This morning (7th February 2020), Emma and Pete from Drake Music Scotland (and a brief “hi!” from Emma and Erin of iPad Quartet), Elin and Einar from Skug, and Petri from Resonaari got together for a Skype call to make plans for Helsinki 2020. Universal Orchestra will come together for two public performances in Helsinki. This is as part of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) Pre Conference Seminar on Special Music Education and Music Therapy, and the main conference which follows.

We made some plans for hotels and travel, and discussed some details for both of the events. We’re all very excited to get the group back together. We’ve all agreed to work on some new material for our rehearsals in Helsinki.
We’ve been in the press again!
Recently Thursa Sanderson, Chief Executive of Scottish Charity of the Year 2019, Drake Music Scotland was interviewed about what the organisation has been up to since winning the award. This article mentions Universal Orchestra prominently, and it is one of the biggest events for the organisation this year!
We feel like we have a Universal Orchestra now, and the fact that we can take musicians to these amazing places despite the complexities around traveling with a larger group of people with disabilities, is amazing. It really expands our musicians’ horizons. Many haven’t been abroad before, and they get to hear people speaking different languages and experience new things.
Thursa Sanderson, Drake Music Scotland


