Essex Vibrations

We’ve been working with D/deaf students from four schools in Colchester and Chelmsford to create their own original music to be performed alongside musicians from Sinfonia Viva.

This month marked an inspiring finale to our Essex Vibrations project! After a series of lively workshops in schools across Colchester and Chelmsford, all four participating schools came together for two vibrant performances that showcased the work the young people had created.

The performances and workshops were led by composer James Redwood and Ruth Montgomery, a profoundly deaf flautist based in Essex. The workshops enabled students to co-create percussive scores, sign songs in BSL, and build confidence in their singing.

On performance day, they were joined by conductor Helen Harrison and Sinfonia Viva, who not only accompanied the young musicians but also performed for them. Coming together to share what they had learned, firstly with their peers and the other schools, and later with friends and families. It was a powerful and joyful moment for everyone involved. This project was initiated by Lexden Primary School with Enhanced Provision for deaf pupils.

The project will also launch new resources - audio tracks and BSL-interpreted videos to better support other schools' music education for their D/deaf students. These will be available in early 2026.

Fairy Queen: Three Wishes, King Lynn

A reimagining of Henry Purcell’s 1692 opera by composer James Redwood and writer Hazel Gould. The Fairy Queen: Three Wishes for schoolchildren in Norfolk this month.

A full auditorium of sparkly-eyed, fully-engaged primary school children were both audience and choir for the morning performance of Fairy Queen: Three Wishes by James Redwood and Hazel Gould with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Alive Corn Exchange, Kings Lynn hosted the community opera which has previously toured to Durham in partnership with Orchestras Live.

Over the years OAE has developed their annual residency and their audience in Kings Lynn; so this autumn, nine primary schools enthusiastically learnt the opera’s songs with the OAE learning team. A Norfolk and Suffolk Music Hub tutor then developed their performance and singing skills. They all loved hearing the cast sing and singing with them too, with eight children acting as the Fairy Queen’s sprites. The schools are already keen to participate next time.

This year the orchestra worked with a broader range of people. Two local Young Creatives joined the tech team for the rehearsal and performance period for the first time.

Around 20 adult community singers from Kings Lynn Festival Chorus joined four of the schools to be part of the evening performance and The Gliders – a young local band linked with Creative Arts East brought their vitality and groove. The full and supportive audience fed back that it was: ‘amazing and uplifting’, and ‘lively and joyful with all ages included’.

Aurora Orchestra at Wiltshire Music Centre

Our new orchestral partnership with the exciting and dynamic Aurora Orchestra visited Wiltshire Music Centre this month.

We were delighted to support Aurora Orchestra's visit to Wiltshire Music Centre on 21 November.

The concert was preceded by a vibrant Q&A and open rehearsal for local secondary school students; a unique opportunity for audiences of all ages to experience this memorised programme and unique presentation that Aurora has become known for since its first concert in 2005.

In addition to this project, we are also working with Aurora and Turner Sims in Southampton next year and are excited to develop this new relationship with the orchestra.

Young Creatives in Corby

Young Creatives began at a youth club in Corby in July 2025. This project explores how music can amplify young people’s ideas, stories, and aspirations through meaningful creative encounters.

On 27 and 30 November, we return to Corby to collaborate with Kingswood Youth Group and Project M at the Cube Theatre. Together, we will continue challenging traditional hierarchies of musical genres by supporting young people to lead their own creative learning, using their original ideas and compositions as the basis for collective music-making.

With improvisation and co-composition at the heart of the process, the project enables skill-sharing between professional musicians and young people in community settings, bridging the gap between formal and informal music learning.

The first phase of the project was led by Music Leader Yvette Riby-Williams when a new co-composed piece was made by the group.

This phase welcomes the involvement of Aga Serugo-Lugo, a London-based music leader, vocalist, clarinettist, composer, and workshop facilitator known for his narrative-led community music practice.

Young participants will have the opportunity to shape their own co-compositions, building on the creative groundwork established earlier in the year. We will also celebrate their achievements with a recording of the pieces developed across the July and November sessions.

From Rail to Stage

Our partnership project celebrating the 200^th anniversary of the birth of the railway in Darlington.

This month we celebrated the 200^th anniversary of the birth of the railway in Darlington in a specially curated concert and project, From Rail to Stage, with Opera North, supported by the Stockton & Darlington Railway 200 26 miles Community Grants fund.

200 years ago, the first trains designed by George Stephenson travelled from Stockton to Darlington kickstarting a brand-new era of travel across the UK and then across the world. The people of Darlington and the north-east really did “change the world from here”!

Our partnership with Darlington Hippodrome and Durham Music Service wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to celebrate such an important local and national milestone. From Rail to Stage set out to explore the links between the birth of the railway and the cultural changes, with the building of the theatre, that it brought about. Trains were critical in bringing a wide range of actors, performers and even circus animals to the Hippodrome’s stage.

Our project began with an inspiration day at Hopetown Museum, which explores the unique railway heritage of the region. Young people from Hummersknott Academy investigated the artefacts and stories in the museum alongside those from Darlington Hippodrome’s archive.

Working with music leader Sarah Freestone the young people took all of this inspiration from their town’s heritage and created a brand-new piece to perform. The museum’s morse code machine was particularly helpful in creating musical ideas and rhythms. Different Voices captured the many voices and fleeting scenes you experience as you travel and arrive somewhere by train, represented by different instrument groups and vocal effects.

Alongside this Durham Care Choir, a newly established choir led by Durham Music Service for anyone involved in children’s social care, performed Song of the Skerne a heartfelt tribute to the local river written by the Darlington community in 2021. The song begins with a railway inspired soundscape and the first musical theme traces the date, 1825, when the world’s oldest continuous use railway bridge opened over the local river. This was the first time the Care Choir with a live orchestra and they rose to the occasion with an emotive performance with the Orchestra of Opera North.

The concert encompassed so many aspects of musical performance, old and new, professional and community, young and old and presenter Amy Freston wove these musical threads together into an entertaining evening of music making to celebrate Darlington’s amazing heritage.