Monday
I joined Aurora in September 2022, a week before our first performance as a new Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and it’s been non-stop ever since! As a team of one I look after everything to do with marketing: from Aurora’s social media to ticket sales, and graphic design to copywriting.
This week Aurora is rehearsing for our new Orchestral Theatre show, Carnival, which features a new production of Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals alongside a new commission by Richard Ayres. It’s being created in collaboration with the physical theatre company Frantic Assembly and begins touring at the beginning of May. I’m extremely excited as it’s rare that I get the chance to capture rehearsals so far before a show, which gives me time to put together a really strong promotional campaign featuring lots of videos and photos
from rehearsals.
The show really pushes the players to their limits: I watch our flautist playing whilst being lifted in the air by other performers—I’m in awe of their ability to still be note-perfect even under additional pressure!
Tuesday
Today I’m in our office in King’s Cross for our full team meeting, so my day starts with a brain-clearing cycle in the sunshine. The Aurora team is small but mighty (there are only eight full-time members of staff) and it’s always nice to hear what everyone’s working on that week, from production to finance.
Before lunch I draft our email newsletter which will go out next week. This includes an announcement of our new album of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the formidable Nicola Benedetti, our upcoming Kings Place concert (where we’re also Resident Ensemble) and a round-up of our recent 10-day German tour with Abel Selaocoe—excitingly our Elbphilharmonie performance has just gone up on YouTube. I then create a separate version for Aurora’s Under-30s, a free scheme I set up last year that aims to bring more young people into Aurora concerts.
Over lunch my colleague Anahita [Falaki], who’s the Concerts and Participation Manager, and I have a catch up over Zoom with an Association of British Orchestras working group, focusing on Black Lives in Music’s and the ABO’s 10-point plan to promote inclusive recruitment in the orchestral sector. It’s great to see colleagues from across the country and work towards a more equitable sector.
The afternoon is taken up by creating some assets for upcoming concerts: creating some video ads for a campaign on social media and writing up a blog post that mezzo-soprano Alice Coote has contributed to, talking about her relationship with Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde which we’ll be performing as part of our “Aurora at 20” anniversary weekend at Snape Maltings next month.
Wednesday
It’s back to Carnival rehearsals for me this morning. I’m focusing my efforts on recording a video with Yshani [Perinpanayagam], one of our pianists today, so I catch up with her in the break and film a short face-to-camera piece, which I edit together with short clips of Yshani in rehearsals.
In the afternoon I have a catch up with Aurora’s Learning Director Rebecca [Barnett]—we’re making an exciting announcement about our online learning platform Aurora Classroom later this month, so we come up with the plan for launch day and she talks me through the new KS2 unit, Stories in Sound, a new graphic novel-style animation based on the music of Symphonie fantastique.
After work I head to Abel Selaocoe’s album launch at Troxy—Aurora toured with him for 10 days last month and I just can’t get enough of the joy his concerts bring!
Thursday
Today starts with scheduling a social post for lunchtime when the tickets for our debut concerts at the Edinburgh International Festival this summer go on sale. Then I have my weekly catch up with our Press Manager Maddie Castell (Rebecca Driver Media Agency), briefing her on Rebecca’s Aurora Classroom updates so she can put together the press release to go out later in the month.
In the afternoon I meet with my colleagues in Aurora’s Development team. It’s Aurora’s 20th anniversary this month, and we’re almost ready to launch our most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, the Life-Changing Music Campaign. We’re aiming to raise £500,000 across the season with the help of some very generous match-funding. We talk through the campaign video, send amends back to our videographer and check in about two fundraising brochures I’m designing.
Friday
It’s my final morning at Carnival rehearsals today. I put together a video for Classic FM out of shots taken over the week to help promote our upcoming performances of Carnival. I also sit down with our two directors, Jane Mitchell (Aurora’s Creative Director) and Scott Graham (Artistic Director of our collaborators,
Frantic Assembly), and I interview them for a video trailer about the show.
All Aurora staff have the benefit of only working four-and-a-half days a week with no cut in salary, meaning we get a morning or afternoon a week to do with as we please. Last year I used this time to train as a massage therapist, so I take the afternoon off to go and give some massages—a lovely end to a busy week!
Saturday
On Saturday I head to CroyWall to do some bouldering. I’ve got a bit obsessed with climbing over the last year or so and am trying to make up for the years of not practising my instrument by being patient with myself as I try to learn something new!
Sunday
Sundays are a bit of a ritual: they start with a walk around Crystal Palace Park (dinosaurs included obviously) and a visit to the park’s weekly market. I’ve become completely addicted to the sauna so afterwards I cycle to Bermondsey for some R&R at the community sauna. There are cold plunges and an outside fire, and you feel completely rejuvenated afterwards. Then it’s time for an early night before we start again, heading into concert week at
Kings Place.
