Eastbourne gave the London Philharmonic Orchestra their first back-to-full-strength audience after the pandemic – a fact which seems very significant as the LPO celebrate 60 years as resident orchestra at The Congress Theatre this season.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.
00:06 Lovely to be speaking to David Burke, CEO of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Now,
00:11 you've just had your own 90th anniversary as an orchestra, which is clearly very significant,
00:16 but now you're celebrating a particular 60th anniversary, and that's the association,
00:21 the residency with Eastbourne. And you're saying a lovely thing, that that association with
00:25 Eastbourne is really important to you. Oh, completely. And in fact, we visit Eastbourne
00:31 more than anywhere else apart from our London residency and Glyndebourne over the summer.
00:37 We give six performances a year, which actually this year will increase to seven,
00:43 with an addition of a concert specifically for schools in the area. And yeah, it's a critical
00:50 part of our season. Yeah, and you're saying you had a lovely moment in Eastbourne, just as we
00:55 were emerging from the pandemic then? Yes, well, the Eastbourne audience is a really loyal audience,
01:03 and I think what was really nice is post-pandemic coming back, it was the first of all our venues
01:09 that came back with a full audience, with a full house, at full strength. And what does that tell
01:14 you about Eastbourne then? Well, exactly. It shows the resilience that people show, but also how much
01:21 the relationship means to the audience as well as the orchestra. Yes, and the pandemic time must
01:26 have been absolutely awful for you as an orchestra, just as it was for us. It must have been so great
01:31 to come back to the thing that you love doing. It is. And we did a series of concerts for film,
01:38 and there was an audience of one, which was me listening, because you weren't allowed in unless
01:43 you were there. And it was in some ways a very great privilege to be able to have that experience.
01:48 But you realise the joy of the collective experience of listening to music with others,
01:53 and that spontaneous applause at the end of a performance, and those special moments. And that's
02:00 what we get every time we come back to Eastbourne. And is it fanciful to think that we have a keener
02:04 appreciation of just why that's special, for the fact that we haven't snatched from us for a couple
02:09 of years? Oh, undoubtedly. Undoubtedly. I think that whether it's the musicians in the orchestra,
02:16 the audiences, the staff that put all the hours into making it all work, I think everyone
02:22 understands and values more why we do it. It's good to see.
02:27 And another lovely thing about the Eastbourne series, the residency, of course, is it's not
02:32 just about playing the concerts, is it? You're developing so much beyond those concerts in
02:37 Eastbourne. Yes, completely. Post-pandemic, we've appointed a new member of staff who lives on the
02:45 south coast between Brighton and Eastbourne, and her role is to really get to know the community
02:50 and to respond to that. So we're talking about doing a little pop-up Christmas pop concert down
02:57 at the Langley Shopping Centre. We just did a first sort of scratch orchestra with young players
03:04 from the area last month, where we had 40 musicians came together to have coaching from the orchestra,
03:10 members of the orchestra, and put things on. And for me, this really, it just enhances both
03:15 the relationship and the performance on stage. You're part of a community, and that's what the
03:19 art should be. Brilliant. So 60 years on from the start of this residency in Eastbourne is
03:24 clearly flourishing, isn't it? Oh, completely. It's exciting to see where the next 60 years will
03:30 take us. We probably won't be discussing it, but we're happy to speak to you. I'll be watching
03:36 with a keen eye with a bit of luck. Fantastic. Great to speak to you. Congratulations on the
03:42 anniversary and good luck with the residency ahead. Thanks very much, Ben. Thanks.