Here's a video from our Fen Soundscape project. Since March 2009, children at Ramsey Spinning Infants School and young people from the nearby village of Yaxley have been working with professional musicians and composers to write, record and edit music inspired by the Great Fen.
On Tuesday 21 July, the results of all their hard work were displayed to the public for the first time at St Thomas a Becket church in Ramsey. On entering the church, visitors were greeted by the sounds of birdsong and a series of signs and arrows taped to the floor. Following the arrows around the church, they came across doormats concealing "trigger pads" which, when stepped on, triggered a series of sounds to be played from the speakers attached to the church's pillars. Sounds ranged from the peaceful (birds twittering - both real and as interpreted on flutes and violins) to the more startling (geese flying overhead, a simulated storm). The whole thing added up to a magical experience brilliantly recreating the sounds and atmosphere of the Great Fen.
A series of performances included young children from Ramsey singing some of the Little Songs for the Great Fen which they have written with composer Jane Wells, followed by a Britten Sinfonia flute quartet playing Mozart and Rossini. Speeches, including a polished performance from Yaxley teenager AJ Mulley, set the scene and explained how the Soundscape had been put together.
The exhibition continues at St Thomas a Becket Church, Ramsey, until Sunday 26 July. Entry is free, and the exhibition is open daily from 8.30am to 5.30pm, except during Sunday services.
Showing posts with label Great Fen Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Fen Project. Show all posts
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Great Fen Project
One of Britain’s most exciting conservation efforts, the Great Fen Project is creating a 9,000 acre fenland habitat in Cambridgeshire. It will create a haven for wildlife and open new opportunities for business, education and recreation. Imagine walking for hours without retracing your steps in a vast mosaic of meadows, woods, streams and marshes.....
Britten Sinfonia is giving two concerts this week to raise awareness (and some money) for this project: in Peterborough Cathedral on 6 May and in King's College Chapel, Cambridge on 7 May. John Woolrich has composed a new work Whitel's Eye for the occasion, and there is music by Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, Britten and Mahler. Paul Gambaccini introduces the Peterborough performance, Stephen Fry the Cambridge one, and Alina Ibragimova is the violin soloist.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
You’re Hired v. You’re Fired!
Our Creative Learning intern, Hannah Ellis, reflects on her time (so far!) at Britten Sinfonia: 'With The Apprentice’s latest reject, Majid, having been pulled apart in the boardroom and sent packing, it got me thinking – which is better, a day in the life of an Apprentice contestant with Sir Alan Sugar or a day in the life of a Creative Learning intern with Britten Sinfonia? For me there is no contest: one is the opportunity of a lifetime and the other is, well, working for Sir Alan! You might be muttering “She’s deluded! I know which I’d rather!”, but think again; for six figure salary or not, working at Britten Sinfonia is more my cup of tea (even if it is me making it!).
At a time when jobs were (and undoubtedly still are) few and far between, this internship provided the ray of hope that I needed, and if internships were the new rock n’ roll, then I wanted to be Elvis Presley. So what do I actually do everyday? Well, anything I do contributes to the aims of the Creative Learning department which is to enable audiences (schools, businesses, families, students etc.) to learn more about the music Britten Sinfonia plays and to get them involved in making their own music. This, however, ranges from putting together budgets and proposals for new projects, fixing musicians, securing funding, contacting schools, and liaising with venues; to paying musicians, organising travel arrangements and more recently, squelching in the mud with children from
a local primary school as part of the Great Fen Project (see Karl Heidel's photo)……to name just a few! And that’s only one month in! Of course there is the obligatory photocopying to be done and cups of coffee to be made (after all ‘intern’ can also mean imprison!) but fortunately there isn’t too much of it and I’ve taken to looking at it as ‘character building’! In fact the emphasis is much more on my personal and professional development hence why I have already been given my own project to manage and why I will also gain experience in marketing, concerts and fundraising whilst I am here.
Consequently, no day is ever the same because, a bit like that box of chocolates in Forrest Gump, I never know what I’m going to get next - unlike Majid and the other Apprentice contestants who face corporate task after corporate task. Hence not only do I gain broader experience and in a more interactive way but arguably I get greater job satisfaction and in a team that works together in harmony rather than competes against each other; this job is mine to make my own and mould how I want instead of jumping through hoops for the televisual entertainment of the nation (although don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching as much as the next person). Talking of which, nor do I get ridiculed by the nation but instead work in an environment conducive to learning where I receive constructive comments rather than just criticism, and, unlike Rocky, a catering manager and the previous weeks’ reject who was fired after a catering task (ouch!), I am not damaging my future career prospects, but enhancing them.
As a French graduate, this internship may not have been the obvious choice but I saw it for the excellent opportunity that it is to mark out a career in events management. At the end of the day, despite our differences, what I and the Apprentice contestants have in common is that the processes we’re going through are all about striving for that dream job – it’s just that I get to do it in a much nicer way! One final way I trump Majid’s experience? He left with those immortal words “You’re fired”; I’m hoping I leave on a much better note! (At which point one of you might be lucky enough to be the new intern!)
At a time when jobs were (and undoubtedly still are) few and far between, this internship provided the ray of hope that I needed, and if internships were the new rock n’ roll, then I wanted to be Elvis Presley. So what do I actually do everyday? Well, anything I do contributes to the aims of the Creative Learning department which is to enable audiences (schools, businesses, families, students etc.) to learn more about the music Britten Sinfonia plays and to get them involved in making their own music. This, however, ranges from putting together budgets and proposals for new projects, fixing musicians, securing funding, contacting schools, and liaising with venues; to paying musicians, organising travel arrangements and more recently, squelching in the mud with children from
a local primary school as part of the Great Fen Project (see Karl Heidel's photo)……to name just a few! And that’s only one month in! Of course there is the obligatory photocopying to be done and cups of coffee to be made (after all ‘intern’ can also mean imprison!) but fortunately there isn’t too much of it and I’ve taken to looking at it as ‘character building’! In fact the emphasis is much more on my personal and professional development hence why I have already been given my own project to manage and why I will also gain experience in marketing, concerts and fundraising whilst I am here.
Consequently, no day is ever the same because, a bit like that box of chocolates in Forrest Gump, I never know what I’m going to get next - unlike Majid and the other Apprentice contestants who face corporate task after corporate task. Hence not only do I gain broader experience and in a more interactive way but arguably I get greater job satisfaction and in a team that works together in harmony rather than competes against each other; this job is mine to make my own and mould how I want instead of jumping through hoops for the televisual entertainment of the nation (although don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching as much as the next person). Talking of which, nor do I get ridiculed by the nation but instead work in an environment conducive to learning where I receive constructive comments rather than just criticism, and, unlike Rocky, a catering manager and the previous weeks’ reject who was fired after a catering task (ouch!), I am not damaging my future career prospects, but enhancing them.
As a French graduate, this internship may not have been the obvious choice but I saw it for the excellent opportunity that it is to mark out a career in events management. At the end of the day, despite our differences, what I and the Apprentice contestants have in common is that the processes we’re going through are all about striving for that dream job – it’s just that I get to do it in a much nicer way! One final way I trump Majid’s experience? He left with those immortal words “You’re fired”; I’m hoping I leave on a much better note! (At which point one of you might be lucky enough to be the new intern!)
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