At the beginning of the academic year, the globally renowned Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment announced that, as an institution, it would be moving from the King's Place concert hall in central London to Acland Burghley School, a mixed comprehensive in Camden's Tufnell Park. The assembly hall will be used for rehearsals, buildings will be converted for administration space, and the partnership will also include a recording studio and the orchestra's music library.
At the same time as the orchestra had been publicly looking for a new home, the school's director of operations had been working on ways to expand the school's revenue from its resources and realised that the hall might be somewhere the orchestra could rehearse. ‘It felt like a thunderbolt,’ says Crispin Woodhead, the orchestra's chief executive. ‘[It] meant we wanted to find a way for this place to be our home, and embark on this new adventure to challenge and transform the way we engage with young adults.’
It will be a radical change for the orchestra and will surely transform the musical life of the school. And while there are not quite enough period-instrument orchestras for every secondary student to have one, the new relationship indicates that there are opportunities on both sides, and that in cash-strapped times, the only way to get things done is to work together.
Think big
In another example of this kind of partnership working, West London's Tri-Borough Music Hub recently worked with the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall, with funding from the John Lyon's Charity, to commission a large-scale new work from composer Charlotte Harding. The charity gives grants to benefit children and young people up to the age of 25 who live in nine boroughs in North and West London, demonstrating the importance of local networks in making highly impactful work happen.
When Convo was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2019, nearly 1,000 young singers and instrumentalists performed. In total, more than 60 schools were involved, with the composer taking part in workshops in some of these schools to gather pupils’ ideas, before creating a piece that combined acoustic and electronic music, solos and massed-ensemble playing.
Stuart Whatmore, head of the Tri-Borough Music Hub, said of the project, ‘It was only possible due to the incredible hard work and support of many different organisations and people. This is a project that is based on embedded partnerships with clarity of communication and purpose. It is vital that local authorities partner with organisations such as the Royal Albert Hall and Royal College of Music to enhance children's music education.’
And as Samuel West, chair of the National Campaign for the Arts, said after the event: ‘To be part of something beautiful that is bigger than yourself, to take the cheers and the applause, to look around at each other with a wild surmise and say “How the hell did we do that?”, is a transformative experience that should be open to us all.’
The Modulo Programme
Orchestras for All (OFA)'s Modulo Programme, free of charge for 2020–21, provides support for state secondary teachers to form a small, flexible performing group – a ‘Modulo’. It is aimed at 11– to 18–year–olds, using specially arranged pieces that can be performed by any combination of instruments and any skill level.
Modulos can join a national network of similar ensembles, attending regional and national Modulo meet-ups, either in-person or online depending on Covid-19 restrictions, and receive in-school support from artistic partners, including the BBC Philharmonic, City of London Sinfonia and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Travel bursaries for live events are also available as part of the programme membership.
This year's Modulo repertoire focuses on the theme of ‘The Way We See It’, inviting exploration of ‘the evolving identity of the orchestra’. Modulos will be invited to work together to co-create a brand new composition expressing their interpretation of the orchestra, alongside performing Spoitoresa, a Balkan gypsy dance, and the Rondo from the Abdelazar Suite by Purcell (the theme for Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra).
Modulo leaders can also develop their own ensemble leadership skills through OFA's professional development programme, Music Leadership Training, with ten online modules available at £25 each. The first, ‘Preparing to Lead an Ensemble’, is free. To find out more, head to www.orchestrasforall.org/modulo-programme.
Minute of Listening
Projects do not have to be high-profile, high-effort, extraordinary masterpieces – they can also be embedded into the day-to-day. Aimed at primary schools, Minute of Listening introduces ‘a culture of curious, engaged and reflective listening’ through regular one-minute whole-class active listening. The database is searchable by collection, curriculum area and mood to support topic work or a class focus, and there are accompanying resources to encourage children to discuss what they heard, thought and felt.
It is supported by new music organisation Sound and Music, and so rather than being specific to genre it presents a huge range of music and sounds, ‘from Björk to Beethoven; folk music to field recordings’. An open call recently went out asking for content from Black composers, and an Indian music collection is set for release in January, so the minutes to listen to are growing all the time.
More options
Also aimed at regular engagement is ABRSM's Classical 100, a free resource for primary schools featuring 100 pieces of carefully selected classical music, with each piece featuring its own musical challenge. There is also Friday Afternoons, which features more than 70 songs and resources, including works by contemporary composers Nico Muhly and Errollyn Wallen.
Finally, linking your school to the music industry doesn't necessarily mean in-school or music centre activity. It can be just as much about understanding how to advise young people on how to develop their skills or flesh out their ambitions. For example, Youth Music's Opportunities Board always has a range of opportunities relevant to young people, their development and potential careers. The more connected your school is to the music industry, the better connected your students will be.
A Modulo orchestra project in action (Image: Orchestras For All)
Making it happen
Partnership working is crucial – the first port of call should be your local hub or music service, but you can also speak to local youth services, and any local arts organisations, large or small.
Publicly funded performing arts groups will have an obligation, more or less formal, to improve access to their work and diversify their audiences, and they will be thrilled to hear from schools wanting to engage with the arts.
Building a project may seem daunting, and it is true that a lot of planning usually needs to have taken place before charities, foundations or funding bodies will be prepared to open their chequebooks, but partnership works both ways, and getting in touch with people, building networks and having conversations is likely to put you in touch with experienced professionals who can help you.
Think strategically about need, fairness, and your local landscape – if you are an independent school, for example, how might you establish a meaningful partnership with a neighbouring state school that would mean you could both leverage funding or the support of a high-quality arts organisation? And if you feel like you need support with the eligibility process for a funding organisation, send them an email with your questions – they will be happy to get back to you.
Meet the composer
Sarah Watts is a composer whose work often appears in exam syllabuses and books including the Razzamajazz series, the Red Hot Recorder tutor books for the classroom, the Class Act books for whole-class tuition, and several musicals and choral works. She has received a number of commissions including a work premiered at the Music for Youth Schools Proms, and has written for ABRSM Music Medals.
AS: How often are you able to see your work being taught, learned and played, and how useful is that?
SW: It is nice to get feedback – you don't always, so it's a bit like sending a child off to university and wanting to know how they're doing! I have been lucky to get a lot of feedback from teachers when I've done courses, workshops and INSET days, and then teachers can tell me what they find useful and what isn't out there that would be useful. I've been in a really privileged situation to be able to take ideas to my publisher and say ‘there's a real need for this’. I'm also a mentor for Music for Youth and quite often hear my stuff played there. But I do get a lot of feedback from teachers.
AS: How do you make sure that your writing is relevant for schools and young people, and useful for teachers?
SW: For 15 years I was artistic director of the National Youth Music Camps, which gave me a huge platform for trying things out, and I have quite a broad experience of grassroots music. I wrote a commission for Music for Youth called Jigsaw Jam, and the brief for that was to write a piece for any child in the country learning an instrument, but only using the first three notes that they learn. So I did a lot of research and talked to teachers, trying to find something where a child is going to feel really comfortable, and not threatened, so that it was a really positive experience. That's my drive, to write something that starts people on their journey and gets them excited.
AS: How and why would you say music should be an important part of a school's life?
SW: It bonds, it teaches, it gives people confidence, it translates across other subjects – and it gives people something wonderful that they wouldn't normally have. You need to have somebody to make it happen, and then you just need to have the right materials.
