Education ViVA

More Glass Than Wall
June 2008

June 2008 saw the exhilarating conclusion of More Glass Than Wall, sinfonia ViVA's most ambitious project to date, with workshops spanning the academic year and three performances involving over 200 performers.

"It was a once in a lifetime chance and I have never sung in an orchestra before and it was the best thing I have ever done! When I sat down it was if my heart was falling off the cliff." - Hodthorpe participant

The project celebrated the life of Bess of Hardwick in the year of the 400th anniversary of her death. The project began in October 2007 with a visit to Hardwick Hall for the 180 participants from six schools in Derby and the Bolsover district of Derbyshire. During the visits the young people met the composer James Redwood, librettist Cathy Grindrod, Jo Rawson the community learning officer at Hardwick Hall, guitarist Jack Ross and the project management team and were introduced to the Hall. The participants looked around the hall and grounds, particularly focussing on the long gallery, entrance hall and gardens. Whilst at Hardwick Hall the participants wrote a group poem with Cathy Grindrod and song with James Redwood and Jack Ross.

"I knew the atmosphere of the house and felt I knew the character of Bess a lot better than if I hadn’t been." - Heritage Participant

The visit provided the inspiration for the project and following it Cathy Grindrod led a series of creative writing workshops in the six participating schools. During these sessions the young people considered what life would have been like for Bess and wrote a series of group and individual poems in response to this. At the same time Cathy Grindrod was writing the libretto for the new oratorio which told the story of Bess' life.

"A creative bonanza! The children demonstrated skills they didn't know they had. The project both played to their strengths and fostered new avenues for them to explore." - Peter Lack, Creswell Teacher

In December 2007 Cathy passed the libretto to James Redwood who began setting the words to music. By the end of March the children's songs were all completed and the team led a session for the teachers involved in the project, to introduce them to the songs.

"The songs were exciting and I loved singing my heart out." - Creswell participant

Following this session conductor and choral animateur David Lawrence led a series of sessions with pianist Matt Beckingham in the four primary schools during which the children learned, rehearsed and polished the songs which had been written for them.

"It was a wonderful experience for both myself and the class. They all agreed they worked as hard as they could for each other which was great to hear from this class in particular." - Liz Dimmick, Springfield Teacher

As well as these sessions, James Redwood and a team of sinfonia ViVA and Children's Music Workshop musicians led a series of creative music workshops in all six schools. In the primary schools the team worked with the children to turn the poem created with Cathy Grindrod into a song and in the secondary schools the young people created instrumental sections taking some of the material created by James Redwood as their starting point. The songs and instrumental pieces were developed and rehearsed during the workshop sessions and eventually each of the six pieces fitted into the main oratorio.

"My favourite part was working with James – it was like he had a child's mind." - Creswell participant

Joint rehearsals were held for the two clusters of schools to rehearse together, providing them with the opportunity to get to know each other and to perform their new material to their peers. Each cluster of schools included a secondary school and two of their feeder primaries and pairing them together in this way ensured that participants of various ages were working closely together, with the older students acting as role models for the primary school children."

"When the primaries and secondary schools came together the week before the performance at Creswell and West Park it was just wonderful to see the cooperation and play that happened – primaries helped to loosen the older kids and the secondary students really looked out or the younger ones." - James Redwood, composer

A large scale joint rehearsal was held for all six schools to come together with the full team to rehearse the whole piece together. The participants were joined by the two soloists soprano Sophie Grimmer (Bess) and baritone Bob Davies (Narrator) for the final part of this rehearsal which added another level of excitement for the young people.

"Fantastic! Sophie and Bob are stars, the orchestra was wow!" - West Park participant

The final rehearsal involved all 180 participants alongside the soloists and sinfonia ViVA during which the whole piece was rehearsed. The first two performances took place at the Assembly Rooms, Derby with an afternoon performance for school groups, with the opportunity to join in on with some of the songs and an evening performance to friends and family as well as the general public.

"The chance to hear and perform with two professional soloists was amazing and the children were blown away by their voices. The orchestra was simply magnificent which inspired them to sing better. When they first performed Hardwick Hall with sinfonia ViVA, hairs stood up on the back of the neck!" - Peter Lack, Creswell Teacher

The following day, the team and participants met again back in the grounds of Hardwick Hall where a huge festival stage was waiting for them to give the third and final performance. During the final afternoon rehearsal the participants had the added bonus of appearing on the local television weather report which was filmed in front of the stage! The final performance took place in the spectacular setting of Hardwick Hall to an audience of approximately 700 friends, family, guests and the general public.

"For me, the fact that we were aiming for such a huge, ambitious, complicated climax of the project meant that everyone involved had to aim higher than they thought was possible. It was such an extraordinary / out of the ordinary event, that we were all transported from our everyday plane of existence." - James Redwood, composer

The reaction from the participants at the end of the final performance was quite amazing and it was particularly special to see the relationships that blossomed between the participants particularly during the final few days of the project. It was a real treat to be able to work closely with the participants over the whole year and to see the wonderful journey they went on.

"The fact that I saw the children so much meant that I knew many of them as individuals by the end so was great for reaching each child." - Cathy Grindrod, librettist

The project was organised and managed in partnership with sinfonia ViVA, Children's Music Workshop in Harmony with Music Platform, Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Bolsover District Council, The National Trust and Orchestras Live.

"It was completely my pleasure and a huge privilege to be involved. It's always amazing when you sing all over the place in huge concert halls and opera houses to do a project that renews your faith in music making. Hearing 100+ kids giving everything they've got and being passionate about what they're doing always gives you a warm glow inside." - Bob Davies, soloist

More Glass Than Wall was supported by The Heritage Lottery Fund, Rolls-Royce plc, Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council, Orchestras Live, Bolsover District Council, Derbyshire Community Foundation, Local Network Fund, Bridging the Gap, The National Trust, The Foyle Foundation, The Cumberland Trust, The Gladys Jones Charitable Trust, The Mercers Charitable Foundation, Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Settlement, The John Thaw Foundation, Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation, PRS Foundation for new music and Ernest Cook Trust.

Images from the project...