Propellerhead Reason has joined the London Symphony Orchestra, as a performance instrument and as a key element in the award-winning LSO Discovery music education and community programme.
Photo above: Inside LSO St Luke's - the LSO's rehearsal space and Music Education Centre
Reason made its debut last year in a London Symphony Orchestra performance of the works of legendary Hollywood composer Dimitri Tiomkin at London's prestigious Barbican Centre. For specific instruments required for some works within the 20 piece programme, the LSO turned to Reason on a Mac laptop connected directly to a small powered speaker on stage to maintain its sound position within the orchestra.
Chris Rogers, LSO Discovery Digital Projects Manager, explains, "We use Reason extensively within our LSO Discovery programme and I was confident it would offer the sound and stability we needed for the performance. It performed flawlessly."
Photo above: Chris Rogers, LSO Discovery Digital Projects Manager
The LSO Discovery programme, now in its 21st year, is the London Symphony Orchestra's award-winning community and music education programme which reaches 60,000 people of all ages every year. The magnificent venue of LSO St Luke's, an 18th century Grade 1 listed Hawksmoor church located on London's Old Street, EC1, acts as the Music Education Centre and hosts a diverse selection of concerts and workshops alongside LSO rehearsals. Inside, a suite of iMacs running the latest Reason 6 are used for regular digital workshops for local schools and for the local community.
Photo above: LSO St Luke's
"As well as our programme of workshops for school groups, every Monday evening we open up our facilities to local 12-18 year olds for free of charge use." says Chris. "Members of the Orchestra will frequently come to the workshops to assist and even play parts for some of the compositions."
Specific workshops for schools include 'Remix the Orchestra' which based on the Edexcel GCSE syllabus makes use of Reason to remix LSO recordings, and 'Audio Active' which explores contemporary composition and sonic art including hands-on use of unusual MIDI controllers - such as games joysticks and dance mats - to trigger samples in Reason.
"We've been using Reason at the LSO since version 2.5 and we're now on the latest version 6." continues Chris. "It's completely stable - even with such intense use - which combined with its ease of use makes Reason a fantastic music and sound application for students to experiment with. Its visual recreation of real world devices and cabling is also really useful for students who haven't had the opportunity to use the real thing."
The Digital Technology Group performs an annual concert at LSO St Luke's which also features members of the LSO playing some of the compositions created in the workshops.
The London Symphony Orchestra is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading orchestras. Since its formation in 1904 it has always attracted excellent players from all over the world, many of whom have flourishing solo, chamber music and teaching careers alongside their orchestral work. Continuing the Orchestra’s long association with film music, the LSO has recently recorded soundtracks for Twilight: New Moon, Tamara Drewe and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 & 2). The orchestra also features on radio, TV, computer games and in-flight music programmes, and has launched the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, the world’s first-ever online orchestra.
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