BBC Symphony Orchestra - learnings from the Learning
Lauren Creed
Learning Co-ordinator, BBCSO
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BBC Symphony Orchestra learning co-ordinator Lauren Creed explains the background to tomorrow’s Schools Concert at St Paul’s Church, Hammersmith
Our overall learning programme mixes public-facing events such as BBC SO Plus Family, which includes pre-concert workshops and reduced-priced tickets aimed at introducing families to classical music; then there are more participatory events such as ‘Come and Play’, where amateur players can come and perform repertoire pieces with members of the orchestra, and creative projects based around BBC SO Total Immersion days.
Somewhere in between lie projects such as tomorrow’s Schools Concert. At conductor Timothy Redmond’s suggestion the concert is based around the theme of ‘Flight’, and the pupils, teachers and parents who will be attending will have the opportunity to listen to John Williams’s ‘Flying Theme’ from the film ET, Jonathan Dove’s 'Airport Scenes' from his opera Flight, and extracts from Sibelius’ 5th Symphony.
You can watch part of the Schools Concert rehearsal at Maida Vale studios:
Timothy Redmond rehearses the BBC SO in ET's Flying Theme from John Williams's film score
But at the heart of the concert is a piece developed and written over many months by the school pupils themselves. It’s a partnership project involving Drake Music (an organisation which specialises in breaking down disabling barriers to music through innovative approaches to learning, teaching and making music) the Royal College of Music, and the Tri-Borough Music Hub, which includes Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Westminster. Three mainstream primary and three special schools from the Tri-Borough have been working with musicians from the orchestra, the RCM and Drake Music to create their own piece – also called Flight – over the past academic year.
Tomorrow’s performance will feature the full forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted and presented by Timothy Redmond, and signed by Angie Newman, and including live filming and visuals. We’re expecting about 300 people, and around 80 pupils and teachers will join the players to perform Flight using assistive music technology and traditional instruments.
Of course, it’s not just about the performance, though we think that will be an enormously positive experience in itself. The event, and the process leading up to it, will be independently evaluated and the learnings from the learning, so to speak, will help us mould future events in the three-year trajectory planned for these partnerships.
