Primary school pupils to perform in BBC Proms Ten Pieces concerts
The BBC Proms have today announced that pupils from four primary schools have been invited to take part in two Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrating the first year of BBC Music’s classical music initiative Ten Pieces.
Published: 17 June 2015
The two concerts will take place over the opening weekend of the 2015 BBC Proms (Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 July) and will showcase the original 10 pieces of music performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Thomas Søndergård, who also starred in the Ten Pieces film.
A wide range of children’s creative responses to the music - through compositions, dance, digital art and animation - will be shown on big screens in the hall. Pupils from the four primary schools will have the chance to showcase their responses live on the world-famous Royal Albert Hall Stage.
In addition to the showcase of primary schools’ submissions, Anna Meredith’s Connect It will be performed by students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance; and Handel’s Zadok the Priest will be sung by the Ten Pieces Children’s Choir, formed of primary school children from Harrow Music Education Hub, Wandsworth Music Education Hub and Hampshire Music Service.
The two Proms will feature Barney Harwood, Dick and Dom, Molly Rainford and Dan Starkey.
The four schools performing in the concerts will be:
Chase Bridge Primary, Twickenham, London
A group composition called ‘Volcano’, inspired by Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King
View a clip of the pupils’ original performance here
St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, Suffolk
A contemporary dance response titled ‘Storm’ in response to the music of Britten’s ‘Storm’ Interlude from ‘Peter Grimes’
View a clip of the pupils’ original performance here
St Mary’s Primary School, Maguiresbridge, Co. Fermanagh
A composition for three violins titled ‘Equinox’, in response to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
Listen to a clip of the pupils’ original performance here
Withycombe Raleigh Church of England Primary School, Exmouth, Devon
A movement-based response called ‘6 out of 10’ by Withycombe Stomp, responding to six out of the ten pieces of music – In the Hall of the Mountain King, Zadok the Priest, The Firebird, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Connect It and Mars from ‘The Planets’.
View a clip of the pupils’ original performance here
Chase Bridge and St Mary’s pupils created their own musical compositions in response to the project, and these compositions will be orchestrated for the Proms performances by Gareth Glyn, to be performed by the pupils alongside BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Children at Withycombe Raleigh and St Joseph’s created movement-based responses and are currently rehearsing with choreographer Denni Sayers.
More than 1,400 creative responses to the ten pieces of music have been uploaded to the BBC’s Ten Pieces website, and alongside the live performances on stage, a broad selection of these responses from across the UK will be showcased on the big screens during the concerts. The creative responses can be seen in the online Ten Pieces Showcase.
Ten Pieces Primary has already engaged around half of UK Primary Schools (over 10,000 primary schools). Commissioned and produced by BBC Learning and delivered in conjunction with the BBC Performing Groups, the initiative aims to inspire a generation of children to get creative with classical music by using a selection of 10 pieces of music as a spring-board for creativity, as well as a range of online resources, UK-wide events and close collaboration with music and arts organisations.
The concert on Saturday will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, presented by Clemency Burton-Hill and the concert on Sunday will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 2, in a special Friday Night is Music Night on Friday 28 August, presented by Suzy Klein. Saturday’s performance will also be filmed for future broadcast on CBBC.
The BBC has now announced that the project will be extended to secondary schools, with a new selection of music for students and teachers to explore.
The 10 pieces for primary schools are:
- John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1st movement)
- Britten: 'Storm' Interlude from 'Peter Grimes'
- Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King from 'Peer Gynt'
- Handel: Zadok the Priest
- Holst: Mars from 'The Planets'
- Anna Meredith: Connect It
- Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4 (3rd movement)
- Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain
- Stravinsky: The Firebird – suite (1911) (Finale)
To view a video about Ten Pieces Primary click here
DH
