Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival Education Report 2024

Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival Education Report 2024

Introduction

After more than 15 years working with local primary schools (initially Peasmarsh and Beckley primary schools, and then expanding to include Rye Primary, St Thomas’ Winchelsea and Icklesham Primary in recent years), the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival was delighted to have the opportunity to once again work with more than 140 children from across all five partner schools this year on a programme of workshops focussing on composition and songwriting.

Following the success of last year (which included our first large-scale culminating concert since the pandemic), we kept the format of our workshops and final performance largely the same in 2024. The culminating concert (free and open to the public but ticketed) was once again held in St Mary’s Church, Rye, where all participating children were invited to perform their new songs, accompanied by the award winning Barbican Quartet, who also performed a curated selection of excerpts from the Classical canon.

As in 2023, our education programme in 2024 was led by experienced workshop leader Sam Glazer, assisted by Tom Clarkson, with musicians – including Yoanna Prodanova from the Barbican Quartet – supporting the full workshop days in schools.

Education activities in 2024

As in previous years, our work focussed primarily on classical music composition workshops in our five partner primary schools across Rother, with a cohort of between 19-38 (depending on class sizes) KS2 children identified by each school to participate.

As in 2023, our schedule of in-school workshops began with a short Inspire session in each school before the May half term, during which Sam Glazer was able to begin to build a rapport with the class, ahead of the intensive one-day workshop in each school. These Inspire sessions have become a welcome addition to the schedule over the last few years, as it was recognised that the one-day workshops are very intensive, and some of the children benefited from time with Sam ahead of the workshop, so they were all comfortable and as able as possible to engage with the project when Sam returned to school for the one-day workshop.

We have several autistic children in the class this year and, although the change in routine did throw them a bit, meeting you [Sam] before for the 1 hour workshop was helpful in preparing them…
Sam then returned to each partner primary school after the May half term, supported by another professional musician (Tom Clarkson or cellist Yoanna Prodanova from the Barbican Quartet), to lead a workshop (lasting the full duration of a school day) in each partner primary school. During these workshops, each group of children wrote the lyrics and music for a new song, using themes (books, artwork etc) from in school, and also learned a song that all the schools would sing together. These songs formed the basis of the final concert.

Following the workshops, Sam then supplied each school with materials including a lyrics sheet, and a recording of their newly composed song, to help the teachers support the class with learning their song. It was during this window that Sam orchestrated the newly composed songs for string quartet ahead of the refresher sessions.

Each school was then scheduled a short refresher workshop, with Sam and the Barbican Quartet. These take place during the week of the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival, and enable the children to rehearse their songs with the string quartet ahead of the concert, and learn how Sam will conduct their songs with the quartet there as well. These in-school refresher sessions are also an opportunity for schools to involve their wider school communities by incorporating them into ‘sharing assemblies’ where hall space is available and timetables permit.

Finally, all five school participants were invited to perform in the culminating public concert (to which they could each invite one adult) at St Mary’s Church, Rye during the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival. In addition to performing each of their newly composed songs, sharing the stage with the award-winning Barbican Quartet who accompanied their songs, they also performed the song that they had all prepared (Sumer Is Icomen In) together with all the other schools. The programme for this performance also featured a curated selection of string quartet repertoire (including Ravel, Haydn and Schumann), performed by the Barbican Quartet, who were also contracted to perform in other PCMF concerts across the festival.

The children worked extremely hard across the project. Their commitment and creativity never fails to impress us, and their ability to communicate their pride in what they have accomplished through their performance is always a joy to witness.

Project Outcomes

The key outcomes of our 2024 education work were:
● Music composition workshops for over 140 participating children in Years 3 to 6
● Creation of five new works as a result of the workshops
● Public performance opportunity for all participating children
● Opportunity for parents, and festival supporters, to attend the public performance; a total
of roughly 160 individuals took this opportunity up.
● We issued an invitation to children participating in workshops to attend a public concert
during the Festival for free, with significantly subsidised tickets made available to accompanying adults. It was very pleasing to note that this invitation was taken up in a few cases.

Impact on participants

Our longstanding relationships with our partner primary schools have resulted in our project being seen almost as a ‘rite of passage’, one school commented that they ‘wouldn’t be without it’. However, although they may have seen sharing assemblies in school, in most cases the children that we work with will not have previously had the opportunity to work with professional musicians on composition, or to perform alongside professional musicians.

The Peasmarsh music festival was an absolutely beautiful performance and our children are so fortunate to have the opportunity to experience this level of music. They might not realise it yet but I think this will have a lasting positive impact on them in many ways… For many children, mine included, without this opportunity offered through their education/school they would have been unlikely to have experienced what it was like to perform at this level with highly trained professional musicians and immerse themselves into the world of classical music. I believe it was a truly enriching and engaging workshop/experience that should definitely not be taken for granted. They are extremely lucky to have been involved

- Feedback from a parent of a pupil

During their workshops the children experimented with both singing and percussion (one class even worked with their recorders too) and created their own songs. Feedback from the children always emphasises how surprised and proud they all are to have been able to write a song – something which beforehand they wouldn’t have believed they could have done.

They all wanted to show off their song, they all performed even if singing isn’t a strength, and they couldn’t wait to sing with the quartet.

Participants from all five schools then had the opportunity to perform in public alongside the Barbican Quartet, who were in residence at the Festival in 2024, who also performed classical repertoire they were due to perform in the Festival, bringing a curated selection of classical music to the children, some for the first time.

Participants from Beckley School rehearsing with Sam Glazer and the Barbican Quartet in St Mary’s Rye. Note that this photograph is not to be used on public websites.
The opportunity to perform helped build confidence among participants, and we hope equip them with life skills that will help them beyond the classroom. One school commented that:
I think the whole event was a useful experience for children; understanding that the pressure of a live performance is completely normal and that is something they can all work through.

Another school commented that: …some children who struggle academically but love singing, really wanted to be up front and centre. This gave them their opportunity to shine. It is particularly heartening to learn that our work benefited children who are not always able to engage. This suggests that the workshops not only offered these participants an experience and opportunity to participate in a way that they would not have been possible in a regular school environment, but also that the teachers’ eyes were opened to the potential and skill of these quieter pupils: …a few of our children have SEN. These children find it hard to concentrate and loud noises can affect them. But they were amazing and they joined in and listened to the whole concert without any issues.

I was happy to see some of our less confident children on the front row, smiling away and being some of the most animated performers in the class! Something to look back on and be proud of themselves.

We have found over the years that our inclusive approach to our work, with professional musicians present throughout the process becoming familiar faces to the children, enables children who have not previous engaged with music to access what we do more easily:
I was surprised by how a couple of individual children responded to the professional musicians’ performances. These children had never shown an interest in learning a musical instrument before but were really enthusiastic…

Financial outcome

We are very grateful to the funders of our education work in 2024: Kowitz Family Foundation, Sussex Community Foundation, Arts Society High Weald and the Rudi Martinus van Dijk Foundation. Our grants were primarily spent on artistic costs of delivering our education work.

Income

Grant income
£5,750.00

Expenditure
Project leader planning / orchestration
£1000.00

Supporting musician fees
£1,025.00

Project leader fees (workshops and concert)
£2785.00

Bus for children’s transport
£500.00

Artists transport costs
£211.23

Overheads/general manager costs
£700.00

TOTAL
£6,221.23

Project challenges

As always, the principal challenges during the period of the grant were logistical. The scheduling of three workshop dates with each of the five schools, with Sam and supporting professional musicians – in and around yr 6 SATS – is very challenging. The scheduling of the refresher sessions are also a significant component of the overall rehearsal schedule of the Festival.

The smooth running of the concert day is the other logistical challenge, which relies heavily on the two coaches (working as a shuttle) running to schedule, and all five schools arriving in good time for their rehearsal on the concert day. Inevitably, there is a balance to be struck between not having schools on-site for longer than is ideal (particularly those that arrived first) and those who arrived later on not having quite enough time for lunch. Whilst we have not yet found a solution to this problem (there might not be one), we do try to rotate the schedule year to year, so it is not always the same school impacted. We are also learning where the tricky corners in the schedule are so we are able to support our partner schools to plan ahead with extra snacks etc!

Future plans

We are in the early stages of planning the education workshops for 2025. All five of our partner schools have indicated that they are interested in participating in our project. We are really delighted by the feedback from this year, and look forward to developing our work with the schools next year. The Festival remains fully committed to working with local primary schools, to offering inclusive workshops delivered by first class professional musicians and which require no prior experience or musical training, and to providing a public performance platform for participants, as we did this summer.

Anna Rowe
8 August 2024