Louise Braithwaite
Louise has been Orchestra of the Swan’s freelance Education Manager since 2005, leading the development of the content and scope of orchestra’s Explorchestra programme, and creating opportunities for musicians to develop their music delivery skills, enabling the orchestra to share its work with a diverse and refreshing range of settings.
Louise’s association with OOTS began as a performer, and the invitation to lead the Explorchestra programme came through her parallel career in project management and teaching. She now writes and manages projects with schools in the state and independent sectors, healthcare settings, adult community groups, and leads partnership projects with music services, youth services, and with local authorities and district councils.
Independently from the orchestra, Louise is a Creative Agent for Creative Partnerships, an association which arose from the orchestra’s partnership work with Cre8us and Welcombe Hills School, Stratford upon Avon.
Creative Partnerships is a national programme which supports the development of learning and teaching in schools through engagement with professional artists of all disciplines, from architecture to dance, using a research-based approach. Louise works with Bright Space (CP Birmingham, Herefordshire & Worcestershire) and Cre8us (CP Coventry, Solihull & Warwickshire).
This connection ensures that the orchestra’s programmes continue to be informed by current developments in Learning and Teaching at national and level, and by sound educational theory. This enables the orchestra to work very effectively with students, teachers and senior management within schools, and to build projects which are tailored to the needs of each setting.
Orchestra of the Swan strives to be accessible to all and wholly inclusive, which has created significant professional development opportunities in Community and Education work for the orchestra’s musicians, most notably in the context of Special Needs education.
Alongside her orchestral colleagues, Louise promotes and encourages the excellence with which Orchestra of the Swan’s Explorchestra and partnership projects are routinely associated. A recent observed partnership workshop series was rated ‘Outstanding’ during a rigorous assessment by the school’s senior management.
Louise has presented on the orchestra’s work for and with Town Hall Symphony Hall Birmingham, MusicLeader West Midlands, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and ClassicFm. She has also appeared as a performer with the orchestra in several recordings and television appearances including The South Bank Show.
Louise is part of a broad team of skilled education practitioners at OOTS. A wide range of personalities, experience and skills inform our work, and the collaborative style of working which the orchestra has adopted is greatly valued by its members and partners alike.