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Status
Received: on time
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Income
£430.9K
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Spending
£280.8K
Public benefits
The Belfast Ensemble provides access to medium/large scale contemporary music performances that combine live orchestral musicianship with high-end multi-media design. It also provides access to ‘ensemble performance’, where a collective of artists repeatedly create work for their public, establishing a year-on-year building of style, quality and
aesthetic; flowing directly into the public benefit as ‘access to innovation in performance’. Prior to our existence, work of this nature was not in existence in NI. This has created pioneering opportunities for public access to European-edged performance of award-winning quality. Existing outside the ‘mainstream’ of repertoire, our premieres benefit the wider arts ecology by delivering performances other ‘more traditional’ organisations cannot. This benefits the audiences of NI by providing a healthy and balanced national portfolio of performing arts product. As one the city newest and largest employers of freelance musicians/performers, we help sustain the fragile freelance sector through year-round programming. The company’s consistently high attendance figures demonstrate a deep public desire for work of this nature to be generated in NI. As one of the city’s most lauded companies, we have become a ‘go to’ collaborator; recently collaborating with Outburst Festival, Belfast Festival, Belfast Children’s Festival, the Lyric Theatre, Ulster Orchestra, Oh Yeah Music Centre, Abbey Theatre Dublin, Southbank Centre London, BBC radio 3 and many others. Our opera ‘Abomination’ was awarded ‘Best Opera’ at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2020, received an Ivor Novello nomination and was listed as one of the ‘top ten classical music events of the year’ in the Guardian. Our engagement with audiences is unparalleled in our sector; the work crosses many barriers and delivering high quality performances of award-winning standard directly in the city of Belfast. Our work is “beneficial, not harmful” as it provides opportunities for the public in Northern Ireland to have access to works of musical art they would not otherwise; works that provide insight into a wealth of international experience thus providing cultural and educational value in the fields of music, theatre and contemporary design. This work flowing from our purpose is open to all members of the public. Through cross sectoral collaboration, we create work that brings work to diverse sections of society, including many who are traditionally marginalised from access to high quality premieres. Recent co-productions with Outburst Queer Arts festival and then, conversely Belfast Children’s Festival demonstrate the range of beneficiaries we make work for. We believe social circumstance should be no barrier to excellence, ensuring that we have funding in place to subvent this, putting in place a range of offers including extremely low ticket prices to disadvantaged and marginalized community groups across Northern Ireland. We also create opportunities for participation, engagement and discussion as part of each production. As a non-profit company, all box office income is directly invested back into the work of the company and is a necessary budget component to the creation of a zero line budget. Our work does not provide private benefit to individuals other than the incidental one of having personally enjoyed the experience of attending a production.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
The Belfast Ensemble is a highly active non-profit music-theatre company that produce year-round programming for audiences in Northern Ireland. With an emphasis on ‘new music’, it produces highly ambitious premieres of contemporary classical music across many fields (theatre, opera, work for young audiences, live digital/multi-media). Employing a
wide range of local artists and musicians, it has achieved an unprecedented level of critical success in a short period of time, garnering international praise and furthering the company’s long-term ambition to ‘establish a permanent collective of NI-based artists’ that create work both for home and the touring audiences. Collaborating with many flagship organisations and festivals in the city of Belfast, the company’s music-theatre programming is synonymous with partnership and cross sectoral co-operation.
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science
Who the charity helps
- General public
How the charity works
- Arts
- Cultural
- Education/training
