Saying goodbye to our Associate Music Director Lloyd Coleman

A core member of the Paraorchestra family since its inception in 2011, Lloyd Coleman has been an instrumental part of our growth. 

As of this month, Lloyd will be stepping down from his role as Associate Music Director to focus on his freelance career as a composer, performer, and theatre-maker. Although he will continue to perform with Paraorchestra as a member of our ensemble, it goes without saying that we’ll miss him immeasurably as a colleague.

Here Lloyd shares some of the highlights of his tenure at Paraorchestra and introduces the next evolution of our music team in the form of two new staff members.

After eight amazing years of sonic adventure with Paraorchestra, this September I leave my role as Associate Music Director.

It was a difficult decision to make as I have loved every second of working here, and I will dearly miss the many extraordinary people I have had the pleasure of working with. But having given this job my all for the best part of a decade, now feels like the right time to step back and focus on my solo creative endeavours as a composer and performer.

My journey to Paraorchestra

My relationship with Charles Hazlewood and Paraorchestra goes back to 2011. I was still an undergraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music in London when I heard about Charles’ idea for an ensemble that would highlight the severe lack of professional disabled musicians in our orchestras globally. I was immediately intrigued. Here was a high-calibre conductor with influence and a tremendous drive, prepared to address this complex issue head on. I enthusiastically jumped aboard as a founder member of his new ensemble.

Over the fourteen years since, I have watched in awe as we have grown to an ensemble inclusive of fifty fellow disabled musicians who are living proof that the barrier to entry is not a lack of skill and talent, but a lack of opportunity. 

Highlights and favourite moments

For every highlight of my time here, I could choose ten more. But creating our BBC Proms debut in our beautiful home venue of Bristol Beacon last year was a real career highlight. The Virtuous Circle is the epitome of a truly ambitious Paraorchestra performance: seamlessly interweaving movement, exquisite new music by Oliver Vibrans and Mozart’s 40th Symphony to an appreciative audience in the hall and thousands more listening live on BBC Radio 3. The underlying theme of that show - using the orchestra as the ultimate metaphor for teamwork - hit home for me when I saw how the whole team rose to the pressure of a big milestone occasion. 

I am particularly proud of the two pieces I have written for Paraorchestra. kraftwerk re:werk (in partnership with fellow composer Charlotte Harding) which nearly blew the roof off the tent when we shared it with a particularly enthusiastic crowd at WOMAD Festival in 2018 and Latent Bloom performed alongside Hannah Peel’s beautiful work The Unfolding at the Barbican Centre on 21 May 2022 - a date which happened to be my 30th birthday. What better way to spend an occasion like that than playing your own composition with your compadres?!

I am also fiercely proud of my role developing Modulate - our pioneering Artist Development programme. In just our first two years, Modulate has already done so much to level the playing field for musicians who identify as disabled, equipping them with skills, knowledge and opportunities to widen their practice as artists. 

Learning, growing and evolving

I have grown up with Paraorchestra, and learnt a great deal along the way. My time with this extraordinary organisation has offered an unparalleled education in inclusive music-making that will forever influence my career. 

I’m convinced more than ever that bringing audiences closer to the live experience of making music is a hugely powerful way of attracting and retaining new audiences. I’m proud of how our immersive shows - The Nature of Why, The Anatomy of the Orchestra and The Virtuous Circle - have given thousands of audience members this truly unique experience, spellbinding them with the phenomenal talent and artistry of our musicians close up. 

I also passionately believe an orchestra is stronger when different voices and instruments are included. Almost every line-up of ours draws on instruments outside the traditional makeup of an orchestra. We have developed a model where disabled musicians can draw on the strengths of their disabilities. Far from being something to hide away, many of our musicians feel like they can be their true authentic selves when they work in our rehearsal rooms and on our stages. This place of trust and support results in equitable and collaborative music-making, and a depth to our music that will blow your socks off! That’s one powerful education that I’m confident I wouldn’t have received in a more traditional orchestra.

At the centre of this is Charles Hazlewood; extraordinarily generous in his wisdom and advice, as well as a loyal friend and sounding board. You could say I’ve taken part in a decade-long artist development programme with Charles as my mentor! 

I’ve learnt so much about making good art from Charles, and the real meaning of perseverance. When some of his ideas have seemed bordering on madness; parading a forty-piece wind band through the residential streets of Knowle West, or creating a huge 30-hour continuous music performance with 400 performers from the moors to the city centre of Bradford - I’ve seen his extraordinary ability to stay true to the essential parts of his vision, while galvanising an army of artists and production staff into making it happen. More than anything, he’s taught me how the best leaders must listen more than they speak. A simple but important lesson.  

Under Charles’ creative vision, the steadfast leadership of our CEO Jonathan Harper, and the tenacity and talent of the wider team, Paraorchestra will no doubt continue to evolve and make big waves for decades to come. And I will be excited to witness it from my new vantage point as a freelance musician in the ensemble. 

The future of our music team

As I move on, the organisation has taken this opportunity to recalibrate and further strengthen our music team. Siobhan Clough, who has worked with me for the past two years as Assistant Music Director, will now move into an expanded role and will work alongside new recruits Rylan Gleave as Assistant Music Director and Tilly Chester as Music Co-ordinator. 

Rylan and Tilly follow the path set by Siobhan and I: disabled, D/deaf or neurodivergent musicians who were recruited from within the ensemble to the core Paraorchestra team. I know this talented trio will lend their creativity, expertise and lived experience to ensure the quality of our work remains as high as the bar that has been set.

If they have even half as much fun as I have, they are in for an awesome ride. 

Thank you Paraorchestra - it really has been an honour.