Orchestra Without Borders
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Project Description
We mitigate social and cultural inequalities through music and believe in a fairer society where culture is accessible to everyone regardless of their location.
We champion values of cooperation and international integration, supporting young musicians across inland Portugal and Spain and extend access to culture by working across dozens of localities where we play concerts, offer masterclasses, pedagogy programs and audience development initiatives for local communities, always free of charge.
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Summary
Orquestra Sem Fronteiras - OSF [Orchestra Without Borders] is a non-profit organization promoting and supporting the talent of young musicians born and residing in inland Portugal and Spain, as well as the decentralization of access to culture and cross-border cooperation. We do this by fighting the abandonment of music teaching & learning and rewarding academic excellence through concerts, music education and grant-giving.
We exist to improve cultural participation and social inclusion of local populations, foster meritocracy in education, the professionalization of young artists, as well as geographic and social cohesion within the Iberian Raya region.
Founded in 2019 in Idanha-a-Nova, OSF is a key sociocultural enterprise in the Iberian context, recognised by the Portuguese Republic as an entity of Public Cultural Interest. Ever since, it has performed on more than sixfty occasions in over fifty places ranging from small villages in rural areas to cities such as Lisbon or Madrid.
Our main activities are concerts, with the orchestra assuming both symphonic and chamber formats, as well as ensembles and chamber music groups. OSF champions the educational and social potential of its practice, offering a wide range of initiatives, always free of charge for all participants. This includes educational initiatives for music professionals & teachers, students, and the general public, as well as instrumental masterclasses, workshops, audience development initiatives, monthly podcasts, and Terra a Terra, an entrepreneurial and innovative program aimed at establishing micro social startups through music led by young citizens in the region. Lastly, OSF is the first Iberian orchestra with an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion pledge in its programming, which means we always perform music by composers of different genders, ethnicities, periods and aesthetics, in an attempt to bring values of inclusion into the world of classical music, where it's still much delayed.
Key objectives for sustainability
As underpinned by our theory of change model, social and economic sustainability is a key element of OSF.
We are a social non-profit entity, operating in inland Portugal and Spain - a 143.500 Km2 region called Raya, which is home to more than 5 million people and is EU’s most deprived border (ESPON, 2014). In the region, labour income is 40% lower, and poverty and social exclusion increases up to 7.8% when compared to urban coastal areas (Rodrigues, 2019). Raya faces further structural challenges such as aging populations, desertification, high youth unemployment and low educational attainment (Eurostat, 2018).
Our work is designed to tackle these issues through our mission to mitigate social and cultural inequalities via music, advancing the UN SDGs nos. 1 No poverty, 4 Q. Education 8 Decent work and Economic Growth, and 10 Reduced Inequalities. We do so by building a sense of community through the arts and strengthening our cultural, social, and economic ecosystems by:
Grants
Our grants program gives financial and professional support to hundreds of promising young musicians from this region.
Music
Including orchestra concerts, residency training for chamber music groups, and musical training at the highest level with distinguished professionals. Our concerts are free and targeted to remote and isolated audiences to foster cultural consumption habits.
Education
We design & deliver educational opportunities for musicians, professionals, educators and the general public, with free participation for all. By partnering with dozens of schools, our grant giving program promotes academic achievement and opportunities for underrepresented students.
Community & Inclusion
Through community-building initiatives such as Terra a Terra, an entrepreneurial venture supporting micro social music startups. Further to our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion program, we are designed to reach people from all backgrounds.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
An orchestra is a perfect metaphor for a set of different personalities brought together through each member’s talent and a shared love for what they do. Yet, in the pluralistic and globalized world we live in, an orchestra cannot limit itself to being just a group of musicians who play music.
The orchestra must be a platform for cooperation & collective growth and become a reflection of its time and place, equipped to make sense of it and respond to its demands. As such, concerts are central to OSF, but we wouldn’t be truly satisfied if they were the sole element of our endeavours.
In what music making and the aesthetic quality of the experience we provide are concerned, we have been discovering and promoting music of under-represented composers and integrating them into the repertoire. More than the discovery of beautiful music by composers such as Florence Price, Anne Victorino d’Almeida, or António Fragoso, it is extremely important to pass down unto our musicians the idea that this music is worth just as much as are canonic works by Bach, Mozart or Beethoven.
In dedicating the same amount of work, detail and creativity to the former as we do to the latter, we mean that the world of music too should be one of equity and opportunities for everyone.
To our audiences, we offer the thrill of the discovery, paired with music of the great masters, which we perform with equal passion. And suddenly, when we play music by Finnish composer E. Rautavaara in 17 villages across Portugal, we are not only widening horizons to those who live there and are granted access to classical music for the first time. We are also transforming these places, where exciting new things can happen, and dragging audiences from major cities to catch up with the latest music making, not in a big cosmopolitan auditorium, but in a parish church or a ballroom in the mountains. Here, aesthetics and ethics merge into one, the center opens up to the periphery, and the last are the first.
Key objectives for inclusion
Since its inception, OSF has prioritised investing in a strong Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) policy, summarised in the 4 strands below
Artistic
At OSF we are proud to be the first ever Iberian orchestra with an EDI artistic pledge in its programming, which means it always performs music by composers of different genders, ethnicities, periods and aesthetics, in an attempt to bring values of inclusion into the world of classical music, where it is much lacking.
Internal
Our workforce has a 50/50 split male/female ratio and the pay gap is 10% favorable to women. When possible, our outsourcing and procurement processes are designed to favour EDI balance in regards to our suppliers. All of our staff members receive safeguarding & inclusion training when onboarding, which is refreshed periodically. At a governance level, the EDI policy is designed and overviewed by our strategy Director, who sits on our board and reports directly to the general assembly and trustees.
Musicians
The EDI program ensures all Musicians have a direct and strictly confidential channel to request any adaptations/requirements, such as religious, dietary, special needs, disability access, and others. We aim to have gender neutral language and non-gendered toilets where possible.
Inclusion needs are assessed and safely stored in the enrollment form or via our inclusion@osf.pt confidential email channel. As a result, 39% of our musicians identified themselves as male, 60% as female, and 1% as non-binary/other. 13% of all musicians requested inclusion adaptations, of which 95% were fulfilled.
Community
All our concerts are delivered at no cost to the audience as per our theory of change model, inviting people who hadn’t had contact with classical music before to attend our activities and therefore build cultural consumption habits. Some of our concerts include guided listening and to date, we have delivered dozens of concerts specially targeted at ultra-peripheral regions.
Innovative character
OSF exists primarily to mitigate the talent drain in Portugal and Spain due to young musicians giving up music for lack of job opportunities. OSF also exists to promote cultural participation in territories where it’s most needed.
In addressing the first topic, that of fostering young musicians into a professional career in music, OSF believes that the way to retain talent and see it through is by providing these young musicians with exemplary professional experiences where the all-round excellency of the occasion will serve as an award for their academic merit, as well as an incentive to seek out further professional experiences.
OSF is one of very few orchestras in the world providing paid work but not relying on competition-based blind auditions to find musicians. Instead, OSF cooperates with local music conservatories, academies and universities and receives from these the musicians whose profile is most worthy of support. This way, OSF relies on the relationship between a student and a teacher, who knows the student’s capacities better than any audition could ever reveal. At the same time, OSF builds a relationship between institutions - schools and OSF - where a direct route from academic experiences into the professional world becomes tangible.
This way, we promote meritocracy and boost students in their studies, eventually one thing leading to another: Success in school generates professional engagements, while these provide a ground for optimal academic results.
The way OSF addresses wider participation is also unique, since all of OSF’s activity is free of charge for all participants.
The reason for this is that most populations for whom OSF creates its programs have never or rarely been in contact with classical music, and thus this is the most democratic way to mediate a first contact.
However, OSF does charge its local partners (eg. Municipalities, local governments), reinforcing the value of culture and the need to invest in it as a way to grow.
