Aurora Orchestra

Active since 2005 and growing in prominence each year, Aurora Orchestra aspires to complement the activities of these five orchestras, by rethinking the orchestra model in both artistic and organizational terms. Starting from the observation that the boundaries of art genres and styles have become ever more fluent, the orchestra wants to be an artistic beacon for the 21^st-century orchestra. Collaborating across genres, performing in spaces previously unfamiliar to the ‘classical’ orchestra, and experimenting with new repertoires as well as with concert presentation, form the artistic DNA of Aurora Orchestra. The orchestra rose to prominence during the 2014 BBC Proms, as the first orchestra to ever perform an entire symphony from memory. Constantly calibrating the artistic ambitions and the required organizational conditions, Aurora seeks to develop an adequate model for a truly 21-century orchestra. In May 2018, the orchestra’s artistic entrepreneurship has been awarded with the Classical:NEXT Innovation Award. Today, Aurora Orchestra plays over 80 performances annually in the UK as well as abroad, the majority of which is led by co-founder Nicholas Collon. Every year, the orchestra reaches 40.000 spectators in the UK and abroad. Impressed by its artistic contributions, the Arts Council of England has decided to bring Aurora into the National Portfolio in 2011, resulting in an annual grant of £60.000. The support of the Arts Council, which has been renewed up until 2022, not only enabled Aurora Orchestra to artistically sharpen its activities, it also serves as a barometer of the legitimacy of the orchestra within its service area. In the 2017-2018 season, the orchestra has passed the £1.000.000 mark in annual turnover, a symbolic achievement no other UK orchestra founded within the past quarter-decade has accomplished. Although Aurora Orchestra was launched without any structural business plan and gradually took shape through pragmatic choices, it is now a solid orchestra with a clearly delineated artistic mission. The importance of having a clear mission cannot be overestimated in a city such as London, where various orchestras constantly have to fight to gain support from funding bodies such as the Arts Council. Since its inclusion into the National Portfolio in 2011, Aurora Orchestra’s philosophy is now much more rooted in the strength of the orchestra itself, and no longer stems from a pragmatic balancing exercise with other orchestras in the area.