Thanks to the new five-year investment of Creative Learning Partner, Baillie Gifford, we are able to extend the reach and diversity of our pioneering community and education programmes in Edinburgh and right across Scotland.

This week, members of the Orchestra begin training for NEW VIBE, which will be led by internationally renowned animateur and guitarist, Paul Griffiths, and delivered in association with CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). NEW VIBE is a targeted opportunity to deliver ‘cultural prescription’ for young people diagnosed with mental health conditions and to prove that the arts can transform and change lives. This is one example of the type of important work that the SCO is now able to undertake thanks to our partnership with Baillie Gifford.

On being asked how he thinks this form of music-making can help young people, Paul Griffiths said, "My hope for the CAMHS project is that we are, as a team, super flexible and able to find spaces for these young people to explore their creative voices. We aim to be able to listen to them, hear them and find ways to work as artists together. The understanding that creativity is a tool which everyone and anyone can have agency over and that communal music-making is cool beyond words."

Learn more about our partnership with Baillie Gifford