“Lights Camera Score is an important part of our work. We are committed to connecting classroom activity to the world outside and as our lives become more digital it is vital that professional media and musicians forge ever stronger links with communitiesand schools.”
Award-winning community and education opportunities at the heart of the English Chamber Orchestra
At the English Chamber Orchestra, we celebrate musical excellence whether that’s performing concerts, touring internationally, working alongside renowned soloists or supporting young people encountering live music for the first time.
Thanks to the musicians of the orchestra, inspirational music educators and the management team, ECO has been delivering its Close Encounters programme reaching beyond the concert hall into communities in West Yorkshire, Essex and London’s Tower Hamlets.
At the English Chamber Orchestra, we celebrate musical excellence whether that's performing concerts, touring internationally, working alongside renowned soloists or supporting young people encountering live music for the first time.
Thanks to the musicians of the orchestra, inspirational music educators and the management team, ECO has been delivering its Close Encounters programme reaching beyond the concert hall into communities in West Yorkshire, Essex and London's Tower Hamlets. Shiftingperspectives and making meaningful musical connections Lights, Camera Score connects institutions to the UNESCO ASPnet Seeds of Hope initiative whilst propagating the ECO belief in music is for everyone. Through Close Encounters, the world-renowned ECO is leading the way in redefining how orchestras will work with communities in the future.
Since 2024 there have been 62 school and community-based projects
Changing the lives of 4000+ young participants
There have been 17 bespoke concert performances
With 800+ hours of project
delivery
21 “Lights, Camera, Score” schools won the inaugural UNESCO Seeds of Hope Competition
Bringing enjoyment to an audience
of 7000+
Devised Dr Gregory Boardman (ECO Learning & Participation Manager) and trumpeter Dan Newell, Lights, Camera, Score enables young people to co-create thought-provoking stories, music and films alongside award-winning professional creatives. The Lights, Camera, Score music team deliver timetabled lessons focusing on composition and instrumental music-making which emerges into emotive musical soundtracks that accompany student and pupil narratives and bespoke animated films.
During the last year under the umbrella of "Seeds of Hope", all the Lights, Camera, Score films have explored issues of sustainability and the natural environment taking inspiration from the humble seed. The sustainability theme continues again thisyear motivated by stories that begin with the notion of building gardens to safeguard our communities and culture.
Twenty-one participating schools shared first prize in the inaugural UNESCO Seeds of Hope competition with the project also receiving recognition from the Sandford St Martin Trust courtesy of a Young Audience broadcasting nomination. You can watch allthe completed Lights Camera Score films from our 2025 projects here: Lights Camera Score - YouTube
About Dr Gregory Boardman
Co-founder of production consultancy Three Stones Media, a director of Little People Big Noise alongside Dan Newell, Gregory is an award-winning producer, composer, musician and writer who worked with the Rastamouse creators to fund and develop the multi-award-winningtelevision series for the BBC. Having played a key role developing the ground-breaking ‘Apple Tree House’ for CBeebies and the ‘Happy Dance’ series for Sky Kids, Gregory is currently keeping a watchful eye on Rastamouse’s big screen debut.
In addition to extensive experience editing scripts (‘The Bill’, ‘Peak Practice’, ‘Emmerdale’) and producing for television (‘As If’, ‘Suburban Shootout’), Gregory has a long-standing interest in connecting cultural institutions with communities. This is evidencedin work with the English Chamber Orchestra over the last four years. Gregory holds a PhD in Music. Completing master’s level research at UCL’s Institute of Education in 2018, he has since returned to academia with a long-term research project exploring youngpeople’s relationship with music.
About Lights Camera Score in 2026
Thanks to the ECO’s Big Give Fundraising in December 2025 and with public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, ECO teams have been busy since the beginning of the year with another raft of projects focused around Lights Camera Score.
About LCS in Calderdale, West Yorkshire
With the support of the local council, ECO is working with eight primary schools and two secondary schools whilst working to strengthen the local team that Close Encounters has established in the region.
Alongside the LCS films themselves, highlights for this year include an ECO public concert at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax on 22 June with the project schools presenting their soundtrack music accompanied by the professional musicians of the orchestra on the23 June, also at the Victoria Theatre. Once the young people have performed the ECO strings will give a bespoke concert to an audience of over 1,000 young people.
The ECO’s work has grown out of a long-term commitment to build upon the council’s Culturedale initiative. The Seeds of Hope work established by ECO and Little People Big Noise is also providing a platform to develop even more exciting activities beyond ourcore educational activity.
This work includes:
- Working with the Calderdale Music to establish a new area wide ensemble for young musicians working at a more advanced level.
- A Billy’s Band Schools’ tour curated by Dan Newell and delivering in school concerts to Todmorden primary schools who are unable to engage with the main project due to the local geography.
- ECO is very excited to see that Seeds of Hope expands further into the community with themes taken from the primary school projects becoming the inspiration for the building of community gardens which will be located throughout the borough.
- The orchestra team are particular excited that our Lights Camera Score: Seeds of Hope initiative has been welcomed by Calderdale Council as they launch their music Festival ‘Stage at the Lake’ in August.
On 15 August, the ECO will take centre stage to celebrate 100 years of Shibden Park being open to the public.
About LCS in Essex
Working with the Essex Music Service and Zenith Multi-academy trust, and building on a long-term collaboration with composers from the Royal Academy of Music, Gregory Boardman’s LCS team are busy delivering in both primary and secondary settings with projectsat seven schools.
Whilst the project aims to cater for local needs we draw from our experiences in Calderdale as we seek to guarantee that LCS projects are sustainable. All the schools' cohorts will perform alongside the ECO professionals at a public concert staged at The KingJohn School in Benfleet on 13 July. Meanwhile, the team will deliver training to local tutors and teachers as well as gathering essential materials to create a digital Lights Camera Score resource to ensure that Close Encounters projects reach even further.
About LCS in Tower Hamlets
Lights Camera Score made its first appearance in Tower Hamlets back in 2019/2020. Since then, thousands of young people have engaged with the project and musical activities staged alongside the core LCS work. Whilst we work with the THAMES (Tower Hamlets Artsand Music Education Service) to pilot a development of Lights Camera Score that facilitates a deeper engagement into the secondary setting we are busy raising funds to ensure that we will be engaging new schools, primary and secondary, from September 2026.
We are delighted that project participants across Tower Hamlets have also engaged with ECO ticketing initiatives that have enabled young people and their families to enjoy the orchestra’s concert performances.