About the role
As a Young Artistic Advisor, you will work alongside the LMP team to provide insights that will shape and influence LMP’s future artistic plans within our home base of Croydon, and in particular, our activities at Fairfield Halls.
As an Artistic Advisor, you will essentially act as a “critical friend”, helping us to better understand what we can do differently, (as well as what we may already be doing well!), to ensure that our work is serving young people across the Borough effectively. We’re particularly interested in working with people who are passionate about using arts, music and culture as a tool for community engagement and have a keen sense of local pride when it comes to Croydon. You don’t need to have any specific music education or experience, but will need to be living, working, or studying in Croydon in order to take part.
The Commitment
To be part of the Group, you’ll need to be able to attend all three of our concerts at Fairfield Halls across the year, plus the corresponding meeting relating to each concert. Concert dates can be found below. Concerts will typically start at either 7.00pm or 7.30pm and last a maximum of two hours (including intervals, where applicable).
- Saturday 7 October 2023
- Friday 8 / Saturday 9 December 2023
- Saturday 10 February 2024
- Matilda Lloyd
- Christmas Concert
- LMP’s 75th Birthday Concert
Benefits
In exchange for your attendance at concerts and Board Meetings, you’ll receive:
- Two free tickets for each concert, (one for you and a guest)
- A discount code unique to you, to share amongst your wider networks
- Access to exclusive, invitation-only events and receptions
How to Apply
To apply, please complete an expression of interest form in the first instance. As part of the expression interest, you’ll be asked to write a short paragraph explaining your reasons for wanting to join. You will also be asked to provide diversity monitoring information, which will be stored separately and confidentially to your main application.
The final closing date for expressions of interest is 11.59pm on Sunday 24 September. Applicants who register their interest by Wednesday 21 June will be invited to join us at a meet and greet on Saturday 24 June, immediately after our Little Orpheus concert at Fairfield Halls (though you are still encouraged to apply even if you can’t make the meet and greet on 24 June).
It’s really important to us that we build an inclusive and diverse organisation that reflects the rich cultural blends of the communities we serve. We recognise that diversity brings a wealth of benefits to us as an organisation and our audiences, so would be particularly keen to receive an application from you if you come from a Black, Asian, or ethnically diverse backgrounds, women, trans and non-binary candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and those that are disabled.
If you would like to discuss the position informally before submitting an expression of interest, or have any access needs relevant to the application process, please contact Business Development Manager Ceri Sunu via email to recruitment@lmp.org.
Who we are
Established by Harry Blech in 1949, LMP is proud to be the UK’s longest established chamber orchestra. Since that time, we have built a reputation for artistic excellence, as well as pioneering ground-breaking work with emerging young artists and within our local communities. Over the past year, we have continued exploring a number of new and exciting concert formats, including Pipe Dreams, featuring organist Anna Lapwood who provided our audiences with an immersive experience by equipping her organ with cameras; our upcoming gaming concert featuring works by Jessica Curry, and hosting the launch event for Croydon’s year as London Borough of Culture – a huge cross-genre, interdisciplinary project which saw the commission of brand new piece, the Oratorio of Hope. (You can read more about it in The Times review by Richard Morrison). This, in addition to our international work visiting nations such as Israel and Hong Kong.
Don’t let our name mislead you – we don’t just play in London, and we certainly don’t just play Mozart! As well as our residencies at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, St John the Evangelist in Upper Norwood, and Opus Theatre in Hastings, we’re well known internationally for working with many of the world’s greatest conductors and soloists. We’re proud to have developed a reputation for making and playing adventurous, ambitious and accessible music, and for being at the forefront of embedding arts and culture into the life of local communities across the UK and beyond.
After celebrating our 70th birthday in 2019, we soon found ourselves navigating orchestra life during the pandemic in 2020. During that time, we remained active and busy, creating an award-winning digital concert series which reached millions of people – reaffirming our commitment to our audiences even in times of challenge, finding new ways to exercise our creativity.
Now, we’re excited to be working back in person, creating lots of new concerts and programmes to surprise and delight our audiences. We opened the launch event for Croydon’s Borough of Culture in April 2023, and we’ll be continuing to host our own concerts and events throughout the year.
Some things we’re proud of:
- In 1989, we became the the first orchestra in the UK to have a female Artistic Director (Jane Glover)
- In 2017, we won the Cultural Impact Award at the Croydon Business Excellence Awards.
- In 2018, we commissioned a special Anthem for Peace following the riots in Croydon, involving hundreds of artists and performers from across the borough.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were the first orchestra to produce free-to-view online content for audiences through our At Home with LMP series. We were also the first to perform in a public space when the first lockdown was lifted, and filmed an audience-free concert at Westfield Shopping Centre.
- We launched Croydon’s Borough of Culture year in April 2023 with an opening weekend concert complete with new commissions, films, and dance. You can watch our video trailer here.