The skirt last saw the stage under the twinkling lights of the Théâtre du Châtelet, alongside ballet star Vaslav Nijinsky, and made up part of a costume for a temple servant in Le Dieu Bleu. It returns to the spotlight in the Odyssey Festival Orchestra’s forthcoming Astonish Me! concert at the Cadogan Hall, which combines orchestra, narration and costume to celebrate the music commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballet Russes, evoking a flavour of the early 20th century’s multidimensional artistic bravado.

It is the last of September’s searing heatwave, and we are in Peckham Rye’s cafe, looking out onto the arid stretch of grass, sipping iced coffee and fresh lemonade appreciatively. The Odyssey Festival Orchestra (OFO) has been rehearsing for a couple of weeks now for its forthcoming Astonish Me! concert, and I am here to get to know its leader, Leon Human, who is entering his final undergraduate year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.