The scale of The People’s Orchestra is bigger than you think
The People’s Orchestra(TPO) is far more than a community music group with many strings to its bow. Although music is at its heart, its vital projects span from helping people back into work to reducing loneliness and isolation.
In fact, it’s always been a social change charity, battling to improve lives and people’s mental health – and using uplifting music and singing to do that. Here’s an overview of everything the award-winning TPO does.
Constantly expanding since its humble beginnings in West Bromwich in the West Midlands in 2012, TPO has spread its wings to help more and more people across the UK.
It may have started with its namesake, The People’s Orchestra, but the community organisation has gone on to create the People’s Show Choirs, a network of Rusty Player’s Orchestras and even a Big Band aimed at pro-amateur musicians in England, Scotland and Wales.
While some of the charity’s more hard-hitting projects are proving a lifesaver for many on the breadline, struggling with their finances.
The Back To Work programme links up with Jobcentres. It has already helped more than 1,000 people from all walks of life around Birmingham and the Black Country get back into employment, building up their confidence and abilities.
Just as essential is TPO’s Benefits Advice Line, which uses expertise to ensure the most vulnerable in society get the handouts they are entitled to. Every year, it supports around 250 people.
Then there are work experience programmes, volunteering sessions and projects to up skill and retrain people to make them equipped with all the tools they need to find work or a new career.
TPO’s worthy efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by the great and the good for along the way as the charity even picked up the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Its friendly team, many of them volunteers, has always played a vital role in everything it does. From supporting those feeling lost, alone or with no job prospects, to enhancing the lives of amateur musicians and singers by reconnecting them with music.
Yes, it always comes back to the music and TPO’s success has been understanding the importance of musical performance to our society as a whole.
Amid a history of cuts to the arts and musical education in schools, TPO has provided an outlet for members to perform fun, contemporary music together and feel all the life-enhancing benefits that come with that.
Whether as a stress-reliever, a way to meet new people or activity that lures young people away from anti-social behaviour, TPO’s many groups up and down the country have hit the right note with thousands of people – and continue to do so. New show choirs and Rusty Players are flourishing from Malvern and York to the Scottish isles.
Rehearsals may be in local halls but members have even had the chance to perform in some of the most acclaimed music venues in the country and go abroad with the TPO and Show Choirs.
There’s not many amateur musicians and singers who can say they have performed on the stage of historic Birmingham Town Hall, at London’s Duke’s Hall within The Royal Academy of Music or to Summer crowds at outdoor performances in Poland’s beautiful city of Krakow.
What’s more, TPO never sits still and likes to be at the cutting edge of ideas that address the country’s most important issues.
So much so that its latest project was awarded funding to see if music can be used in an innovative way to help people lose weight and get fitter.
The Walking Choir trials in Sandwell and Dudley are testing whether people find it easier to exercise if learning a new song while walking around a park for an hour. If successful, it could lead to a rollout nationwide to get the country moving and help tackle conditions like obesity and heart disease.
We told you the scale of The People’s Orchestra charity was vast and there’s more happening all the time.
See more about becoming a member of an orchestra here or People’s Show Choir here so you can become a part of this exciting movement of social change.
