UCL cultural mission is music to the ears

University College London researchers in fields as diverse as literary tragedy and quantum mechanics have acquired a shared resource - a resident orchestra.

The college has signed up the New London Orchestra in an open-ended collaboration that will give the orchestra a venue to perform its concerts and the university a cultural boost. The orchestra will play a series of concerts at UCL's Bloomsbury Theatre - its inaugural concert as orchestra-in-residence earlier last December was underwritten by UCL.

It will work on research collaborations such as looking at the role of music in tragedy and illustrating the effects of quantum theory in standing waves. It will also help UCL's schools outreach programme.

UCL vice-provost Michael Worton said the orchestra would "not be a cultural 'bolt-on' for UCL, but will become an integral part of its educational mission".

The NLO, founded in 1988 by Ronald Corp, aims to make concert-going more accessible.

The orchestra approached UCL with the idea of research collaboration.

UCL has a writer-in-residence at the department of science and technology and artists-in-residence at its Slade Art School.