I’m about to perform with the Philharmonia Orchestra and I’ve not rehearsed my part. In fact, I’ve not even seen the score. Or played my instrument before. Nervously taking my place among the virtuosos, I look around: the brass, string and woodwind sections are all warmed up and ready to be led by the energetic conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Then I glance up at the audience: the Royal Festival Hall is packed to the rafters. Gulp!
“Are you OK there?” asks Marta Génova, the Philharmonia’s head of digital product and experience, “or do I need to tighten your headset?” This, you see, is Virtual Orchestra, a VR experience designed by the Philharmonia that lets you play percussion during the rollicking finale of Rossini’s William Tell Overture. You’re offered the choice of triangle, cymbal and timpani (the last is “definitely the most fun”, Génova assures me) and after a quick run-through of the sounds you can get from your instrument, courtesy of Philharmonia percussionist Tom Edwards, you’re thrown into a rehearsal and then the actual performance. I’ve barely had time to say “How do I hold these sticks again?” before the strings start swelling, Rouvali waves his baton and a musical score starts hurtling across the bottom of my vision. Oh God, I think, am I about to screw this up?
The Philharmonia have a history of using cutting-edge technology to help them stand out from the other big London orchestras. They were founded in 1945 as a “recording orchestra”, back when such a thing was still a novelty, and more recently they’ve provided immersive digital orchestral experiences, lighting up the walls of places such as the Science Museum. The move to interactive headsets is the next logical step in trying to engage new audiences – no previous musical or VR experience is required to join this orchestra.
The headsets’ main purpose, however, is educational. The Philharmonia have developed a programme of activities that can be completed as part of the national curriculum. The aim is not for students to fully learn instruments virtually (I’m impressed with how realistic the mimicry is but it can’t completely replace the subtleties of an actual instrument). Rather, the hope is that it sparks interest in playing – and encourages users to seek out the real thing. The scheme was spurred on by recent research highlighting declining music participation in schools, with GCSE Music entries falling 27% since 2010.
The Philharmonia is signed up to the Orchestra in Every School programme, a scheme designed to ensure every child in the UK has access to live music-making and high-quality music education. “But we thought, we can’t possibly take our orchestra into all the schools in the country,” says Thorben Dittes, the Philharmonia’s CEO. “With headsets, it’s a very different situation.”
Earlier this year, the headsets were piloted in 12 schools across Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. The feedback from the 428 children in year 7 involved was overwhelmingly positive. According to Dittes, 75% of the children had never attended a classical concert before, yet 96% said they were now likely to, with 60% saying they felt inspired to learn an instrument. It’s early days, of course, but as Dittes notes: “They were happy to stay in the headsets for hours, learning about notation, about rhythm, about the joy of being part of a big orchestra.”
“We didn’t want it to be just a video game,” adds Génova. “We wanted it to be something that’s actually useful, where you pick up a few skills that are transferable to the real thing.” Ultimately, the dream is to have a variety of instruments and pieces children can trial using the headsets.
Back in my own orchestra, I’m not doing so badly. The experience will be familiar to anyone who’s ever played Guitar Hero – we might technically be playing off sheet notation, with crochets, quavers and rests to be observed, but the coloured notes denoting which timpani to bash arrive at the clef whenever it’s time to strike them.
It’s intuitive, but it’s also frantic stuff. The trickiest bits are the drum rolls, where you have to relax your wrists and let the sticks gently flutter up and down. I’ve mastered the left side but on my right the rhythm feels awkward and stilted. I finish with a flourish of quick quavers which I feel are executed perfectly … until I realise I’m actually hitting the wrong timpani for each one.
Still, when former Clean Bandit star Love Ssega pops up in front of me to tell me that I achieved 84% on “hard” mode, I do feel quietly impressed with myself. How, I wonder, does it compare with others? “I can’t share with you my score,” laughs Dittes, “because it was actually rather bad. And the people here have gotten quite competitive over their scores.”
Does this mean I might have a shot at joining the Philharmonia for real? Génova did mention they had auditions coming up. “Well, if you can do it repeatedly, then yes, why not?” says Dittes. “Who knows, maybe this will be how we find our next great percussionist.”
