For a third year running, in advance of the magnificent Cheltenham Music Festival, I’ve been invited into Gloucestershire schools as part of a major educational outreach project. In most of the schools I’ve been giving art and music workshops, with the children drawing and painting along to music from the BBC 10 Pieces collection, on a CD.
But in one Cheltenham school – Lakeside Primary – the children were in for an extra treat, when I was joined by conductor Robin Browning and Romanian violin virtuoso Anca Campanie. Robin is, of course, the conductor who first “discovered” me and got me painting to music ten years ago, with the de Havilland Philharmonic. But this time he was at the piano, supporting Anca as she played Massenet’s Meditation from his opera Thais, and exquisite extracts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The children sat completely rapt, many never having heard music like this played live in front of their eyes (and ears) before.
Robin and Anca had chosen to join me to discover exactly what goes on in the workshops, as they have big plans: A brand new professional orchestra and music performance collective that will not only present superb quality concerts in major venues, but also extend the range to cover recordings, masterclasses and workshops in schools. Robin is devoted to inspiring the next generation of both musicians and music lovers, and recognises the lack of opportunity in schools and the gap that needs to be filled. The project is called s ó n and I’m thrilled to be part of the team. Watch this space!
Certainly the Year 3 children in Cheltenham were inspired – and I was too, hastily painting images to go with Robin and Anca’s playing.
As for the children, in all the schools, they responded to the workshops with an array of stunning art, created in very short bursts of intense creativity in time to music. Here you can see some interpretations of Grieg’s Peer Gynt (especially the trolls from In the Hall of the Mountain King) and Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain.
The workshops were greeted with superlatives from the staff: “In nine years of teaching, I’ve never seen anything like it!” said one year 3 teacher. And another declared it was the most focussed her class had been all year, while a teaching assistant was moved to tears by the combination of music, story and art in The Firebird.
I am always quick to emphasise that this is the power of music – that’s what makes the difference. It’s not me – it’s Mussorgsky, Grieg and Stravinsky! Lovely to hear whole classes say those names. Wonderful to see the modest show of hands for those who “like” this kind of music at the start of the sessions, grow to the 99% show of hands at the end!
I now return to Cheltenham for a few more days, this time to create MURALS inspired by music! And then I will be cracking on with preparations for the BIG CONCERT in Cheltenham Town Hall on Saturday 11th July: Mussorgsky’s “PICTURES” performed by The Flowers Band – it’ll be magnificent! TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE from the Festival Website HERE.
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