Education ViVA

Wind Quintet Workshops
12-14th September 2006
The Castle, Wellingborough

The ViVA wind quintet tour continued with recitals and workshop sessions in Wellingborough. The Castle in Wellingborough was keen to promote the forthcoming ViVA concert at the Castle through a series of recitals and workshops in Wellingborough. The wind quintet gave two lunchtime recitals, at the Tithe Barn and in the foyer of The Castle. Both recitals included repertoire which was directly linked to the ViVA concert programme the recitals were promoting and were well received by audience members.

The musicians visited Brooklands Residential Home for a workshop session. During the session the quintet played some of the music which had featured in the lunchtime recitals, but also chatted with the residents and spoke to them about what life was like as a professional musician.

The quintet also visited two schools, Oakway Junior School and Rowan Gate Primary School. During the sessions, the musicians introduced themselves and their instruments to the students. They talked about how the sound was produced on each of the instruments showing the similarities and differences between the instruments and in some cases the musicians played their instruments close to the participants so they could feel the sound vibrations. The workshop sessions were very well received.

"I wanted to write and say how much the pupils at Rowan Gate School enjoyed the wind quintet that visited us in September in conjunction with the Castle Theatre. The pupils have a very wide range of special needs and it was great to have a group visit us because of the difficulty for some pupils to attend outside events. They all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and we hope there may be the possibility of further visits if the orchestra is in the area." - Jan Hall, Music Therapist, Rowan Gate Primary School.