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MusicMix 2012

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

MusicMix 2012

MusicMix – bringing orchestral music alive for young people from across Norfolk

Theatre Royal, Norwich
Tuesday 20 March 2012, 10.45am and 1.30pm

Following its huge success in 2010 the BBC Concert Orchestra returns to Norfolk on Tuesday 20 March 2012 with two instalments of their interactive concert MusicMix. 2,000 young people aged 10 – 14 from around 50 schools across Norfolk will see the orchestra perform, with live and pre-recorded footage on a big screen and music from Handel to Jessie J. The concert provides a unique experience for young concert-goers and a special insight into the vast and varied world of orchestral music.

MusicMix features the full BBC Concert Orchestra and will be presented by Blue Peter’s Barney Harwood and Helen Skelton, who has just completed her incredible South Pole challenge. The concert programme includes traditional classical works such as Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and ‘Montagues and Capulets’ from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, alongside music from TV shows Doctor Who and the recent BBC Natural History hit Frozen Planet.

Participation and engagement runs at the heart MusicMix with over 70 young people from local schools performing on stage alongside the orchestra, as well as the entire audience getting a chance to take part in the group song – Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke.

Students from Aylsham High School are having their own scrapheap challenge, and over the coming weeks will build percussion instruments to perform Junk Funk, an up-tempo piece in the style of American cop and action TV theme tunes of the 1970/80’s written by BBC CO percussionist Stephen Whibley.

Singing an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Something’s Coming’ from hit musical West Side Story will be a combined choir from Wymondham, City of Norwich and Notre Dame High Schools.

A rock band made up of students from Future Projects and Access to Music will be performing Jessie J’s ‘Price Tag’, which has been specially arranged for band and orchestra by BBC CO violinist Sarah Freestone. Sarah will also be coaching and mentoring the rock band in the run up to the concert.

The concerts have been co-produced by Orchestras Live, the national development organisation for professional orchestral music, in partnership with the BBC Concert Orchestra and eight local authorities in Norfolk as well as Norfolk Music Service and the Theatre Royal, Norwich.

Stuart Bruce, Partnership Manager of Orchestras Live, said: "Orchestras Live is delighted to be again working collectively with all our local authority partners in Norfolk to enable many young people to have an amazing interactive experience of live orchestral music with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The high level of participation by young people in these concerts will help to make them unique, inspirational events, and we hope everyone will leave with a very positive perception about the modern orchestra and its wide range of music.”

Music Nation

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Orchestras Live at the heart of the BBC Music Nation weekend

Orchestras Live is a partner in Music Nation – a nationwide weekend of live music events across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012. Devised and led by the BBC, the weekend is the first nationwide countdown event to the London 2012 Festival.

Music Nation is a partnership between the BBC, Arts Council England, the Association of British Orchestras, British Association of Concert Halls, Orchestras Live, Making Music, Conservatoires UK and LOCOG to celebrate the richness, diversity and excellence of Britain’s musical life. From Cornwall to the Shetland Isles and Belfast to Birmingham, Music Nation is an unprecedented collaboration of the UK’s orchestral and music-making communities, built primarily around classical music, but taking in jazz, folk and world music.

Orchestras Live is directly involved in two Music Nation projects:

Music Nation: Orchestras Live - a celebration of the best of British chamber orchestras performing innovative programmes across England. Orchestras Live is co-promoting eight concerts at eight locations with six orchestras over the weekend.

Music Nation: Invocation – a co-commission by Orchestras Live and sinfonia ViVA of a new piece for solo cellist, solo contemporary African dancer and orchestra by Tunde Jegede to be premiered at Derby Assembly Rooms on Saturday 3 March.

BBC Radio 3, Music Nation’s principal media partner, will broadcast live content throughout the weekend, including excerpts and highlights from four of the Music Nation: Orchestras Live concerts. For further details on all the events visit the BBC Music Nation website.

Music Nation: Orchestras Live includes...

Saturday 3 March
Academy of Ancient Music at Ludlow Assembly Rooms

The Scottish Ensemble at Christ Church, Cockermouth

European Union Chamber Orchestra at Stamford Arts Centre

Sunday 4 March
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Wiltshire Music Centre

Northern Chamber Orchestra in Shrewsbury

The Scottish Ensemble at City Hall, Hull

Academy of Ancient Music at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds

Aurora Orchestra at St George’s Bristol

Click each link to find out more about each concert, and for ticket and booking information.

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon will collaborate with the South West Music School and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in a dual event, a BCMG concert of British and internationally influential composers and a performance project with SWMS young players.

Audiences in Stamford, Lincolnshire, will hear the European Union Chamber Orchestra in a programme that will include a new commission by EUCO from international composer, James Young.

In collaboration with Cockermouth Music Society and Hull City Halls, the Scottish Ensemble will work with trumpeter Alison Balsom, including a new work written for her by James MacMillan.

Audiences in Bury St Edmonds and Ludlow will enjoy a world class programme by the Academy of Ancient Music and award winning young violinist, Alina Ibragimova.

In Shrewsbury, the Northern Chamber Orchestra and Rafael Wallfisch will perform the world premiere of a new cello concerto by John Joubert alongside a programme of work by Sibelius, Delius and Mozart.

The contribution by Orchestras Live to the Music Nation weekend complements the plans by other larger ensembles working in urban areas because our concerts will be delivered in predominantly rural areas which are relatively under served by orchestral music and will offer opportunities for audiences and participants in those communities to experience the work of some of the best British chamber orchestras live on their doorstep.

Music Nation: Invocation sees Orchestras Live and sinfonia ViVA co-commissioning a new piece by Tunde Jegede. Invocation, for solo cellist, solo contemporary African dancer, and orchestra, will be premiered at Derby Assembly Rooms on Saturday 3 March.

Invocation, a brand new piece by composer Tunde Jegede with dancer Bode Lawal, is a ritualistic piece rooted in the Yoruba religious belief system of the Orisha, which is still practised in Nigeria and throughout the African Diaspora including such places as Brazil, Cuba and the USA. The use of divination and trance in the invocation of ancestral spiritual forces is traditionally always portrayed and expressed through movement, dance and music.

Invocation is a concerto for solo cello, orchestra, African percussion and a solo contemporary African dancer. The music will be driven by the infectious rhythms and musical language of the Yoruba translated and interpreted into the orchestral domain. It will draw from the musical phraseology of instruments from the Sahara region such as the Riti (African violin) and Yoruba percussion traditions. References from the Western classical tradition include the Rite of Spring, and the Kabalevsky and Shostakovich Cello Concertos.

The piece features a dialogue between the solo cellist and the dancer, where they are sometimes juxtaposed against one another and at other times harmonised to a unified interpretation of the music. The orchestra will be complimented by an ensemble of three percussionists to give a bedrock of Yoruba musical phraseology for the dancer.

This new piece will be coupled with a performance of the Rite of Spring. A new choreography will be commissioned from Tom Dale to accompany the orchestral performance of Stravinsky’s work. This will be performed by Bounceback, Déda’s auditioned gifted and talented dance group.

Find out more about Invocation on the sinfonia ViVA website

Mini Strings in Northants

Tue, 3 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Mini Strings in Northamptonshire

Orchestras Live is pleased to be supporting its partner Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Service (NMPAS) with their pioneering string tuition programme, Mini Strings, for pre-school children in Sure Start Centres in Kings Heath, Spring Lane and Camrose in Northampton.

Since September 2011, members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and workshop leader Sigrun Griffiths have been providing inspirational performances and interactive workshops, enhancing the on-going work of the NMPAS Mini Strings team, led by Lauren South, who was one of the Connected to Music team.

As well as the visits, the children and their parents have had the opportunity to visit Royal & Derngate on the day of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert to meet the musicians and perform with them in special family concerts.

Find out about the Connected to Music project

Britten Sinfonia 'Anthems' project

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Britten Sinfonia 'Anthems' project

The first event of an extensive series of Cultural Olympiad projects involving Orchestras Live will see a celebration concert in South Norfolk in January 2012.

The concert will mark the culmination of a creative process in which a team of artists from Britten Sinfonia is working with students from three schools. Together they are creating an Anthem which will be performed at the Village Games around Norfolk during the 2012 Olympic celebrations. The Anthem will be premiered in the concert at Poringland Community Centre on 27th January together with other music devised by the participants and orchestral repertoire performed by the Britten Sinfonia ensemble.

A separate group of young people, the Bright Sparks, are promoting and managing the performance as part of an arts management course with Creative Arts East.

This project has been achieved through the partnership between South Norfolk District Council and Orchestras Live.