RPO launches community-driven ‘orchestral experience’

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) will next month present Wemba’s Dream: Join the Journey, an orchestral experience at Wembley Park. The event will see the orchestra collaborate with local artists from the London Borough of Brent, where the RPO is aiming to put down roots.

Three free performances will be presented throughout the day on 10 September, each starting with a carnival procession from the steps of Wembley Stadium to the orchestra’s unconventional venue within a cavernous underground coach park.

RPO managing director, James Williams, said: ‘We were really careful to make these performances site specific, so they are mostly outdoor performances utilizing the canvas of the Wembley Park site, which has undertaken huge redevelopment over the past 10 years or so.’

Wemba’s Dream: Join the Journey builds on the RPO’s smaller-scale trial event last year in which the orchestra worked with four different sets of Brent artists following a successful public call out campaign garnering over 70 responses. The event is inspired by the story of Wemba, the area’s namesake and first recorded inhabitant.

The RPO will work with the Sujata Banerjee dance company, the Saint Michaels and All Angels steel orchestra, harpist and singer-songwriter Aoife O’Dea and Mahogany Arts, a carnival company which the orchestra has built a relationship with over the last year. Composer Dani Howard has been commissioned to thread together the 30-minute-long collaborative performances in a way that, as Williams points out, ‘doesn't just feel tokenistic.’ This includes adjustments like integrating traditional Indian classical instruments into the orchestra.

Howard said: ‘Working with these local artists has been such a unique and collaborative experience. I've really enjoyed trying to support their creative vision and develop new works that I know the local community will absolutely love.’

The performance comes ahead of the RPO moving its headquarters to Wembley Park in 2024. Bringing together education, community outreach, performance, digital projects and administration with the aim of establishing a creative hub in the borough.

Williams commented: ‘The RPO has been working in the London Borough of Brent with the music service for over 20 years, so it seemed a good place to start a conversation. We're all being challenged, particularly in the classical music world, around the inclusion and diversity agenda and how we can genuinely make our sector more inclusive and have wider accessibility. If you're really going to do that, you need to work in a very diverse community and understand how you can make your orchestra relevant.’

In addition to moving its headquarters into the area, the organisation hopes eventually to create a performance and rehearsal home there as well. Williams said: ‘We have long term ambitions for wanting to not only create our headquarters there, but bring the entire orchestra there, but those projects take a little while to work. What we're keen to do is ensure that our community and education partnerships are absolutely rock solid through the programs and strands of work of the orchestra.’

In the meantime, projects including relaxed performances and a new music academy focused on developing the talent pipeline for young people in the music business, will join the RPO’s Lionesses anthem as successful steps toward integration with the orchestra’s future neighbours.

Wemba’s Dream: Join the Journey will have three free performances on 10 September: 1:15pm, 2:30pm and 3:45pm. Tickets can be booked here, with an allocation of tickets available on the day.