Making the Link

Back in May we introduced Link Ensemble: a new creative group, led by Duncan Chapman, integrating students with special education needs at Comberton Village College with their GCSE peers through workshops with Britten Sinfonia musicians. As this project draws to a close, with the final performance taking place on Saturday 21 November in a pre-concert event at Saffron Hall, Jen House (Creative Learning Director) and Duncan Chapman (workshop leader) look back on this unique initiative...

Alexia is blind. She makes her slow, careful way to the centre of a haphazard circle of ambient sound; to her left the spidery jangle of an acoustic guitar, a D7 chord with an unexpected jangling G at the piano behind her and a sudden croak of feedback from an electric bass on her right. Taking a deep breath, she brings the microphone close until she feels it’s cool brush on her chin and speaks quietly into the noisy void.

“Can we start with Jack, please? A low E on the bass clarinet.” She hesitates for a moment, “Is that the lowest note you can play?”

The note, rich and deep curls its way through the room and like a heavy fog, obscures the other sounds as the tinkering dies away.

“Sarah” her voice is clearer, more confident as the sound palate clears and like a painter in sound, she pauses, aural brush poised.

“Sarah, a low seventh above … a little less … and articulate in a slow pulse.”

There is an expectant hush, the room is not still, there is a restless energy but wherever the eyes may look or whatever the hands may fidget with, the ears are focused on the unfurling beauty as Alexia, slowly and ever so precisely, reveals her composition.

The name ‘Link Ensemble’ was given to Britten Sinfonia’s integrated music-making initiative in the very early stages of its conception and long before my arrival in Britten Sinfonia’s Creative Learning office. The name may well, in fact, have been the very twinkle in the proverbial eye which, (a very protracted gestation period of three years later) eventually brought this unexpected, unconventional, unapologetic ensemble into being. As the name so aptly suggests, Link Ensemble is about bringing people and creative impulses together; partnership between a visionary school and a ground-breaking orchestra; connections between young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their non-disabled GCSE Music contemporaries and collaboration between professionals and amateurs linked by a common creativity.

With twenty five members including SEND students from Comberton Village College (CVC) Cabin, GCSE Music students from CVC and professional musicians from Britten Sinfonia, Link Ensemble has met for a series of three, intensive, two-day workshop and rehearsal sessions led by composer and sound artist Duncan Chapman. At each stage, the ensemble has explored and created new music to record and perform.

“So, what’s it going to be?” I asked my predecessor in a hand-over session just months before the first phase. “I’ve no idea!” She shrugged, “How can we describe something which hasn’t been done yet?”  

And that, in a nutshell, is it. Forget everything you think you know about music, musical ability, disability. Leave them at the door when you arrive at Saffron Hall tomorrow and prepare yourself for something you didn’t know music could be….

Jen House (Creative Learning Director)

Integration is about leveling the playing field and one way of doing this is to focus not on what we think music is but on what music could be. We explore outside the frame of genre, working with what’s right there in front of us in the moment; using what we hear as a guide rather than an idea of music that is in our heads. What gives Britten Sinfonia it's unique sound is the relationships between the particular musicians, their own particular sounds and the way in which these are nurtured over many hours of playing music together. So what is significant isn't that a piece might have four violins, oboe, horn and double bass but it's the specific violins, oboe, horn and bass with the particular players. In Link Ensemble this focus on the particular characters of the group is where we start from rather than a 'pick and mix' approach to style or genre.

Making music from 'what's in front of us' could be a recipe for chaos and clutter, but with careful thought about how we construct the music we are able to create space for everyone to have a contribution. Starting from the position of treating music-making as a social sonic activity means that the music we make has to belong to us and not be a pastiche of something that other musicians would do better.

Within a conventional musical framework the difference between Adam - GCSE music student, jazz keys player and composer - and Matthew - who has never played an instrument, is registered blind and has difficulties with fine and gross motor skills - is pronounced. Beyond this frame, in the environment of what music could be they are equal, and equally inspired by and inspiring to, each other.

In practical terms, we are separating music-making from technique. Most of us are used to associating skill in music with the ability to rattle off Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto or play complex chord changes. Once you move away from this preoccupation with playing 'difficult' music and focus on understanding something of the context of the music 'in the room', the field is leveled and we are all starting from a point of making something as a social collective and not as a vehicle for individual display. Technique is important - it's important for us to develop skills on our instruments to enable us to play with fluency and conviction - but more important in an ensemble context are the listening and imagination techniques that are often overlooked in a headlong dash for demonstrable and flashy skills. 

My job as a workshop leader is to co-ordinate and guide the creation. Sometimes this is about setting frameworks that are by their nature inclusive and recognise moments of unexpected beauty (“Beauty is underfoot wherever we take the trouble to look” said John Cage). Jak, one of our Link Ensemble players once asked if “cheese can be an instrument?” My challenge is to take this concept and work with it!

The role of the professional musicians from Britten Sinfonia has many facets but whether they are the glue holding a compositional structure together, or providing a spotlight on a particular sound, idea or technique, they are there to ensure that no idea a young musician has ever fails – they make every idea, even musical cheese, fly! We are lucky to have these players who are not only capable of tremendous instrumental skill but able to instantly match this with the needs of the music and the group.

There is a reason we talk about “playing” music as opposed to “working” it. In Link Ensemble we all dare to play: to play with what music is and what music could be.

Duncan Chapman (Leader) 

Come and experience Link Ensemble for yourself, as they perform in the pre-concert event on Saturday 21 November, 6.15pm at Saffron Hall, ahead of the evening concert featuring Britten Sinfonia and Eddie Gomez. Find out more.

“Is cheese an instrument?” – A creative eruption in the first phase of Britten Sinfonia’s Link Ensemble

The Link Ensemble is a new creative group, led by Duncan Chapman, integrating students with special education needs at Comberton Village College with their GCSE peers through two-day music workshops with Britten Sinfonia musicians. Creative Learning Graduate Assistant, Emily, shares her insight into the group's first workshop...

When I’m not in the Creative Learning office at Britten Sinfonia, I can be found working with children with special education needs in a local school and so I was particularly excited when I had the opportunity to be involved in the first day of Britten Sinfonia’s Link Ensemble, a creative ensemble integrating SEND students with their GCSE peers through music. The project, in partnership with Comberton Village College, Cambridgeshire Music Partnership and Orchestras Live, has been in the pipeline for a number of years and it so it has been amazing to carry out the ideas of my colleagues and get this project off the ground.

Over two days we explored and created music at Comberton Village College with an enthusiastic group of 25 students, some with a variety of special educational needs alongside their mainstream peers. With so many different and distinctive musical voices to be heard the workshops were alive with energy, creativity and playfulness. From the onset a young student posed the question “is cheese an instrument?” which both baffled our musicians and became the catalyst for many creative, out-of-the-box suggestions throughout the day. To see students begin to open up to the musicians, to question and challenge them was a fascinating process to observe as their confidence in musical ideas and direction grew. An aspect that was also evident in the creative relationship between the students, something that the project hopes to build upon.   

Creative Learning Coordinator, Mateja, explored the difference in string sounds with a student who has limited sight. 

Photo credit: Comberton Village College

Led by Duncan Chapman, we explored the expansive sound world that we could create as a group using guitars, pianos, a recorder and various percussion alongside three Britten Sinfonia musicians on flute, viola and bass clarinet, (I proudly took on the role of triangle player). Everyone contributed musical ideas as we built up a collective sound – even using recording to loop and delay ourselves to create new sound experiences.  Bass clarinettist Jack O’Neill commented that, ‘everyone’s input was valuable and vital, making for a joyful and sometimes unexpectedly powerful musical experience... I found it inspiring that everyone was given the space and time they needed to express themselves, ask questions and develop their ideas.’ Take a listen online here to some of the creations from these exciting workshops; we will build upon these ideas throughout the project.

Although this was just the first phase of the project, it already feels like we’re building a solid and creative collaboration that will flourish and develop over the next two phases in July and November, culminating in a public performance on the main stage at Saffron Hall on Saturday 21 November. I am eager to watch the group’s creativity take on a life of its own – the excitement is in not knowing where this will take us – watch this space!

A group discussion of developing ideas on the second day of workshops with workshop leader Duncan. 
Photo credit: Comberton Village College

Emily Moss

Creative Learning Graduate Assistant

Peterborough Music Takeover day - O to make the most jubilant song!

On Saturday 18 April, Peterborough City Centre was alive with the sounds of the Music Takeover: all sorts of music… in all sorts of places…!  Recorders and ukuleles in the shopping centre, choral groups in the city square, pop bands on pop-up stages and solo artists and duos in cafes and restaurants. Everywhere you turned, up popped someone to serenade you while buying a coffee or nipping to the shops.

Britten Sinfonia’s Creative Learning department were delighted to be invited to take part in the event, and worked with local community groups to create and perform a brand new piece, ‘O to make the most jubilant song!’ which was premiered in Cathedral Square as part of the Music Takeover day.

We commissioned the wonderful young composer and music leader Omar Shahryar to work with four fabulous music groups. We hoped to challenge a diverse range of musicians from different ages, musical backgrounds and different community groups to come together to celebrate and champion their city.

Between January and March a Britten Sinfonia team visited each of four groups, Cantus Polonicum – the Polish Choir, City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (CPSO), Peterborough Choral Society and the Indian Dhol Ensemble a number of times, to get to know each other and to compose musical ideas. Omar then went away and compiled and modified these ideas, along with his own, and created the finished composition. We had two fabulous days, where all the musicians came together to workshop, rehearse and get to know each other before the big performance day.

On the concert day, (lucky for April) the sun came out, and the performers shined! The final piece was about 15 minutes long. It included complex instrumental sections for Britten Sinfonia and CPSO musicians, sections in English and Polish for the two choirs, and a massive party finish featuring the Dhol drummers and a catchy tune to get the audience singing along as well!

I think that all participants would say that the process was challenging! It was difficult to imagine what the final performance was going to be like, when workshopping and improvising on a cold January evening. but Omar took loads of inspiration and ideas from the participants and crafted them into a fabulous final piece. We were all singing and dancing at the end of the performance – and most importantly, all the musicians involved did themselves, and their city, proud. It was a wonderful performance to be a part of, and to see different communities and musical styles come together to celebrate!

Bravo to all who took part!

Special thank yous to:  Omar Shahryar – composer, Ellie Moran – mezzo soprano, Britten Sinfonia Musicians, funders Orchestras Live and Arts Council England and the event organisers Vivacity Peterborough.

Isobel Timms
Britten Sinfonia Academy Manager

Reflections on the Serenade project

Earlier this year we worked with worked with seven Norfolk primary schools to compose and perform a brand new song cycle inspired by Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings. The songs were performed by the children and Britten Sinfonia at Wymondham Abbey in June interspersed with Britten's own work, featuring tenor Robin Tritschler. The children then revived the songs for a performance during a pre-concert event at Norwich Theatre Royal in November. Here are some reflections on the project from two teachers;

"John who came to work with the class to compose the words and the music was brilliant. I saw children who would never give anything of themselves desperate to shout out a word they had thought of. The children were all engaged, focussed and keen to work.

Back in the classroom the children enjoyed learning to sing the songs, especially the piece that they had composed. Singing in Wymondham Abbey was inspiring. Most of the children had never been in the building before and were amazed at the structure. Working with the professional musicians was also very insightful. The children who play violins could see where all the practising would get them. Also the musicians were so approachable and seemed genuinely to enjoy working with the children. Singing together was inspiring and amazing for me and the children.

It is hard to quantify how the experience has impacted on the class. It is almost impossible to measure but I believe it will have a lasting impact on the children. The whole experience was inspiring, wonderful, creative, for some of the children it gave them an insight into what was possible, and what they could do in the future."
Class Teacher

"Most of the children that I work with have never had the chance to work with professional musicians in any long term project or large-scale performance.  The children were exposed to musicians in their classrooms and this was in itself an inspiration to them.  It made high quality musical professionalism accessible and very real and it showed to them that it is something that they can aspire to as well.  It is interesting to note that since the project some of the children have taken up tuition on string instruments including the double bass. 

The experience of taking part in a large-scale performance was invaluable in terms of building the children's confidence and inspiring them to do something they had never done before.  There were children in my particular group who were terrified when it came to the first performance.  One or two were so nervous they actually cried with fear.  They were inspired and encouraged in such a great way by the personnel from Britten Sinfonia and reached heights they never felt they could.  It is also interesting to note that when they performed in the Theatre Royal they were much more confident and did not exhibit the same fear."
Class Teacher

Photos from the Wymondham Abbey concert can be seen here.  A video of part of the concert can be seen on our media page.

This project was funded by South Norfolk Council, with additional support from Orchestras Live.

Wymondham Serenade

On the 26th June, 150 primary schools children from the area around Wymondham, Norfolk came together to perform a concert. It wasn’t a normal school concert however; the children were performing their own compositions, accompanied by a professional orchestra - string players from Britten Sinfonia alongside amazing professional soloists Robin Tritschler (tenor) and Stephen Bell (horn).

The concert was called Serenade, and was a celebration of the music of Benjamin Britten who came from the east of England, and who’s centenary year we’re currently celebrating. The professional musicians performed Benjamin Britten’s famous Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, but in between the movements of Britten’s songs, the children performed their compositions. Both Britten and the children were inspired by the theme of night time.

Students from  Barnham Broom, Barford, Spooner Row, Tacolneston, Wreningham and Mattishall schools certainly did themselves proud. Benjamin Britten used poems by famous poets such as Blake, Keats and Tennyson, but the children wrote their own lyrics as well as the music! One carried you away to a far away Dreamland, where "a dim light hypnotyses me". The Sky at Night talked about the stars and galaxies explode like "an eyeball staring into the darkness!" There was also a scary bone rattling song about nightmares, where "boneless hands reach into my mind!"  and featuring the catchy chorus lines "I was zombified!" The concert also featured an interlude, composed by A-level music students from Wymondham College and High School based on the poem Tiger, Tiger by William Blake, performed by the orchestra and Robin Tritschler.

The concert was performed at Wymondham Abbey, which is a beautiful old building, and was part of Wymondham Arts Festival. To fit all the children in, and so everyone could see properly we had to build a massive stage that was over 3 meters tall! The concerts were so popular that we had to perform it twice, at 6pm and 8pm. Both shows sold out, and although it was a long evening for the younger children, it was great fun, and very well received.  Back in the office, we’re now doing the most satisfying bit – reading the children’s feedback sheets, and writing the project evaluation. A big thank you to our fabulous music leaders and composers, John Barber and James Redwood. To our wonderful soloists, orchestra and workshop team – but the biggest thank you is to the teachers, for all their hard work, and to South Norfolk Council and Orchestras Live for funding the project.

You can hear the children’s songs here and see some photos of the event here.

There is another opportunity to hear the children's songs in a pre-concert event at Norwich Theatre Royal on Sunday 17 November 2013 - more details here

Spirit of the Games - Creating a new Anthem for Norfolk

Britten Sinfonia Creative Learning Department has just embarked on a new project - working in harmony with local school children to compose an anthem for Norfolk’s Village Games.

Pupils from Framingham Earl High, Rockland St Mary Primary and Surlingham Community Primary School are taking part in the project, organised and funded in partnership with South Norfolk Council and Orchestras Live.

On Thursday 17 November, we headed up to Norfolk to meet 35 children from feeder primary schools, and 30 instrumentalist from Framingham Earl High School for a Big Ideas event.

Orchestral players from the orchestra, music leader James Redwood and librettist Hazel Gould held creative workshops throughout the day to encourage youngsters to come up with inspirational lyrics and music. The students were also joined by Active Norfolk, who ran Olympic-themed games and activities to get pupils into the spirit of composing the sporty anthem and Olly, Active Norfolk’s mascot also came along to oversee the proceedings.

By the end of day one, we had completed the outline of the song, entitled ‘Spirit of the Games’ had written a catchy chorus and were working on the melody for the verse. We all went away at the end of the day humming to ourselves.

The creative team will be back in January with the completed lyrics, to finish the compositional process, to develop the instrumental parts and some more vocal harmonies.

The finished anthem will be premiered at a special concert at Poringland Community centre on Friday 27 January 2012 with players from Britten Sinfonia accompanying the musicians and singers from the schools.

Isobel Timms
Creative Learning Director