Join the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Virtual Orchestra
Are you curious about how technology is changing the way we learn? Virtual Orchestra: Play Along invites you to take your place on stage among some of the best players in the world. The experience takes you from complete beginner to performing alongside the orchestra in less than 30 minutes.
Grab a VR headset and choose your instrument. Through a series of interactive challenges and tutorials led by Philharmonia musicians, you’ll learn to read your part in the score, rehearse, and then “join the orchestra” in a live concert on the Royal Festival Hall stage for the exhilarating finale of Rossini’s William Tell Overture.
Back by popular demand following its Southbank Centre launch earlier this year, this is your chance to experience orchestral music from inside the action and find out whether you can keep up with the orchestra.
Building on over 15 years of innovation in digital experiences, and supported by Innovate UK, the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Virtual Orchestra: Play Along puts participants at the heart of the orchestra as they perform Rossini’s exhilarating overture.
Designed with children and young people at its core, the experience allows users to pick up a virtual instrument, learn through guided tutorials, and perform as part of the orchestra. Participants can choose percussion instruments including cymbals, timpani and triangle, building skills before joining a full orchestral performance in a packed concert hall setting.
The project marks the next stage in the Philharmonia’s long-standing work in digital innovation, aiming to break down barriers between audiences and performers and open up new ways of engaging with classical music.
Filmed at the Royal Festival Hall in April 2025 and conducted by Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the experience introduces audiences to the orchestra through player-led tutorials before placing them at the centre of a live performance. Wearing VR headsets, participants begin in a virtual rehearsal studio, learning core musical skills, before stepping onto the stage of a packed concert hall to join the percussion section.
Guidance and encouragement come from British musician and producer Love Ssega (former co-founder of Clean Bandit and Philharmonia Artist in Residence 2022/23), who leads users through the experience and reveals their final score at the end of the piece.
Participants can choose from cymbals, timpani or triangle, developing their skills while learning how each instrument contributes to the orchestra. Coaching is provided by Philharmonia percussionist Tom Edwards.
The live performance in the experience was filmed using an array of the acclaimed Meta Camera series of 3D 360 cameras, for ultra-high 12.5k resolution and cinematic quality. Live audio was recorded and mixed using object-based spatial audio techniques and converted to higher-order Ambisonics, to render the full acoustic depth and geometry of the performance space. Every instrument occupies its true position in three-dimensional space, captured at the highest spatial resolution currently possible.
Marta Génova, the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Head of Digital Product and Experience, says, “For over a decade, the Philharmonia Orchestra has pioneered immersive musical experiences, and Virtual Orchestra: Play Along takes that work into a new phase where we ask audiences to participate rather than observe. For the first time in our VR work, users can take up a virtual instrument, develop skills through guided practice, and perform with the orchestra onstage, among the musicians, in concert. Through R&D collaboration with percussionist Tom Edwards, Meta Camera and Schallgeber, we have developed new ways to connect artists and audiences, reducing barriers to engagement and making cultural spaces more welcoming to participants.”
No previous musical or VR experience is required.
Free. No ticket required.
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
12th & 13th September
Details: https://philharmonia.co.uk/whats-on/virtual-orchestra-play-along/
