The role of Oxford Philomusica as the orchestra
in Residence at the University of Oxford

 

By Dr Marios Papadopoulos

Music Director of Oxford Philomusica and Fellow by Special Election of Keble College

 

In 2002, The University appointed Oxford Philomusica, Oxford’s professional symphony orchestra, as its first-ever Orchestra in Residence. This ground-breaking appointment, unique in the UK and highly unusual worldwide, has given rise to a number of imaginative developments.

 

The role of Oxford Philomusica as an Orchestra in Residence is to provide educational schemes for the benefit of the students as well as to act as a cultural icon for the University in its series of concerts in Oxford and during the orchestra’s many visits abroad and appearances in other parts of the UK.

 

Even though the Oxford Philomusica is resident at the University as a whole, it naturally has a close relationship with the University’s Faculty of Music. There are many programmes outside those the Faculty offers that we provide and which complement the wide variety of opportunities already available to students. Naturally most of these focus on performance.

Orchestral Apprenticeship

Of all the programmes, The ‘Orchestral Apprenticeship’ scheme is one of the most successful. Every year, we audition students and select four or five, inviting them to play in a number of our concerts in Oxford. We assign a member of the orchestra, in most cases the student’s desk partner, as their supervisor. The students are given training in orchestral practice and orchestral techniques. At the end of the year, reports on the students are written and submitted to the Faculty of Music.

To gain insight into the intricate and sometimes highly complex world of orchestral playing is invaluable to a young musician who aspires to enter the profession as an orchestral player. The training is usually for a year. We are pleased that some of the students on our Apprenticeship Scheme have graduated and have now become full professional members of the orchestra.

Instrumental Tuition

Oxford Philomusica members offer one-to-one instrumental tuition to music students, particularly to those taking the Performance Option. We provide bursaries and cover tuition fees for students who choose to study with one of our members.

In the past, Oxford Philomusica members have also provided one-to-one tuition to students enrolled on the Faculty of Music’s Orchestral Studies Option. For students on the Faculty’s Conducting Studies Option, we offered them the opportunity to conduct a professional orchestra: a highly stimulating and informative experience, in addition to conducting lessons.

Community Projects

Every year we run a series of Community Workshops offering students the opportunity to learn about facilitation skills and workshop-leading devices used by leading musical groups. Topics covered include: Music in Criminal Settings, Hospitals and Homes, Special Needs and a Therapeutic Approach, Music and Business. At the end of a training period of approximately 10 hours, some students have been asked to join the Philomusica team in their visits to hospital wards and gain practical experience in music therapy.

Masterclasses

A professional body such as ours is naturally inclined to offer help and advice to young musicians who wish to enter the profession. We therefore run every year, a series of masterclasses at the Faculty of Music for different instruments and conducting, offering students the opportunity to work with distinguished conservatoire professors as well as Philomusica members.

Composers’ Workshop

Composition is studied in Oxford at the highest level. The student composers of today will be the composers of tomorrow. Many have left Oxford and have enjoyed distinguished careers in this field. As an orchestra, it is our duty to encourage and offer a platform to the fledgling composer of today. Therefore, every year, we organise a Composers’ Workshop whereby we offer composition students the opportunity to hear their works played by a professional orchestra. I recently received an e-mail from an internationally acclaimed composer saying that, when he served on an international jury: “he and his colleagues had found quite a distinction between the computer-based pieces and those that had been played by real people!”

 

With the permission of the musicians and the Musicians’ Union, students have also been able to make archive recordings of their works which are sometimes used as part of their portfolio.

A Platform for Student Composers

At the end of the session, the orchestra selects a work to be given its world premiere in a public performance. We have premiered works by a number of student composers at venues such as the Codrington Library of All Souls College, at St Peter’s College Chapel and at the Sheldonian Theatre.As part of our Mainly Mozart Festival 2006, we commissioned students to write cadenzas for those piano concertos Mozart composed without or which have been lost, to be performed in our complete cycle of these works. In total, six students have written cadenzas for six of the piano concertos.

A Platform for Faculty Composers

However, we don’t confine our performances of new works to those composed by music students. We also endeavour, as much as circumstances will allow, to present works by Faculty composers in performance.

A Platform for Performing Students

As part of our Young Artists’ Platform, we select one outstanding performer whom we offer the opportunity to give a short recital just prior to a evening concert by the Philomusica in the Sheldonian.

International Piano Festival and Summer Academy

The Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival and Summer Academy is now in its twelfth year. The subject of an extensive article in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, it welcomes gifted young pianists from every continent to work and study with some of the world’s greatest artists and professors. Classes are held in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building and the Faculty of Music, and residential accommodation for both students and professors is at St Hilda’s College. The Festival offers masterclasses, lectures and concerts on a daily basis. We are pleased to have been able to provide bursaries in the past to music students to attend the Piano Festival and study with some of the world’s leading pedagogues.

Scholarships

In two consecutive years we have been able to provide a scholarship to a graduate music student to undertake research on a performance-related subject.

University College Series

Our series of concerts at University colleges began at the start of our residency. Concerts have already taken place at St. Catherine’s, University College, All Souls, St Peter’s, Christ Church, Merton and Keble. In some cases, we invite students of the College in which we are performing to collaborate with us and join the ranks of the Orchestra. Such collaborations took place at Trinity College last year and more recently at St Catherine’s.

Recruitment

In many instances, music students, having completed their degree in music, wish to pursue a career in music management. With an all-round musical education and solid background they are often best placed to pursue the interests of arts organisations at both administrative and management level. The Oxford Philomusica seeks those whose interests lie in this field and offers work experience at our offices in the Said Business School, Egrove Park. We are currently employing three Oxford graduates, two full-time and one part-time.

Academic Research

One of the most significant benefits of the orchestra’s association with the University is the ability to draw on the academic research undertaken by members of the Faculty of Music to produce well-informed and searching interpretations of repertoire being performed.

 

Local Focus

In the Arts Council’s recent review of Orchestral Provision in the South East, the Philomusica is recognised as fulfilling an identified regional need as the only professional provider in this part of the country, and it is becoming a focus of collaboration between local music organisations and a link between Town and Gown. Our recently formed partnerships with Oxford City and Oxfordshire County councils are already providing considerable benefits to talented young musicians in the region and our leadership of the celebrated Blackbird Leys Choir has provided opportunities for University members to engage in this ground-breaking community initiative.  It is also significant to note that 30% of our regular concert-goers are under 25: most of whom are students of the University.
 

Celebrities

As a result of the growing reputation of the Orchestra, we have been able to attract an increasing number of internationally renowned soloists and conductors to appear with the Orchestra including Andras Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Angela Hewitt, Cristina Ortiz, Igor Oistrakh, Charles Rosen, John Lill, Simon Preston, Joanna MacGregor, Peter Donohoe, John Rutter, Rosalind Plowright, Helene Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich, Nicola Benedetti, Julian Lloyd Webber,  Melvyn Tan and Natalie Clein. Whenever possible, we invite these illustrious artists to give a masterclass at the Faculty of Music the day after their appearance with the orchestra.

 

None more famous is our Patron, Vladimir Ashkenazy. Maestro Ashkenazy, plays a significant role in the development of the Philomusica and has appeared with the Orchestra in Oxford, as both soloist and conductor, on a number of occasions.

 

We were also pleased to facilitate Maestro Ashkenazy’s visit to the Oxford Union where he has given a fascinating insight to his early life in Soviet Russia.

Development

As the residency enters its 10th year, we are increasingly imbedded into the whole fabric of the University. A new association with the University’s Development Office is providing the ground for mutually beneficial development opportunities, particularly during the Campaign for Oxford, which Oxford Philomusica is proud to have joined.

College Choirs

The world-renowned Oxford College Choirs feature regularly in our programme of events. In 2008 we made our first CD of Haydn’s ‘Creation’ with New College Choir conducted by its director Edward Higginbottom. The recording was CD of the Month in the BBC Music Magazine. We are now planning to record Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Christ Church Choir and Stephen Darlington.  

Cultural Icon

In all its activities, both in the UK and abroad, the Philomusica’s association with the University of Oxford is portrayed and is clearly visible. The Oxford Philomusica appears frequently in the presence of British Royalty, including HRHs The Prince of Wales, The Duke of York, Prince Michael of Kent, The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. At St James’s Palace the Orchestra performed with Ashkenazy as soloist and conductor in the presence of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

 

In all our activities and tours outside Oxford, the orchestra acts as an ambassador and a cultural icon for the University.

 

The model described here is clearly a complex one, but one that puts Oxford again at the cutting edge of a visionary and creative venture that is benefiting not only the student population of Oxford but also the wider public in the city in which it operates. A model that we hope other universities would wish to adopt.