Opera, Tours and Orcadian Tales: A Summer of Creative Engagement
The Creative Engagement Team at Stoller Hall has found a moment to pause and reflect after a busy summer term concluding a successful 2024–25 season. Here’s everything we got up to!
Fun for all the family
Our family programme provided more opportunities to welcome visitors into our world-class concert venue. We were off on our travels with Stoller Story Sounds in May, taking 74 children on a musical trip around the globe in search of Helena the Horse’s perfect holiday. Our team then had an adventure of their own, taking Leo the Lion and a brand-new character to Lake District Music’s Summer Festival. We loved introducing Stoller Story Sounds to new audiences beyond Manchester, and we can’t wait to introduce our new character to our Stoller Hall families this September! Look out on our social media for any clues as to who this mysterious new character might be…
We went on our final journey of the season with Mini Music Adventures in June, following Assipattle on his quest to defeat the Stoor Worm, a Scottish folklore monster. Venturing across the Orkney Isles, our mini explorers listened to new music inspired by traditional Scottish melodies composed by Scottish singer and Clarsach player Anna McLuckie. Guided by storyteller Faz Shah, our adventurers helped Anna and students from Chetham’s School of Music piece together a final song to defeat the terrifying sea monster! Join us in November for our next adventure exploring Kenya and its traditional Luo folklore, accompanied by musician Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno.
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An introduction to opera
In July, Creative Engagement were thrilled to facilitate two local primary schools experiencing opera for the first time. Chetham’s School of Music presented its first fully staged opera, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, which was performed entirely in French by Chetham’s students! We worked closely with the opera’s creative team to curate and deliver an exciting workshop day including a special viewing of the dress rehearsal. The children also got the rare experience to learn all about the production and creation of the opera by speaking directly to the director, set designer and conductor.
While the production was completely in French, our workshops exploring the characters and the story and wrap-around Q&A enriched the children’s viewing experience, allowing them to focus on the finer details of the production such as the costumes, the staging and the choreography. One young audience member said:
“I know a tiny bit of French, only how to say my name and say where I study or where I live. But I thought it was quite nice because it made it more meaningful and you noticed more details because you weren’t focusing on the words. It was more like the sound and what was going on around it, the dancing and the acting.”
Lara Booth teaching schoolchildren about designing sets for opera
The unique opportunity of seeing a French opera brought to life on stage made a lasting impression on the schoolchildren who came to view it. One teacher said:
“It’s something that children wouldn’t normally be exposed to at all. In fact, you can probably tell from some of the questions they were asking none of them have ever been to an opera! So, to come in and to be exposed to the choreography, the singing, the musicianship and everything, has been just amazing for them.”
Events for our whole community
Over the May half-term and summer holiday, we continued our Make Some Noise programme in partnership with Manchester-based children’s charity Wood Street Mission. We welcomed a further 60 young people from Salford and enjoyed three fun-filled days of music-making, learning, and creating. We celebrated the end of the workshops with every participant performing the music they had created together in a final showcase. And as a Make Some Noise first, every participant received a brand-new Make Some Noise t-shirt, featuring a fantastic logo designed by a talented young participant on the programme!
Make Some Noise participants making music in their new t-shirts
Opening the doors to our exciting organisation and welcoming new audiences for the first time has remained a priority, and we loved hosting a public tour in May for members of our community. The day was packed with behind-the-scenes access to our concert halls, school building and Chetham’s Library, in addition to enjoying music from Chetham’s students at a Lunchtime Concert. We even lent a hand to our technical team learning how the magic of Stoller Hall’s extendable stage happens!
Encouraging young people to share their talents with a range of audiences is a huge part of what we do. Across the 2024–25 season, Creative Engagement have supported 151 Chetham’s students across our family programme, community tours, schools projects, and concerts. Our popular Relaxed Lunchtime Concerts alone have encouraged 74 young musicians to learn new skills and share their passion for music with 367 audience members in a friendly and accessible way.
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our 2024–25 events! It’s been our biggest and best year yet, and we are hard at work preparing more exciting opportunities for music making, listening and exploring in preparation for the upcoming 2025–26 season.
Looking ahead
Here’s what you can look forward to this autumn:
- Relaxed Lunchtime Concerts on 1 October, 5 November and 3 December
- Stoller Story Sounds on 27 September and 25 October
- Mini Music Adventures on 29 November
Keep an eye out for these new upcoming opportunities across the new 2025–26 season! Our schools programme is more action-packed than ever, and we can’t wait to bring back our wonderful KS2 online workshops, delivering learning, listening and music-making to your classrooms virtually. New for the 2025–26 academic year, we are now offering school tours of the historic Chetham’s Library, in addition to our music tour packages. To find out more about bringing your school for a visit, please contact joinin@chethams.com
This is just a teaser of everything we have planned! Keep your eyes peeled for many more opportunities to come, and we look forward to welcoming you back, or meeting you for the first time, this autumn.
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
