity in classical music
To give young people the chance to express their creativity through contributing to vocal parts for a famous piece of classical music

This project 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:

Chapman Charitable Trust
The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
The Skinners' Charitable Foundation
The Vandervell Foundation
West Hackney Parochial Charity
Hackney Music Service
Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service