More than 5,000 children and teachers get a chance to take part in the activities on offer, which see members of top orchestras such as Britten Sinfonia and the Academy of Ancient Music come into classrooms throughout the county. Here they perform in small ensembles up close, enthusing and inspiring their young audiences with the highest quality music making there is.
And it’s not just traditional orchestral instruments like violins and trumpets! The Grand Union Orchestra has been running workshops which draw on many different worldwide musical cultures. Amazing instruments like the Brazilian berimbau (a unique one-stringed percussive instrument), Chinese dizi and xiao flutes and the tabla and dholak drums from Bangladesh – many never before seen (or heard) in public in Cambridge – have been enthralling kids at their sessions.
After one workshop day in Whittlesey, Sue Bradshaw, music teacher at Park Lane Primary School, said: “I was sitting at the back of the hall and I could see that the children’s attention was completely held, which is no mean feat for our Year 3s”. Donna Smith, Year 6 TA at the school added: “It is one of those experiences you can’t buy”.
The general public will also get a chance to experience these vibrant world music showcases in a series of drop-in concerts on Saturday, 1 April at Great St Mary’s Church in Cambridge. Anyone can turn up and play their instrument, or one of the percussion instruments supplied – no need to read music.
Elsewhere eminent professionals from seven orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Brook Street Band and Britten Sinfonia, have been giving Cambridge’s school children a taste of the power and excitement of classical performance. They have written material especially for children. One of the most popular workshops has been Goldfield Ensemble’s performance of Kate Romano’s ‘Three Stories About Birds’, an imaginative piece mixing storytelling, live music for strings and percussion and shadow puppetry, to tell tales of heroic pigeons, generous crows and the man who thought birds migrated to the moon…
Lin Hetherington, the co-ordinator of the festival at Cambridgeshire Music, said: “It is fantastic to see how excited pupils get when experiencing live music of such a high calibre in their own school setting. This year we will have encouraged many children to pick up a musical instrument for the first time, or continue playing one.”
Cambridgeshire Music Hub Live 2017 events are running until Saturday, 1 April 2017. The Grand Union drop-in concert is in Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge, on Saturday, 1 April:
- Asian music session at 12pm
- African music session at 2pm
- Latin/Caribbean music session at 4pm.
Can you tell a Chinese dizi from a South Asian tabla? A sitar from India from a Bangladeshi dholak? All of these instruments (and more!) are used by Grand Union Orchestra.
The image above shows: 1) dholak 2) tabla 3) sitar 4) dizi
Cambridgeshire Music Hub Live is organised by Cambridgeshire Music, the Lead Partner for the Music Education Hub in Cambridgeshire. Cambridgeshire Music also provides a range of activities for children and young people in its role as a music service. Based in Huntingdon, with more than 80 staff, it provides instrumental and vocal tuition, classroom curriculum, singing, therapy, ensembles, projects and events relating to music, dance and drama. Each year a number of large-scale projects, such as Sing For Your School, take place involving large numbers of schools and other partners. Cambridgeshire Music is part of the Learning Directorate of Cambridgeshire County Council.
*******
Contact Jude Clarke at Creative Warehouse for press queries: 01223 781570 or 079539 539356, jude@creative-warehouse.co.uk.
______________________________________________________