Anatomy of the Orchestra

The orchestra is a thing of wonder. It is also, invariably, a thing of mystery: a huge number of musicans playing in perfect time. How does this happen? The Anatomy of the Orchestra is part concert, part installation, providing a thrilling opportunity for the audience to climb inside this perfect team, to immerse themselves in its mechanisms and to explore its process. In its first outing, The Anatomy of the Orchestra turned Colston Hall’s foyer inside out, as a total of fifty-one musicians – directed by Charles Hazlewood and drawn from Army of Generals and The British Paraorchestra – played across four levels of the atrium and performed The Four Sections, a rare work for symphony orchestra by the highly influential American composer Steve Reich.