Education ViVA

In The Space Between
Lincoln Drill Hall
Tuesday 8 December 2009

On Tuesday 8 December 2009, young people from Monks Abbey Primary School, Nettleham Junior School and The Priory Academy LSST, came together for a sold out musical performance at the Lincoln Drill Hall.

Hear about the project on BBC Radio 3's website [external link]

The evening included works which had been composed by the young people and their teachers, with the help of workshop leader James Redwood and sinfonia ViVA musicians Dave Ayre (double bass) and Anthony Thompson (trumpet), during four creative music workshop sessions in the two weeks prior to the performance.

During these sessions the young people were encouraged to play instruments that they currently learn as well as using percussion and voice to create original music in response to the orchestral repertoire performed by sinfonia ViVA at the concert. This included Varese's Octandre, Stravinsky's Octet for Wind Instruments and Weill's Concerto for violin and wind orchestra op.12.

The participants recognised that the composers of these three pieces produced music which is solely about itself. They responded to this by creating their own music which told stories and expressed emotions.

Stravinsky, Weill and Varese also used the idea of space in music, and the participants decided to create music which explored this issue. The participants from the Priory Academy LSST developed music using the octatonic scale and developed two spatial pieces which saw them playing in every corner of the Drill Hall.

During the teachers meeting at the start of the project, the team created a chorus Trapped in the Space Between which each of the primary schools took as the starting point for writing their own songs. Monks Abbey Primary School wrote a song called There’s no Exit, and Nettleham Junior School composed Shrunk in a Hamster Ball which further explored the idea of being In the Space Between.

Principal Conductor André de Ridder joined the project team for the final two days of the project and encouraged the participants to strive for an even greater and more polished performance. The full Orchestra joined the 90 participants for the final rehearsal during the afternoon of 8 December, which saw the massed ensemble bringing the whole performance together.

The young people were extremely proud to be performing their own works at the Lincoln Drill Hall on Tuesday 8 December 2009 alongside other participants and sinfonia ViVA musicians. The performance was spectacular, with an amazing atmosphere and lots of friends and family in the audience!

In the Space Between has been generously supported by: Rolls-Royce plc, Orchestras Live, Lincoln City Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Lincoln Drill Hall, Bergne Coupland Trust, Peter and Gwyneth Hodgkinson Trust, sinfonia ViVA and Arts Council England.

Images from the project...