The Concert Hall Social Box: When music continues to open doors

Some initiatives begin as a one-off action and end up becoming a way of understanding culture. The Franz Schubert Filharmonia’s Social Box is already part of this approach: the desire to share music with people and groups who often live far from the usual cultural circuits, but who find in the concert experience a space for connection, emotion and recognition.

During the 2025-26 season at the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Social Box has continued to grow thanks to a collaboration with Teaming, the charitable platform that connects people with social projects through collective micro-donations. Over the course of nine concerts, a total of 68 people have shared this privileged area of the auditorium, joining the 54 who had already taken part in the previous season. In just two seasons, more than one hundred people have been able to experience symphonic music from a concert hall box that aims to be, above all, an open door.

This season, we have been joined by a wide variety of organisations and groups: vulnerable children in care supported by the Fundació Comtal; LGBTIQ+ migrants and refugees supported by ACATHI; participants in Riborquestra and its social integration project through music; women with triple-negative breast cancer; single-parent families; young people at risk of social exclusion who are supported by the Fundació Exit; people involved in multiple sclerosis research through the GAEM Foundation, medical professionals from Médicos Sin Fronteras who have recently worked in Gaza, and women taken in by Mar de Mariposas after suffering abuse.

Each concert has been different. But one idea has run through them all: music creates spaces where differences fade away and where, for a few hours, all that matters is what we share. A moment of silence before the orchestra begins. A look of emotion. A conversation as the evening draws to a close. Small moments that often have a much deeper impact than they seem.

For this reason, rather than a one-off social initiative, the Franz Schubert Filharmonia’s Social Box has become a way of continuing to understand the role of culture in society: as an accessible, human and shared space. And on this journey, Teaming’s partnership is essential. Not only because of its support, but also because of its sensitivity in bringing together and connecting a wide variety of organisations and communities with live music.

The season may be coming to an end, but the Social Box continues to grow. Because some experiences don’t end with the final note: they continue to resonate with the people who have shared them.

To find out about the projects supported by Teaming: www.teaming.net