SCO YOUTH VOICE STRATEGY | Scottish Chamber Orchestra

News Story

Arts offer lessons and tools for us to improve ourselves, and, like in an orchestra, fosters an environment where all can express their voices, share their experiences, and in the spirit of learning, compassion and respect, create a more harmonious world together
Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar and the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Since we started offering those 18 and under free tickets to our main concerts, we've tripled attendance in that age group throughout our Season. However, we still wanted to find out how we could make sure young people's voices were heard in our decision making.

Thanks to funding from the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, we were able to engage Georgia Vullinghs as our Youth Voice Strategy Intern. From March to June 2019, she met with youth groups, conducted focus groups with young audience members and sent out nationwide surveys to find out how young people (defined in this report as those aged 16-25) perceive the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

This research brought together their ideas to make three strategic recommendations for expanding the SCO's youth audience as well as practical suggestions for achieving these. All of this came together in the SCO Youth Voice Strategy which you can download and read below.

Downloads List

Report by Georgia Vullinghs, SCO Youth Voice Strategy Intern, June 2019. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra gratefully acknowledges internship funding from the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities.