"The Best Seats in the House": Community Orchestras and Audience Engagement as a Generator of Social Cohesion

The challenging, yet essential task of building deep connections between performers and listeners in a community orchestra context presents opportunities for new approaches to audience and community engagement. This paper examines the ways in which the provision of authentic participatory experiences can strengthen bonds between the ensemble and the public, spanning a spectrum of engagement which includes aspects of passive and active participation in orchestral practice. By enabling opportunities for authentic participation in ensemble life, community orchestras serve not only to enhance the state of musical education in the wider community, but also help to establish meaningful interpersonal connections through the power of shared music making. Further, through innovative approaches such as directed improvisation or other non-traditional forms of ensemble practice, there emerges the opportunity to extend these experiences to a more diverse segment of the public.

Using theoretical frameworks and the author’s own experiences as an ensemble director and educator, this paper argues that through the use of musical participation orchestras are able to establish cohesive bonds both between performers and audiences, and among audience members. These activities help to foster the qualities necessary to sustain successful communities and to encourage the development of social capital which radiates outward from the performance space into the wider community. Therefore, the educational outreach models adopted in the orchestral context must be participatory in nature.