Thursday, March 5, 2009
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Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Music & Literacy - Stewart Headlam - First Visit
The New London Orchestra is committed to making their workshops in schools related to the curriculum, and one of our main focuses has been Literacy, and how working with music, we can improve literacy skills. The New London Orchestra ran a Music & Literacy project with Year 3s in schools in Hammersmith a few years back which was really successful and we wanted to build on that. As a result, some of our musicians worked on the outline for a project for Year 6s after they'd finished their SATs exams, as this was identified as a year group at a time in school with not much focus. The project we created was all about 'moving on' - as the students started to think about moving to new schools, and reflecting on their time at their primary school and the memories they have. We have funding in place to run this at two schools, and Stewart Headlam Primary School will be the first to experience it!Lucy and Vicky went today to check out Stewart Headlam, and got to meet the Year 6 teachers there, Martin McCarthy and Haleema Rouf. We chatted about the Year 6s that will take part, who apparently are really creative and have a singing star of the future among them, which we're excited to hear about! We heard about the story telling the students have been focusing on, and the Māori story they will be telling with puppets they had made. It all sounds like great starting ideas for something the classes can create when our musicians come in at the end of June, as well as creating songs and pieces of music depicting their time at school. We also talked about making a video recording of the sessions and interviewing each student with some questions they had come up with themselves about their time at school, which could be put together with a video of the final performance and make a memento of their time at Stewart Headlam. We'll be heading back at the beginning of June to do a final planning meeting, so keep your eyes peeled for blogs about this project later in the year.
Something else we notice at a lot of schools we visit is the huge cupboards of instruments they have, and how little they seem to be used! So many teachers say to us "I'm not musical enough" or "someone from another organisation comes in to do our music teaching." Have you read this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/04/music-lessons-schools-ofsted about Ofsted's opinion of music teaching? Do you think it's okay to stop having music lessons in the lead up to exam time? Do we only do music lessons to identify the musicians of the future, or should we be teaching listening skills too? Do teachers need to be taught how to use music in the classroom, or should we just leave it to 'experts' from outside?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Peter & the Wolf - schools sessions 1
Hello followers!
Vanessa and Vicky have been busy today, attending the first sessions with two of the schools participating in the Orchestra's Peter & the Wolf project - Parkwood School in Hackney and St Agnes in Tower Hamlets.
The sessions were led by Baden, a fabulous writer, poet and performer who got the children thinking about the characters in the story of Peter & the Wolf. What is the wolf really like? How does Peter walk? Can we think of good words to describe the duck?
The students were also introduced to a few of the instruments from the orchestra, including the clarinet (Karl), the bassoon (Claire) and plenty of weird and wonderful percussion from Orphy's box of wonders! After everyone had asked questions about the instruments, and worked out why Claire's bassoon wouldn't work (!) we got everyone chatting about particular characters - building up new personalities. We had some great ideas contributed - so we'll have to wait and see if the hunters will capture the wolf with a shopping trolley and a handbag, or if the wolf turns out to be a vegetarian!
On a small side note, Vanessa showed me this yesterday - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6SHsF1n9Qw , what a brilliant version of the themes from Peter and the Wolf! Have you got any others to share? Or maybe even your own?
Monday, March 2, 2009
Peter & the Wolf - Promo Video
Our first big concert in East London - we're coming to the Stratford Rex. Unusual choice?! We think so! Tell us what you think.
What is an Orchestra?
What do you think of when you think of an orchestra? Who are the New London Orchestra and what are we all about?
Young Performers Concert Series - 5 March
Thursday 5 March, 1pm
Foundling Museum
Pau Codina - Cello
Sonata in G Major, G.5 BOCCHERINI
Largo
Allegro Militare
Tempo di Minuetto
Variations Concertantes in D Major, Op.17 MENDELSSOHN
Drei Kleine Stüke, Op.11 WEBERN
Massige Achtel
Sehr bewegt
Ausserst ruhig
Sonata in D minor DEBUSSY
Prologue: Lent
Serenade: Moderement anime
Finale: Anime
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