From Shadow Puppets to Symphonies: A Joyful Spring of Creative Engagement
As we come to the end of an action-packed Spring term full of interactive family workshops, listening to music from across the world, and inviting new communities through our doors, the Creative Engagement team would like to share some of our highlights from the last few months.
Welcoming a wide range of people and sharing our passion for music is at the heart of what we do, and we’ve seen many wonderful events in our venues this term! Our family workshops with Stoller Story Sounds and Mini Music Adventures have been a blast, with new music, playful stories, and interactive fun. March’s Mini Music Adventures transported 128 young adventurers on a musical journey all the way to China – complete with a shadow-puppet performance! Audiences were captivated by storyteller Faz Shah narrating Naya and the Pearl of Life, a tale inspired by Chinese dragon mythology, complete with original live music by Chetham’s alumna Zi Lan Liao and Chetham’s students. The adventure continued with a special shadow-puppet show from our junior students animating the Chinese folktale of Journey to the West, created in collaboration with our partners at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. We had lots of hands-on fun, with our audience getting to make and use their very own shadow puppets!
This term we have been working hard to welcome new communities through our doors, offering behind-the-scenes tours of Chetham’s for the first time. We took part in the National Lottery Open Week in March, allowing National Lottery Players the free opportunity to explore the School, Library and Stoller Hall, listen to live music, and learn more about our unique arts organisation. In April we also met a fantastic group of students from Burnage Academy and enjoyed a full day of interesting workshops. Led by our professional Marketing, Tech and Creative Engagement staff, the students learned first-hand about different roles within an arts organisation, saw what goes on behind-the-scenes in our venues, listened to live music from our students and got creative! If you would like to take your students for a tour of Chetham’s please get in touch.
Our wonderful Make Some Noise project continued over the February and Easter breaks. We took part in lots of creative music-making with 52 young people from Salford supported by Manchester-based children’s charity Wood Street Mission. Over two exciting fun-filled days, they explored new instruments, wrote their own songs, experimented with Logic in our music tech suite, and formed their own choir for the day. The Make Some Noise choir performed brilliantly for internal staff and parents with an abundance of young members wanting to showcase their talent through solo opportunities.
We’ve continued to present concerts for audiences who may be new to classical music, our venues, or perhaps struggle with typical concert formats. Our Relaxed Lunchtime Concert series welcomed 170 audience members across three events into our friendly Atrium setting. These concerts also encourage our students to learn new skills, such as how relaxed concerts can help create a friendly atmosphere for listeners, and the importance of social interaction with audiences.
This term our KS2 online workshops allowed us to work virtually with 964 external pupils. Led by music teacher Sarah Atter and supported by Chetham’s students, we invited classrooms of children to come together and get involved in music-making and listening. They explored voice and song, percussion, strings, brass and woodwind, with a special opportunity to see and hear traditional Chinese instruments!
As well as inviting audiences into our own venues, we love taking our passion for music out into the world! With the support of the ABO Trust’s Sirens Fund, we worked with 60 Year 5 pupils over 6 weeks at Essa Primary Academy in Bolton. The Sirens Project raised awareness of music by female orchestral composers, and helped children develop creative writing, composition and performance skills. After listening to and learning about The Land by Elizabeth Maconchy, the Essa students created new music inspired by the women in their life, which they performed beautifully for Years 3, 4 and 6, plus staff and parents. We rounded off the Sirens Project with an inspiring performance from Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, led by our Artistic Director Tom Redmond. The orchestra captured the attention of 550 Essa Primary and Secondary Academy students including the Year 5 group, bringing everyone together to celebrate the work of female composers.
After a dynamic Spring term, we are flying into the Summer with plenty more opportunities for fun and connection through music! Here’s what to look forward to:
Relaxed Lunchtime Concert – 11 June
Mini Music Adventures – in Scotland! – 28 June
Stoller Story Sounds at Windermere Jetty Museum – 3 August
Stoller Story Sounds at Grizedale Visitor Centre – 5 August
We also can’t wait for the return of Make Some Noise across the May half-term and the Summer Holidays, where we’ll get stuck in with percussion and drumming. And as a Creative Engagement first, we are incredibly excited to be taking our family workshop Stoller Story Sounds up to the Lake District to run as part of the Lake District Music’s Summer Festival programme!
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our Spring events, and we can’t wait to see you again this Summer.
From Creative Engagement at Chetham’s School of Music and Stoller Hall.
As a charity, making music fun, affordable, and accessible to the people of Manchester and beyond is at the heart of what we do. However, keeping our projects affordable comes at a cost. Therefore, if you feel able to, we would be very grateful for any donations, no matter how small, which can support our mission to share music with everyone. Find out more here.
To find out more about Creative Engagement email us at joinin@chetham’s.com or visit chethamsschoolofmusic.com/join-in
