Share Sound - our virtual ensembles initiative bringing together young people to explore the digital creative space for ensemble music making - continues to gather pace with the strands in Norfolk and Durham now fully up and running, each with a slightly different approach in terms of content and youth involvement.

Share Sound in Norfolk

Following a period of recruitment late last year, the series of online workshops in Norfolk began in mid-January. A team of musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Norfolk Music Service have been working with 25 young musicians from different musical genres. Their focus on creating entirely new music quickly found a theme of Phoenix, with three distinct sections – Fire, Desolation, and Rebirth. Musical ideas generated by the participants in full sessions and break-out groups have formed the basis for each section, pieced together and orchestrated by Artistic Director James Redwood. Associate Music Leader Yshani Perinpanayagam has brought her own varied professional experience to the process, co-leading workshops and collecting short instrumental recordings made by the young musicians which Yshani is editing into a collage piece.

For many of the young and adult musicians, composing and playing music through a digital platform has been a new experience, and this series of online workshops has seen a fair amount of experimentation in ways of working together creatively. A turning point was in the fourth session when James shared a sizeable chunk of the notated score and soundtrack of the Fire segment. The young people were thrilled to see how their own fragments of material were prominent in the orchestration for the entire ensemble, helping everyone understand the direction of the creative process and boosting their confidence to contribute more. Yshani shared her initial version of the collage piece, which was received with the same excitement. Over the coming weeks the young musicians will be working on the remaining sections of Phoenix whilst honing and practicing their parts in readiness for the recording stage.

Share Sound in Durham

In Durham, Share Sound forms part of their Virtual Music Centre programme, which has a whole host of online ensemble music making opportunities for young people. Durham Music Virtual Orchestra (DMVO) began meeting in the autumn term exploring Baroque repertoire, and musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment virtually dropped into their rehearsals for some Baroque coaching sessions. The creative process began in earnest in late January after DMVO had spent a couple of weeks rehearsing Florence Price’s Juba Dance from her First Symphony, which they have used as the springboard for their creative process. Sessions are alternating between rehearsals and creative workshops with OAE this term. The young people explored the concept of tension and release and decided to concentrate on a reconciliation and desolation theme.

Associate Music Leader Alice Phelps, Orchestras Live’s previous Music Leader Trainee, is working alongside James Redwood, OAE and the Durham Music Service team. Young people have been enjoying the opportunity to safely improvise on mute to a groove provided by the professional players. Alice has now turned this into a Juba Jam improvisation midi track that can be used in any rehearsal. Indeed, everyone has been enjoying the creative process so much, the Durham team turned their last rehearsal into a continuation of the creative process. They have now produced a wealth of musical ideas for James to begin stitching together so they can discuss and shape their piece in the next creative session.

Share Sound is providing a space for all involved to experiment with delivering creative work in the digital space. It is unusual for individual music leaders to have the opportunity to work in a larger team alongside their peers, and as work has gathered pace this year our music leaders have benefitted from the opportunity to meet to discuss and share learning, all of which feeds back into the creative process.

We are looking forward to welcoming our new Digital Producer, Will Roberts, from Vox Multimedia, to our Share Sound artistic team. Will is leading the digital production process and brings lots of exciting ideas to get the young people thinking creatively about how to record themselves and create their digital contributions.

Meanwhile, creative work continues across Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and we look forward to starting Share Sound in Cumbria later this month.