What Is our Side-by-Side scheme?

The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Side-by-Side programme gives emerging orchestral musicians the opportunity to gain professional experience performing in three concerts throughout the season.

Last week, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra hosted the phenomenal Daniel Harding, who brought his internationally-renowned conducting prowess to his hometown. To kick off this concert, the Orchestra performed Rossini’s William Tell Overture, alongside emerging orchestral musicians through our Side-by-Side scheme.

Side-by-Side is part of our wider Academy Programme, which offers multiple avenues through which the next generation of talent can find its feet. For those on the cusp of a professional career, though still enrolled in higher education, the three Side-by-Side concerts a year offer the opportunity to learn from the OPO’s world-class players and get essential concert experience.

Over the 2025/26 season, in addition to Rossini, students performed Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and Dvořák’s Carnival Overture. Each was specially selected from the season’s concert repertoire to balance challenge, comfortability and excitement for our Side-by-Side participants.

So how does the Side-by-Side scheme work? We choose our participants through a blind audition process, listening to both a solo performance of the hopeful’s choosing and a requested excerpt. This allows for the focus to be singularly on the applicant’s performance talent.

Nineteen places are available, with options for woodwind, brass, percussion and strings.

Since the founding of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998, it has been part of our mission to share the joy of music with young people and help foster new talent. This core value feeds into everything we do.

Our Academy Programme is wide-ranging for this reason, offering opportunities from primary school to post-graduate. It includes everything from children’s first orchestral experience with FUNomusica concerts to nurturing burgeoning professionals with the Student Fellowship Programme.

To learn more about Side-by-Side, and our other Academy Programme initiatives, please click here.

All photographs in this article were taken by Nicholas Posner.

Watch this space for more Oxford Philharmonic Community & Outreach programme updates!