A breath of fresh air?

Conductor Charles Hazlewood's article in the Guardian the other day certainly seems pretty ironic here, when last month we actually played to more people outdoors than inside concert halls. It is, I realise, the silly season, but as there is increasingly limited coverage of serious music in the press, you would think editors could commission better-researched pieces. Traffic on our twitter feed overwhelmingly disagrees with him, too.

'Why we are shutting children out of classical music'

A thought-provoking piece in yesterday's Guardian from Tom Service, with a cogent analysis of the state of music education in schools. Orchestras' Creative Learning teams - not least ours - do brilliant work, but can themselves only reach a limited number of children each year.

The news is out

Our visit to the Latitude Festival in July has been announced. Final details are being resolved (and will be on our website at the earliest opportunity), but this is another great chance for us to take our message about what a modern orchestra is about to a wider audience: see Charlotte Higgins in yesterday's Guardian (Budge up, Nick Cave and Grace Jones - Britten Sinfonia set to play Latitude).

Germaine Greer on the viola

Britten Sinfonia board member Germaine Greer has written in the Guardian on the viola. You might have heard some of the jokes before, but she makes a convincing case about the instrument's historical roots.

Golijov in Stevenage

We are performing Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round in Stevenage on 11 May. I mention this because there is an intriguing interview with him in the Guardian. I am not sure whether his music has been heard at the Gordon Craig Theatre before, but this is likely to be a local premiere. Check out the rest of the programme and book tickets online.