NOYO kick off their four concert tour with a performance at Milton Court featuring young disabled and non-disabled musicians performing new music with enthusiasm and flair
The National Open Youth Orchestra marks its seven years providing rehearsal and performance opportunities to disabled and non-disabled musicians, with a four date tour of concerts in Poole, Cardiff and Birmingham Town Hall. The tour kicked off with a performance in London’s Milton Court today.
The 58-strong mixed ensemble plays an entertaining mix of pieces written especially for the ensemble. No corny arrangements of pre-existing classical music favourites, this is music written with the group in mind and the audience too, including scores from Oliver Cross, Yfat Soul Zisso, RPS award-winning composer Kate Whitley, Meredith Monk plus an arrangement of brass and sax funk band Lucky Chops’ Behroozi.
It’s a relaxed concert format. A video plays on stage introducing the composers, the musicians and some of the instruments. Musicians take up their positions. Small people and their carers make themselves comfortable in the colourful bean bags in the auditorium. Such simple adjustments make all the difference for those who might need to wander around or escape to quieter spaces. A heartfelt request regarding photography and video (it’s allowed but only in particular places) is clear.
It’s not lost on me that in other parts of the live orchestral scene such invitations have been responded with pearl-clutching horror. Yet here, it focuses attention on the hour-long collective musical experience. As composer Oliver Cross neatly explains in the introductory video, people don’t have disabilities so much as society has an opportunity to adapt slightly.
NOYO makes a timely point of defining inclusion here as being for those with and without impairment. Still, it’s not lost on me just how brutally the non-disabled world shuts out those who have specific needs. The music I hear sounds complex, comforting, and compelling. The consequent point seems so obvious as to seem redundant: we need to more disabled musicians in blended settings. And we owe this to young disabled musicians too.
One member of the audience is momentarily focussed on plumping her bean bag and sorting out the various accoutrements her parents have conveyed in her pushchair at the front of the auditorium. Underscored by Liam Taylor-West’s touching ‘Ring Out!’, this makes for exactly the kind of story his programme note intends the music he’s written evokes. This is not a youth orchestra presenting the best of their work to adoring parents, this is a group of committed musicians providing exactly what their peers benefit from in an audience setting configured to meet everyone’s needs. If you’re looking for successful audience development in the present, surely this is the best place to start your research.
It takes being present to understand just how much the non-disabled world doesn’t see those with differing needs. Seeing young people ready themselves for a performance from a London stage reminds me of how I felt when I did something similar 35 years ago across the road in Barbican Concert Hall. According to the UK government’s Family Resources Survey (DWP, 2022–23), around 9% of children under 16 are disabled, and around 16% of 18–24-year-olds are disabled. While exact figures for 12–19-year-olds are not available, a reasonable estimate would suggest between 10–13% are disabled. That’s a lot of people (a total of 8 million or so) being overlooked. In our rush to either criticise new music or the classical music canon, are we OK with overlooking 8 million or so who could benefit from the joy of music-making if only we adapt to meet their specific and individual needs?
Such an approach demands time and space, but the rewards are considerable for musicians, audiences and wider society. To not make the time or give the space is to potentially deny a significant proportion of the population the joy of music we’re making the case for elsewhere. Musical experiences created by those marginalised may well be a valuable lesson the rest of us in the music world could learn.
