So, what is Wigmore Hall's Ignite Ensemble?

Maybe it's easiest to start with what it isn't. It isn't a music therapy group. And it isn't a classical contemporary group. And it isn't just an improvisation group.

We are a group of open-minded musicians from different musical backgrounds who enjoy being taken out of our comfort zone. And Ignite regularly delivers on that! Under the guidance of our leader, Jackie Walduck, we go from performing commissioned one-page improvisation scores on the Wigmore stage, to playing for babies in intensive care, to giving music workshop courses for children with ADHD, children with autism, and the poorest sections of the community.

In performance, generally we work to the one-page score format – where a composer gives us an outline of a piece and we improvise the rest. Through Wigmore Hall, we have commissioned many pieces from cutting edge classical contemporary composers, and recently we have been combining music from different backgrounds. What makes Ignite special is that we have expert musicians from a range of genres, including free improv, Indian, jazz and contemporary classical. Putting all that in the melting pot has a very interesting potential!

Wigmore Hall always encourages us to see how far we can take our collaborative style of working. For me it was a real treat to have shared the Wigmore stage with the sarod guru, Amjad Ali Khan last summer. I have long been into Indian music and playing with Ignite with an artist like Amjad on the Wigmore stage was a phenomenal experience.

Education is a big part of what we do, taking our music into the community. We have just finished a five-week project working with the 'Fire Poet' Philip Wells in Chelsea Community Hospital School and Collingham school. Collingham is a place for children with a high level of need – the place where kids end up after all other special needs schools have given up. It is a remarkable school with truly heroic staff who help the children to find their feet. Music and poetry can be so powerful in helping to give young people a creative outlet, engaging with others in the group, overcoming performance anxiety, and learning to give space to others to take the lead. I see so often that music offers a very real and direct form of communication when all other forms have broken down. This can be so valuable for the children. Philip Wells, the 'Fire Poet', joined us with his contagious energy to inspire the children to be creative through words. Some of the poetry being created was disarmingly personal and powerful. Through the five weeks, we combined the music and the words for a moving Easter performance in the packed chapel of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Sometimes we find ourselves playing on hospital wards. Sometimes jamming with young autistic people. Last summer I found myself in an impromptu jazz string trio, with jazz violinist Julian Ferraretto and violist Neil Valentine, playing a little Australian folk song for babies in an intensive care unit. One unconscious baby was receiving a lot of attention because his heart was racing. Within a few seconds of playing, his heartbeat was returning to normal!

We have a pretty packed year. On July 19, Ignite will be joined by young people from local schools for a community opera at Wigmore Hall. Other events coming up include continued work with Turtle Key Arts, an organisation for disabled and disadvantaged young people (post school age), and in the autumn, Ignite becomes 'Ignition' when 30 kids will join us to make a soundtrack to a film.

We are incredibly lucky to have a management team behind us at Wigmore Hall that really gets what we are doing and supports us hugely.

On the surface, the work of Ignite seems to be a lot about giving, but I have (selfishly!) taken so much from it. Working with people in genuinely difficult circumstances really puts things in perspective and makes my problems seem pretty insignificant. I have learnt about compassion, roundabout ways to finding solutions, the power of music, and being sensitive. These are all things I can take into my life as a cellist and as a human being.

Dates for the Diary:

On June 4, Ignite presents improvisations and cutting edge music by composers from Indian, Western and jazz backgrounds at Wigmore Hall.

Cellist James Barralet will release two volumes of Brahms Chamber Music for SOMM this year, recorded with pianist Simon Callaghan. Volume I is released in May and includes the First Cello Sonata and Hungarian Dances arranged for cello by Barralet. Volume II, released in November, will include the Second Cello Sonata, Songs, Op 91 (again arranged for cello by Barralet) and Piano Trio No 2.

James Barralet's new chamber music festival, the Whittington International Chamber Music Festival, runs from May 1-9, featuring the complete Brahms chamber music works.