News and Reviews

News: Dragon Theme for Music Project
June 2007

Pupils from six Derby and Belper schools are gearing up for a major public performance of their own work as part of an ambitious music project involving more than 2,000 school children organised by sinfonia ViVA and the Children's Music Workshop (CMW). More than 200 children from St Werburgh's, Lawn, Arboretum, Cherry Tree Hill primary schools in Derby and Pottery and St John's C.E (Controlled) primary schools in Belper will form a mass choir, which will perform at two concerts in Derby's Assembly Rooms on Wednesday June 27.

The concert, entitled 'Dragon Scales' will feature a wide range of pentatonic music, which involves only five notes and forms the basis of much oriental music. The Orchestra will be joined by three Chinese musicians for the performance, Ying Xiao - a guzheng player (Chinese harp), Ruijan Hu - a gizi player (bamboo flute) and Ling Peng - an Erhu player (Chinese violin). The highlight of the performance will be an original composition The Lost Dragon. Each school has been working alongside James Redwood and Jack Ross from CMW and professional ViVA musicians to write the music and lyrics for their own verses of the song using their own pentatonic scales. The chorus has been composed by the teachers at the various schools who came together originally to plan the project with the organisers. The mass choir will also perform four other songs on the dragon theme including The Dragon Who Ate Our School! which they have been rehearsing with David Lawrence from ViVA. More than 2,000 children from other schools throughout the city and county in the audience have been practising their own songs for the participation section of the programme. ViVA will perform a selection of pieces including To the South from Tan Dun's Crouching Dragon Concerto.

Marianne Quintrell, Education Manager at sinfonia ViVA explained: "This is the most ambitious of our annual summer residencies as we have asked the children to compose the lyrics and music using pentatonic scales as well as learning new songs for the performance. Last summer's project 'Choosing Chums' on the theme of friendship and tackling bullying was a huge success with hugely positive feedback from the children – many of whom said that the experience of working and performing alongside professional musicians had whetted their appetite for learning an instrument and going to classical music concerts. This year's project has been a major feat of organisation and all the children have worked very hard so we are looking forward to a highly polished and exciting performance from them."

Maria Banks, Project Manager for CMW added: " We welcomed the opportunity to form a partnership with ViVA for 'Dragon Scales'. CMW workshop leaders have enjoyed working alongside ViVA musicians; the creative atmosphere in school workshops has been enhanced by their teamwork and the children have benefited enormously. The quality of work each school has produced has exceeded all expectations; the whole experience of taking part in the project and the resulting piece of music to which they all made a contribution will live on in the children's memories for many years to come."

Gill Hutton, Headteacher of Pottery Primary School continued: "We were very excited to have been invited to join this project and the children have thoroughly enjoyed working with the musicians at the school. This is a unique opportunity for them to perform alongside a professional orchestra and I am sure that they will remember it for a long time to come."

And Penny Bennett from Lawn Primary School in Allestree said: "For a school that is working hard at developing the creative aspects of our provision this is an ideal opportunity to provide our children and our staff with an exciting musical experience and to develop and enhance our practice. We feel very privileged to be involved."

The project has been made possible through the support of Rolls-Royce plc, Derby City Council, Orchestras Live and the Ashby Fund administered by Derbyshire Community Foundation.

Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945 665 or email sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk