Orchestrating Change continued.. THE ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS The little 18th-century church on the edge of Trafalgar Square is famous for two things apart from its exquisite, Wren-influenced architecture: the homeless project run out of the crypt and the chamber orchestra that Sir Neville Marriner founded there almost 50 years ago.

The Academy of St Martin in the Field is now based in the Barbican and the Wigmore Hall, but musicians from the orchestra maintain their links with St Martin 's by holding weekly workshops at the church's homeless project, The Connection.
The Academy began working at The Connection in 1999, and the London 's String of Pearls Festival a year later provided the inspiration for the formation of the perform-ance group, GRIT. Musicians from the Connection now regularly play at St Martin's church and at Covent Garden under the direction of composer Jackie Walduck.
'Everyone needs to express themselves, and when people come into those workshops, we are not seeing them as homeless people and we're not labelling them. We are treating them as rounded human beings with as much to contribute as anyone else. Many of them have experienced things that the rest of us never have and they have their own stories to tell,' observes Walduck.

'They appreciate not being patronised and being offered something very classy – and something that reaches beyond the confines of pop music, taking them to a more poetic space.'

The Academy is just as active nurturing talent amongst the next generation of orchestral performers. Musicians offer Saturday lessons to schoolchildren attending the Guildhall's Junior Department and also provide young professionals from the South Bank Sinfonia with the opportunity to play alongside the old hands of the Academy.
Another major strand of the Acade-my's work is a three-year residency in Colchester . This year, the resid-ency has spawned a series of works inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons and has included a multimedia concert focusing on Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale. But the project also seeks to spread workshop skills throughout the community with a 'Buddy' scheme. So far, 11,100 people have been involved in Colchester 's Sounding Out project with 21 outreach programmes giving 2,400 people the chance to participate in musical activities.

The Academy's Outward Sound manager, Dawn Day, stresses that the musicians often get just as much out of outreach work. She cites the example of an elderly trumpeter for whom 'it's no exaggeration to say that it changed his life. He never believed that he had the ability to do this – to communicate with the public – but he had people absolutely screaming out for him.'
Day observes: 'Although it's changing, classical musicians are trained to play to the best of their ability and not to take risks and to follow the dots on the page and do what the man with the stick tells them. But you would be sur-prised how many musicians would be completely floored if you ask them to improvise around a chord sequence, because it's not some-thing they've been trained to do.'

Day believes that outreach work reawakens the original passion that made people into musicians. 'I think some forget just how lucky they are to do what they love, because it becomes just a job – like going to work in a bank. But fundamental to music is communication – and outreach work gives musicians the opportunity to express their passion to communicate.'

 

I go to a workshop and I move in isolation
From alienation to belonging.
Hypnotic repetitions of the rhythm patterns reach me,
Gentle, restful, vibrant,
Rakes me from the fragmentation and rush of the city.
I connect with my hand onto the drum
I am filled with sound, space, stillness,
The rush, the silence,
Do I have permission to be mad?
I am part of this,
Sweeping through my body,
Do I risk?
Connections are made inside and around me.
I am taken
To the fiery places inside where the energy burns and aches
Soars and weeps
Waiting for yourself
Are you ready for a surprise?

Poem written by a homeless person taking part in the Academy's GRIT project