Southern Sinfonia has run a series of workshops in both secondary and junior schools to stimulate and encourage an interest in music compostion and performance in young people.
Secondary Schools: Composition Workshops
GCSE/AS/A2 pupils from Park House, St. Bartholomew's and Trinity House schools in Newbury have worked alongside professional musicians to develop composition ideas and their playing skills. Under the guidance of a published composer (Martin Riley, lecturer in composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire) the students achieved a greater diversity in their writing.
The final compositions from the workshops were performed at the Newbury Corn Exchange as a 'pre-concert foyer performance' at the Mayor's Gala Concert in March 2005 and at evening concerts held in the participating schools at the end of the summer term.
The workshops began in January and continued through to the final performance/presentation concerts. A similar schedule is under way in the current season with a new group of schools.
Junior Schools: Educational Workshops
Two visits by four professional musicians and a composer to each of the eight participating junior schools helped teaching staff and young musicians to develop their musical techniques, particularly their performance skills.
Each school received a pack containing guidance and information for teachers, and the programme included teacher training and school based rehearsal.
To link in with Southern Sinfonia's performance of Saint Saëns' Carnival of The Animals, each school was given the task of composing two pieces of music to represent two animals. One of these pieces was representative of an animal from Carnival of The Animals, and the other piece represented a completely different, contrasting animal. Under the guidance of our composer, two percussionists and the education director, the children composed their pieces in the style of different parts of the world, to fit in with the different habitats of their chosen animal. Concurrent workshops and cross-curricular activities for sculpture and painting explored the same theme.
The project finished with the pupils in each school performing their works at the Corn Exchange, Newbury, for the other schools involved, as well as for invited guests and parents. An exhibition of the children's sculpture and painting supported this enjoyable celebration of their achievement.
A new Education Outreach project is currently taking place, involving ten local schools, thanks to the very generous, on-going financial support of the Greenham Common Trust. This project for 2005/6, covers regular support for a variety of classroom music initiatives, and composition/performance workshop programmes on film, music and the samba.
