Stories of our work
Arensky Chamber Orchestra
This year we are collaborating with Britain’s newest chamber orchestra, the bold and vibrant Arensky Chamber Orchestra (ACO). In the middle of the orcheatra’s busy season of concerts at the Cadogan Hall, we catch up with ACO’s Artistic Director, Will Kunhardt
When and why was the Arensky Chamber Orchestra set up?
The Arensky Chamber Orchestra was founded a year or so ago by myself and two colleagues. The idea for the orchestra came from our experiences studying and working in London’s incredibly colourful and cosmopolitan music scene: over the last 10 years the industry has made a huge effort to reinvent itself for the 21st Century, and we’ve all been really inspired by that process. The idea for starting the orchestra gradually evolved as we looked at and experienced all the different ways people have reacted to the criticism that classical music is out of date. Slowly we formed our own opinions as to how to make concerts fresh, vibrant experiences until we got to the point about a year ago where we felt it was time to turn our thoughts into actions!
How is the Arensky Chamber Orchestra different to other chamber orchestras in Britain?
Our goal is to make performances more real and vivid through creative programming, venue use and collaborations with other art forms. We begin planning a concert by choosing works that we believe have a deep musical connection rather than a superficial link, as can so often be the case. Next we look at how to bring the emotional meaning of the programme into focus. Sometimes that means collaborating with other art forms: in our last concert we incorporated readings and special lighting effects, with the whole concert ending in darkness. We also threw in a surprise extra performance of some original Finnish folk tunes as an introduction to a piece by Rautavaara. On July 8th, as part of our performance of Verklärte Nacht with Stephanie Gonley, we’ll be transforming the hall into a gallery of contemporary art installations with students from the Royal College of Art. By working backwards from the music it means we don’t have any artificial boundaries or creative limitations, even when it comes to the nature of the orchestra itself. We’re a conducted and an unconducted group, a string ensemble of 16 or a full chamber orchestra of 40, and a group that gives classic, traditional programmes or cutting edge reworkings of great repertoire. It all depends on what’s best for the music!
Tell me about the players at ACO – how did you get the musicians together?
The advantage of having rather youthful directors is that we’re all still very much in touch with the young music scene here in London. Between us we’ve seen, heard or worked with most of the fantastic new pros at work in this city and so getting the musicians together was simply a matter of sitting down, working out who really stood out for us in recent concerts we’ve been a part of, and then getting on the phone! It’s an ongoing process and we’re always on the lookout for people that inspire and excite us.
“ We’re an orchestra who believe in the excitement and power of highly gifted young musicians and so an organisation such as the Fund that helps those musicians develop and hone their talents is very important to us. ”
As Artistic Director of the ACO, what does your role involve?
It’s a pretty varied job, particularly as this is a small organisation. Most excitingly for me, I’m the orchestra’s main conductor. In 2010 we’ve been lucky enough to have some wonderful guest directors: Andrew Haveron, Clio Gould and Stephanie Gonley. In November, however, I’ll be taking to the podium to direct the ACO for the first time which I’m really looking forward to. Behind the scenes it’s my job to oversee everything that’s going on, making sure everyone in their respective area is focused on the same goal and happy with what their current agenda is. I’m also a bit of a dreamer, so a big part of my role is as ideas man – I’m responsible for creating programme and concert series ideas and spotting amazing guest artists to work with. I also manage the artistic growth of the orchestra – I try to find artists and projects that will develop the orchestra as a group and I look at how we can increase the variety of our work through our education, outreach and chamber recital programmes for example. Finally I’m the main point of contact for all our VIP relationships – sponsors, major donors, our wonderful Board of Advisors and anyone we have a strong artistic relationship with.
Why is the orchestra supporting the Musicians Benevolent Fund?
We’re supporting the Fund because it’s such an important organisation. As a conductor I know that it’s almost impossible to achieve the kind of things I aspire to without generous support from organisations such as yours – it’s simply the nature of the career. We’re an orchestra who believe in the excitement and power of highly gifted young musicians and so an organisation such as the Musicians Benevolent Fund that helps those musicians develop and hone their talents is very important to us. Beyond all that, we know that this is a hard and competitive profession. As a violinist I had to suffer through 3 months of tendonitis as a first year at the Royal College of Music, and so learned the hard way how mentally and physically demanding music can be. Any organisation helping musicians through those tough times deserves to be supported in every way possible.
What, in your opinion, are the challenges facing professional musicians?
I think at the moment the biggest challenge from our point of view is handling the arts cuts in the right way. Every crisis is an opportunity, and we’ve dedicated a lot of time to looking at how we can face up to, and take on, the cuts. There’s so much less funding around now that donors and foundations are really going to be looking for quality in the work they support. You could look at that as a rise in the toughness of competition, or (as we do) an opportunity for the most creatively exciting projects to really shine.
What projects does have the orchestra have coming up?
The Arensky Chamber Orchestra has two more projects in 2011:
Friday 8 July: Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht with Stephanie Gonley (leader, English Chamber Orchestra) and artists from the Royal College of Art
Thursday 10 November: Stravinsky Pulcinella Suite, Wagner Siegfried Idyll and Ravel Piano Concerto in G major. Featuring star pianist Melvyn Tan and me conducting!
Find out more about ACO, visit their website