Education ViVA

Life in the Forest
Hermitage Leisure Centre, Whitwick, North West Leicestershire
4 February 2009

"It was a privilege for the school to take part in a high quality and well organised event." - Teacher, Whitwick St John the Baptist

Life in the Forest involved around 140 young musicians from across North West Leicestershire and sinfonia ViVA and was designed in partnership between sinfonia ViVA, North West Leicestershire District Council and Orchestras Live.

"I felt very proud of myself and I wanted to do it all over again!." - Participant, Whitwick St John the Baptist

Young people and their teachers from Ibstock Junior School, Ivanhoe College, St Clare's Catholic Primary School and Whitwick St John the Baptist Primary School worked closely with music workshop leader and composer Jack Ross and a team of musicians from sinfonia ViVA during January 2009 to create original music inspired by the theme of Life in the Forest.

"Jack and his team's enthusiasm for the project and their calm relationship with the children [was the most effective aspect]." - Teacher, Whitwick St John the Baptist

Some of the groups were particularly inspired by visits to National Forest sites local to their schools. They also learned about the Green Man - a figure that can be found in the folklore, mythologies and religions of many cultures across the world. He represents nature’s fertility and rebirth in the spring, and can be thought of as a masculine companion to Mother Nature. The Green Man is the guardian of the forest and the protector of the wild places. Images of him depict nature merging into human form.

"[They gained an understanding of] the fun aspect of creating music. It gave them the opportunity to access high quality musicianship in which they could be actively involved." - Teacher, Whitwick St John the Baptist

The young people explored memories of the visits with the ViVA team and from this created new songs and instrumental pieces based on their experiences and imaginings of the forest. The songs they wrote covered themes including the replanting of trees in the forest, the secret life of a tree, the enchanted forest and all the songs and pieces were linked together by the Green Man. All of the participants also learned three songs, Bartók's Oak Trees in the Forest, traditional English tune All in a Wood and Autumn Branches by Jack Ross, which he wrote especially for this project, and these songs helped to tie all the other songs and instrumental piece together.

"I liked it a lot and I felt excited, nervous, proud (because we had written the song and everything) and I really enjoyed it." - Participant, Whitwick St John the Baptist

Following a series of intensive creative music sessions, it was intended that the young people would come together for a massed joint rehearsal, during which they would have brought all their pieces together with Oak Trees in the Forest, All in a Wood and Autumn Branches to create one large collaborative piece. However, as a result of the heavy snow the leisure centre and all the participating schools were closed, so all the joint rehearsal was done on the final day.

"[They gained] confidence, self esteem, sheer enjoyment!." - Teacher, Ivanhoe College

The final day of the project also saw the young people meeting the 24-piece Orchestra and conductor Nic Fallowfield so they were able to rehearse as one large ensemble prior to presenting culmination performance.

"It was a totally different experience because I was playing along with a professional orchestra. Thank you for giving me this opportunity and inspiration to carry on playing my oboe." - Participant, Ivanhoe College

The performance was warmly received by a capacity audience and we are very much hoping to be able to continue and develop this partnership over the coming years.

"My favourite bit was when we sang 'All in a Wood' and Jack told the audience to join in." - Participant, Whitwick St John the Baptist

The project was supported by Rolls-Royce plc, Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Community Foundation, The National Forest, North West Leicestershire District Council, Leicestershire County Council, Find Your Talent, Orchestras Live, Arts Council England and sinfonia ViVA.

Visit the Orchestras Live website (external link) to read more about the project and listen to an audio clip

Images from the project...