Since 1993, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has been running an extensive community and education programme in support of its concerts in the UK and abroad. The programme is intended to bring music to as wide a cross-section of the community as possible, in its attempt to develop the role of the symphony orchestra beyond the concert hall.

With this in mind, the projects are extremely diverse, ranging from workshops with young homeless people in drop-in centres to projects with pre-school children and their parents; from projects with conservatoire students and young people in rock bands to interactive family concerts with full orchestra. The programme also takes workshops and performances into schools from special schools to primary and secondary schools.

Recent projects have taken the RPO Education programme to Kazakhstan with the British Council where local musicians were introduced to interactive ways with working with workshop participants. Following a large Youth Music grant, education work has also been extended to accompany the orchestra's residency in Northampton where work with local rock and pop musicians, drama and music production students and young orchestral musicians has taken place, as well as enabling existing education work in London and Nottingham to be developed.