Sheffield’s Brigantes Orchestra completed its biggest ever concert last weekend as it steps up efforts to bring younger audiences to classical music.
The orchestra staged an England-themed concert at Sheffield Cathedral with nearly 200 performers on stage, the largest production in its nine-year history.
The orchestra’s organiser Tony Hart said: “If this is an art form that people want to keep going, then we have to be looking at how you get younger people to come along.
“If you look nationally, the statistics are that the percentage of people in classical music concerts who are under 35 is about 7%.”
The orchestra is determined to challenge this through student tickets priced at £5 and free entry for under-16s, with no OAP concessions.
He added: “That’s the reason why student tickets are a fiver. Young people today are leaving university with £60,000 of debt and they can’t afford a house.”
Conductor Quentin Clare, who founded the orchestra in 2019, said the ensemble had built a loyal core of freelance musicians from across the north.
He said: “A lot from Sheffield, some from Manchester, we’re now getting a keen group that always wants to come back and will turn down other work because they want to play with us.”
Mr Clare added: “This season has been about learning how music has changed according to place, the country in which it originated. Next season, we’re exploring how it’s changed as time has gone on.
“The idea is that we’ve got six programmes, they all have their own theme. They all exploit the idea that composers look at the same sorts of ideas throughout history.”
They will conclude their Musical Grand Tour season next month with a final performance themed around the USA at Sheffield Cathedral on 20 June.
Mr Clare said: “The middle is really smoky and bluesy like a jazz cafe, and the last bit is hell for leather with all these whoops in the orchestra at the end where they almost neigh like a horse.”
He added: “Our remit is to encourage people that have never come to a concert before, not to be intimidated by it and to know that it’s going to be relaxed.
“There’s no pressure anywhere, just come and listen to the music, leave if you don’t like it.”