Future Moves

Aurora Orchestra

‘A fabulous young chamber orchestra that has emerged as one of the most dynamic, innovative and open-minded groups of its kind.’

Michael White, The Telegraph

‘From a South American capoeira group to Central St Martins College of Art and Design, the range of Aurora’s artistic collaboration is staggering. They convey joy and freshness at the highest standard of musical excellence...and have carved out a niche in the country’s musical life which is unique.’

Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award citation

‘As a player, I always look forward to New Moves projects as artistic highlights of my year. As well as being so inspiring and enjoyable, the concerts always present real challenges, throwing up new things which as a performer you’ve never experienced before. As we play, we all know that we are part of something really special.’’

Jane Mitchell, Aurora Principal Flute

Ivona, primary school workshop participant

Since its launch in 2005, Aurora Orchestra has established itself as the most significant new British orchestra in a generation. Under the artistic direction of Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon, it has developed two flourishing London residencies, an increasingly busy national and international touring calendar and a vibrant programme of work for young people both within and beyond the concert hall. The orchestra is the youngest-ever recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Ensemble Award – the UK’s most prestigious accolade for live classical music.

Aurora combines the very highest artistic quality with eclectic and innovative programming; adventurous collaboration across musical genre and art form; and ground-breaking new approaches to concert presentation. Its work is underpinned by an ambitious commitment to new audiences, and a passionate conviction that great live music should be accessible to all. A young orchestra itself, Aurora believes it has a special responsibility to provide opportunities for

children to engage with the arts, and to help shape the future of live orchestral music for a new generation of audiences.

At the heart of Aurora’s work is New Moves, a unique series which since its launch at LSO St Luke’s in 2010 has pioneered a new kind of collaborative concert ranging across art forms and musical genres. Re-inventing the ‘classical’ performance with inspiring theatrical presentation and igniting dialogue across art forms, the series looks to shatter preconceptions of how, where, and to whom ‘classical’ music should be presented. No other orchestral series offers a comparable breadth of artistic collaboration and diversity of repertoire. Recent highlights include pairing Brazilian capoeira with French baroque music, tango with Bernstein, klezmer with Mahler, and breakdance with Shostakovich. Enriched by a wide variety of linked projects for children both in the concert hall and in schools, New Moves has become Aurora’s artistic flagship, its ethos underpinning the orchestra’s entire programme of work.

After four initial years of artistic success with New Moves, Aurora stands at the threshold of a dramatic expansion of the series, involving:

– the launch of an international recording relationship with a major label

– ambitious new commissioning plans– increased UK and international touring– enhanced investment in learning and

participation work linked to the series

This expansion will see New Moves reach maturity as a series with genuinely global reach, propelling Aurora into the front rank of internationally-recognised chamber orchestras and allowing it to continue the dramatic artistic and organisational growth of recent years.

To realise these ambitious plans, Aurora is launching the Future Moves campaign, aiming to raise £150,000 in new philanthropic

Aurora Orchestra and the Future Moves campaign

gifts over three years. The campaign is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England’s ‘Catalyst’ match-funding scheme, which for a limited period effectively allows the orchestra to double the value of new gifts made to the orchestra. Future Moves therefore has the potential to raise £300,000 over the life of the campaign.

This booklet looks back over four years of New Moves projects to date, sets out our vision for the future of the series, and explains both why we need your help, and why there has never been a better time to support Aurora. We hope you’ll join us as we write what promises to be a thrilling new chapter in the orchestra’s story.

John HarteChief Executive, Aurora Orchestra

‘How many orchestras could field their principal viola player as a virtuoso break dancer? Probably only Aurora. There seems to be no end to what this young ensemble is willing, hungry and able to do.’

Hilary Finch, The Times

New Moves 2010 –13 A look back

L O V E S O N G

F O R T H E C I T Y

The hallmarks of the New Moves series – an appetite for collaboration; the combination of quality with accessibility; a commitment to new and, in particular, younger audiences – have come to infuse Aurora’s entire calendar of activity, from its major concert series at Kings Place to the work it delivers for a variety of world-class artistic partners including the BBC Proms, Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, English Touring Opera, and Glyndebourne.

Aurora is especially proud to be working closely with several of the new Music Education Hubs charged with delivering musical opportunities to children aged 5–18, and particularly to have been selected as one of three strategic partners (alongside the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall) for London’s Tri-borough Hub, overseeing music provision in the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster.

The orchestra has developed a particularly strong reputation for its concerts for young audiences, ranging from family performances with puppeteers from the Little Angel Theatre to major televised projects for the BBC Proms (including the 2011 Horrible Histories and 2012 Wallace and Gromit Proms). Through live and televised performances, these collaborations have introduced orchestral music to a combined audience of over 2 million people over the past year.

Beyond New Moves

Future Moves and your support

‘It’s typical of the Aurora Orchestra to have a bright idea, and then carry it through with aplomb...[An] almost belligerent brilliance.’

Geoff Brown, The Times

It is no exaggeration to say that Aurora’s success since its launch has been founded on the generosity of its supporters. Box office income can never cover more than a modest proportion of our artistic expenditure, and whilst Aurora has been able to attract the support of several major grant-makers over recent seasons (including the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and public funding by Arts Council England), we continue to rely on philanthropic gifts from individual supporters as the cornerstone of our annual income. This income is the lifeblood of the New Moves series, enabling us to continue to deliver world-class programmes which innovate and take artistic risks, and to maximise the reach of those projects through linked audience development and schools work.

The Future Moves campaign aims to raise £150,000 over three years to enable Aurora to invest in four key areas of the orchestra’s New Moves activity.

Recordings

A multi-year international recording contract with a major label is one of the most exciting opportunities for the orchestra to date, offering unprecedented potential to propel New Moves programmes to audiences worldwide – no single development has offered greater scope to fulfill Aurora’s conviction that orchestral music should be accessible, alive and relevant to the broadest possible audience. Support generated through the Future Moves campaign will enable the recording and release of three New Moves-style programmes on disc and via digital download worldwide over the next three years, as well as creating a recorded legacy of Aurora’s performances.

Touring

Future Moves will enable the launch of new core residencies in Ashford, Bristol, and Bury St Edmunds, with New Moves programmes touring regularly to each venue. These new residencies, which would be impossible without subsidy from Aurora, create a wonderful opportunity to offer a completely new artistic product to audiences who might otherwise rarely have the opportunity to experience live orchestral music, and to build the national profile of the orchestra as a touring organisation. Aurora will also tour individual New Moves projects to an ever-expanding network of host venues throughout the UK and worldwide – international plans for 2014–16 include visits to Shanghai, Melbourne, Istanbul, Bremen and New York.

Commissioning

At the heart of New Moves is the commissioning of original work: both new music and new cross-art form collaborations. Aurora’s appetite for venturing across frontiers will continue to be the driving force behind future commissions, with a host of groundbreaking projects planned for future seasons across dance, film, theatre, literature and visual art; and cross-genre partnerships extending from experimental percussion to swing bands. The New Moves series has already built up an extensive body of new work including dozens of musical pieces and arrangements, films, paintings, choreographed works, and scripts – your gift to the orchestra could help us expand this wonderful commissioning legacy.

Learning and participation

Future Moves will enable the expansion of a wide range of learning and participation projects linked to the New Moves series. Already established as one of the most innovative and vibrant orchestral education programmes in the UK, Aurora’s learning and participation activity is set to grow in scope and ambition, with projects ranging from side-by-side schemes for secondary school and undergraduate instrumentalists to concerts for under-5s using storytelling and puppetry, and performances on children’s wards in London hospitals. Both in London and on tour, New Moves programmes will be used as the basis for linked cross-arts projects in primary and secondary schools, enabling classes to experience Aurora concerts and to create their own cross-art form performances in response.

Catalyst funding: making your gift go further

There has never been a better time to support Aurora.

The orchestra’s recent success in attracting support using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England’s ‘Catalyst’ match-funding scheme means that for a limited period the orchestra is able to claim matching funds against new gifts. For the first two years of the scheme the orchestra will receive £1 from Arts Council England for every £1 confirmed in new donations; for another year thereafter we will be able to claim 67p for every £1 donated. This exciting opportunity means that in practice a commitment of £2,000 per year for three years could translate as follows for the orchestra:

Multi-year commitments are particularly valuable as they enable Aurora to plan with greater confidence and ambition for future seasons.

Gift AidAurora is a registered charity (number 1116352), meaning that gifts from UK taxpayers can be made under the Gift Aid Scheme. This enables the orchestra to reclaim the basic rate of tax that was paid on your donation, which equates to 25p in every £1 on gifts from UK taxpayers. For example, every £100 gift is actually worth £125 to Aurora. In order for us to reclaim the tax on your donation, you must have paid UK Income or Capital Gains Tax equal to the tax that will be reclaimed.

Tax-efficient givingHigher rate tax-payers can reclaim the difference between the basic and higher rate of tax on their self-assessment tax return. So a gift of £2,000 will actually cost a higher rate tax-payer £1,500.

Catalyst match- Gift Gift funding Aid Total Y1 £2,000 £2,000 £500 £4,500

Y2 £2,000 £2,000 £500 £4,500

Y3 £2,000 £1,333 £500 £3,833

£6,000 £5,333 £1,500 £12,833

‘We have had the pleasure of watching this versatile and dynamic ensemble develop from its inception. We continue to be impressed by consistently high standards of performance and innovative programming but, above all, we support Aurora because their concerts make us smile.’

Richard and Helen Sheldon,Inaugural Trailblazer Patrons

Supporting AuroraYou give us:

£100+

We make you a:

Friend

Your gift might support one of the following:

– A free printed programme for all audience members at a concert

– A supporting player for a secondary school workshop

And we’ll give you:

– Illuminate – the bi-annual Friends and Patrons newsletter

– A named credit in Aurora programmes and other publicity materials

– Advance booking for New Moves concerts

You give us:

£500+

We make you a:

Player Sponsor

Your gift might support one of the following:

– An Aurora instrumentalist for a New Moves project

– A workshop leader for a primary school project

And we’ll give you:

Friend benefits plus:

– A named credit as a Player Sponsor, credited against your chosen player’s chair, in Aurora programmes and other publicity materials

– Opportunities to meet your sponsored musician at concerts

– An invitation to an annual post-concert drinks event with members of the orchestra

You give us:

£1,001+

We make you a:

Sparkler Patron

Your gift might support one of the following:

– Dancers for a choreographed New Moves collaboration

– A one-day primary school workshop exploring music and film with musicians and a film crew

And we’ll give you:

– Illuminate – the bi-annual Friends and Patrons newsletter

– A named credit in Aurora programmes and other publicity materials

– Access to two closed rehearsals per year

– An invitation to the Aurora Patrons’ summer party

– Advance booking for New Moves concerts

‘In a city suffocating with musical activity, Nicholas Collon’s Aurora Orchestra lets in more fresh air than most. The aim is to make an audience hear anew, not by sugaring any pills, not by didactic explanation, not by light-shows, but by context. I was gripped from start to finish. And the music… was performed to exquisite perfection.’

Hilary Finch, The Times

All figures are suggested annual donations* Extra cost applies† Figure in line with HMRC

benefit limits for donations

†

Supporting AuroraYou give us:

£3,000+

We make you an:

Adventurer Patron

Your gift might support one of the following:

– A commission from Aurora’s Arranger-in-Residence

– The subsidy of concert tickets across a season for GCSE classes from three secondary schools to attend the New Moves series and specially-tailored pre-concert workshops

And we’ll give you:

Sparkler Patron benefits plus:

– A named credit associated with a New Moves commission (a new orchestral arrangement from Aurora’s Arranger-in-Residence; a film to accompany an orchestral work; a short dance commission etc.)

– The opportunity to meet and discuss the creative process of your supported commission with a member of Aurora’s artistic team and/or collaborating artist

You give us:

£5,000+

We make you a:

Trailblazer Patron

Your gift might support one of the following:

– A major new commission

– A week-long residency for players to work intensively with collaborators

And we’ll give you:

Adventurer Patron benefits plus:

– A named credit associated with a major New Moves commission (a new musical work; a full-length dance piece; a newly-devised theatrical collaboration)

– The opportunity for a private meet-and-greet with Aurora’s artistic team and/or your supported commission artist

– The opportunity to attend an Aurora recording session

– A post-concert dinner with Aurora artists

– Access to four closed rehearsals per year

– Opportunities to tour with the orchestra*

You give us:

£10,000+

We welcome you to the:

Conductor’s Circle

Your gift might support one of the following:

– The recording of a New Moves programme for international release

– Year-long residencies in three secondary schools, including workshops, side-by-side performances and attending Aurora concerts

– The purchase of an Aurora touring van to take Aurora programmes to audiences beyond London

And we’ll give you:

Trailblazer Patron benefits plus:

– Opportunities to involve Aurora musicians at private events*

– Access to eight closed rehearsals per year

– Prominent named credit associated with major commissions including CD liner acknowledg-ments, support listing in the musical score, acknowledgment on film credits etc.

– A post-concert dinner with Aurora’s Principal Conductor

– A commemorative item relating to the area of your support

For more information please call 020 7014 2805 or email futuremoves@auroraorchestra.com

‘Refreshing the repertoire and broadening appeal are imperative these days. Nobody does it better than Aurora.’Barry Millington, Evening Standard

Aurora Orchestra Registered Charity Number: 1116352