Counterpoint Magazine May 2020

Sarah Marshall has been the Artistic and Managing Director of The People’s Orchestra (TPO) since she created the orchestra back in 2012. Coming from a non-music background, Sarah set out to prove that orchestras could be set up, run differently and still wow audiences with a high standard of performance. Despite pressure in the early years to lower the entry level for musicians, the orchestra stuck to its word and kept a Grade 7 entry (good sight reading being the key to playing with this group), opening up sections to an infinite number of players, encouraging all types of instruments to join and reducing financial barriers to play.

The People's Orchestra first came to the attention of OCT back in 2017 but it's taken a lot of phone calls, emails, and even a visit to their HQ by OCT Chair Katie Mayes, to get to the point we are at now. ''Add in a pandemic that meant musicians have been confined to home, and the perfect storm has been created to fasttrack collaboration'' says Orchestras Central's CEO Susan Trodden. ''We knew right from the start that there were fantastic possibilities ahead in working with the 'TPO', we just had to find the right projects''.

Initial surveying of OCT musicians for interest in being involved in a collaboration was met with loud enthusiasm, and as a result, musicians are now participating in an international project.

Players receive music and a 'click track' to play along to, and are required to perform the piece for both an audio and video recording. Once John has received all the recordings from around the world , he will then create a video montage for publishing. This will then be shared with the world!

There are other projects in the pipeline, and with the Commonwealth Games on the horizon, and the opportunity to involve our youth orchestras - and maybe even some singers - the future is bright to make the world a little smaller through the shared love of music.