Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra

Cause UK are special advisors to the newly reformed Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. The media interest we generated shows the potential power of Yorkshire having its own symphony orchestra, as a leading cultural voice, which audiences...Read More

Cause UK are special advisors to the newly reformed Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra.

The media interest we generated shows the potential power of Yorkshire having its own symphony orchestra, as a leading cultural voice, which audiences in the North deserve.

What we did

We issued a Press Release announcing the reformation of the Orchestra.

Film

We worked with Gary Lawson to create spectacular film and drone footage for social media.

Media Launch: The Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra

To support northern musicians hit hard by the pandemic, Vivo Entertainment revived the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra (YSO), recruiting Ben Crick as its new conductor.

Vivo hosted a series of concerts to provide an artistic and financial platform for the orchestra.

Ben CrickPhoto shows Ben Crick, photo credit Gerard Binks.

Cause UK interviewed conductor Ben, who signposted us to a trumpet player, Anthony Thompson. As one of the north’s most in-demand trumpet players, Anthony had even performed for Pope Benedict XVI!  He told us his story of taking a job as a labourer during Coronavirus.

Other incredibly talented musicians lost their sense of vocation as live performances closed, and ended up taking jobs including in a brewery and dog walking.

As the original Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra disbanded in 1955, there was a real sense its revival was much-needed – not just because of the impact of the virus on musicians – surely, Yorkshire deserved its own symphony orchestra?

The story hit all the right notes.

Literally!

We worked with Jamie, Director of Vivo Entertainment, on a press launch inviting media for a special performance: Ben conducted 16 musicians from the 50-strong orchestra to perform short bursts of iconic classical music.

Throw in a stunning and iconic Yorkshire backdrop – Harewood House – a remarkable four-hour window of glorious sunshine in a rainy weather forecast, the talented drone operator and Cause UK associate, Gary Lawson, and the awesome PA photographer, Danny Lawson (no relation), and the results were awesome.

The media call attracted PA film journalists, press photographers, and online news platforms as well as Leeds TV, who broadcast on Freeview 7 | Sky 117.

We also sent footage to the BBC, who supported the story across the broadcast portfolio.

The results were phenomenal, with 138 pieces of meaningful press coverage, not including radio and broadcast, and a lovely full-page feature in the Guardian, with print coverage also in the Times, Telegraph, i newspaper, Herald and bizarrely, Iran Daily!

The PR evaluation tool, Coveragebook, which calculates online reach, put the readership of the media work at a staggering 1.72 billion, with 3.35 million estimated coverage views.

You can view the full report here.

Work continues, with in-depth features on the story of the YSO and its musicians (written by our freelance journalist) to run in the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Living magazine, and Ben and Anthony appearing on BBCR4 Broadcasting House.