Education ViVA

Audio Lens
Assembly Rooms, Derby
3rd March 2010

On Wednesday 3 March 2010, young people from Griffe Field Primary School, Chellaston Foundation School, Littleover Community School, Derby College and Burton College came together for an electrifying performance at the Assembly Rooms in Derby.

"The final performance was thrilling as everything came together and all participants gave it their best on the night. " - (Musician)

The performance was the culmination of creative music workshops that started back in November 2009 with a visit to QUAD to see the Seeing is Believing exhibition as part of the Arts and Participation Season. During this day composers and workshop leaders James Redwood and Jack Ross and ViVA musicians met and worked with the participants to create new musical material. The composers and ViVA musicians then had a development session in which they worked with the music created by the young people.

"I felt proud that I had contributed to writing such a good piece of music." - (Participant, Chellaston School)

Fast forward to February 2010 and James Redwood and Jack Ross have composed most of Audio Lens – there are blanks missing but these are to be filled by the participants. During a series of workshops each school created their own sections of music which fitted into the piece as a whole.

"I felt amazed to know people can transform such basic rhymes into complex and detailed rhythms, full with colour and variety." - (Participant, Littleover School)

During these workshops the young people also created a new piece of music in response to hearing one of Stravinsky's Danses Concertantes and these interludes were segmented into the original Stravinsky piece.

"The students really enjoyed working with the soloists and respected their talents." - (Teacher, Chellaston School)

The music performance was one of two aspects of this concert; the other was live visuals provided by a team of VJs. They were led by Glenn Millington from QUAD and he was joined by four media students from Burton College. During the music workshops they went in and collected footage of the participants and musicians playing their instruments. In the performance they projected these clips onto two large screens at the back of the Assembly Rooms; they used visual effects to manipulate the images that were triggered live during the performance.

"My favourite part was performing in the Assembly Rooms because my family was very proud of me." - (Participant, Griffe Field Primary School)

During the final two days of the project all the participants came together for a massed rehearsal and met conductor Stuart Stratford who motivated the participants to give an even greater and polished performance. The Orchestra joined the participants on the final day for a rehearsal before the evening's concert. The first half of the concert saw the Stravinsky played with the newly created interludes interspersed within it and the second half saw the world premiere of Audio Lens. It was a fantastic performance with a magnificent atmosphere enjoyed by the audience of family and friends and all the participants were very proud of their achievement.

"Thank you for such an amazing experience, I have learnt so much and will be able to take my experiences into later life." - (Participant, Littleover School)

Audio Lens has been supported by Rolls-Royce plc, Derby City Council, Derby LIVE, Orchestras Live, Arts Council England, QUAD and sinfonia ViVA.

Images from the project...