LEARNING & PARTICIPATION
Our acclaimed Learning & Participation programmes are central to Britten Sinfonia’s vision to enrich the cultural lives of children and communities throughout the East of England. Through our three programme strands we support music in primary schools, in hospital settings, and in secondary schools and their communities.
In The Classroom
With schools facing an ever-tightening arts funding crisis, our work in the classroom is designed to benefit pupils and teachers alike and give schools the tools they need to deliver impactful music making programmes over the long-term.
Every year we partner with dozens of primary schools in deprived communities throughout the east of England.
The work culminates in a series of workshops and participatory concerts in schools, all supported by a suite of teacher training materials, to give teachers the skills and confidence to run their own music-making sessions.
“Children who are sometimes reticent to join in, children who have yet to find their voice, children who are only just starting their musical journey – all were spotted totally immersed in the lead-up lessons and then on the performance day.”
On The Ward
On the Ward brings live music into Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals.
The benefits of live music in hospitals are numerous. It improves patient, visitor, and staff wellbeing. It supports pain management, cognitive function, and engagement with other therapies, and it fosters a positive clinical environment.
We work with three pathways:
- Regular ward visits that sustain a familiar, trusted musical presence for patients, staff, and families.
- Ward Residencies, co-designed with clinical teams around a particular condition or group of patients.
- Musician Development – preparing orchestral players to work with skill and sensitivity at the bedside.
In addition to the programmes in Cambridge and Norwich, we plan to expand our hospitals work to the James Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth, and West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.
“An extremely ill young patient, facing major surgery and many months in the Intensive Care Unit, is invited to take a conductor’s baton. With immense effort and focus she gently lifts and lowers the stick just a few inches above the bed covers as the violist improvises a tender melody. The intimacy and vulnerability of this reciprocal connection is palpable, and so is the patient’s strength of will to sustain two minutes of musical co-creation.”
Linking Secondary Schools With Their Communities
We partner with secondary schools in disadvantaged communities in a holistic and in-depth way, not only to support and develop music in the school, but to use music as the glue to bring the wider community together.
At Norfolk’s Thetford Academy, this takes many forms: ensemble coaching within BTEC music, a composition ensemble touring into local primary schools, a dance project inspired by Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and a ceilidh rooted in creative, embodied practice. In early 2027 we are excited to start a second, five-year partnership with the new Alconbury Weald school near Huntingdon.
Each partnership rests on the same commitments: senior leaders as active partners; young people treated as musicians and co-creators, and the school as a community space - hosting our intergenerational Music Café, where families and neighbours make music together.
“I think ‘community’ is something we all hope for. I think people want to feel part of something. And I think something like this encourages people to come out of their homes and be part of a community.”
