Author Archives: emmacunliffe

1. Jam-packed!

   12th March 2020 1:58 pm Leave a Comment

   Wow, we’ve had such a busy term so far – it’s hard to know where to begin!

   Many Chetham’s students have taken part in a GCSE Listening project this term, in partnership with Manchester Camerata. They have worked with the professional musicians to deliver a series of workshops taking a creative look at the GCSE Music Listening paper. The sessions have explored the terms that the students will come across in their exam such as periods, styles and genres of music, melody, harmony, rhythmic concepts and different instruments. The students worked in small groups to create pieces of music around the terms. Experiencing music in a practical way helps with recalling the terms and by the time the exam comes in June we’re hoping for great marks all around!

   Last weekend we welcomed over 600 people to Stoller Hall for our ‘Dinosaur Adventure’ Schools and Families Concerts! It was a fantastic adventure and we met loads of dinosaurs and instruments along the way. Thank you to everyone who came and worked so hard to help Dollop find his mum, we hope you can join us again in June when Stoller Hall Goes to Space!

   The same weekend we were joined by students from the Music in Secondary Schools Trust. They travelled up from London for the day to watch our families’ concert then chat with professional musicians about their careers and lives as freelance musicians. This was a great opportunity to gain an understanding of routes into the music profession and how different careers in music can look. The students were then joined by some Chetham’s Big Band members and took part in a Jazz Workshop, led by Jim Muirhead. The workshop explored Jazz standards and tools we can use to confidently delve into improvisation. By the end of the afternoon, every student had improvised as a group or independently and it was an absolute pleasure to listen to young musicians exploring new ways of playing at such a high standard! MiSST students did brilliantly, we had such a great day and can’t wait for our next trip to visit them in London!

   Now our mentoring project is underway with Olympias Music Foundation and our sixth form students have been working hard supporting primary schools’ students in preparation for their upcoming Initial Violin Exams. It’s been a fantastic opportunity for students to learn more about pedagogy and how mentoring can aid their musical development. Best of luck to all the Maingot Scholars taking their exams this month!

   Our Relaxed Concert series is continuing next term with a school series aimed specifically at SEND students. These concerts explore music in a comfortable and safe setting, with multi-sensory elements and opportunities for students to join in and interact with the performers. For more information about our Relaxed Concert series and future dates, you can get in touch here.

   It’s great to look back at all the exciting things we’ve done in Outreach so far this year, but we also love to look forwards to the myriad of fantastic projects we have coming up. From vocal workshops to music therapy sessions we can’t wait to share them with you! Check out our What’s-On and Projects pages for more information.

2. New Year, New Decade

   23rd January 2020 2:07 pm Leave a Comment

   We can’t wait to share with you all our exciting plans and projects going on in the Outreach department this year! Our partnership with Nordoff Robbins is continuing this year with a project which introduces Chetham’s students to Music Therapy and furthers their understanding of how music can be used to support people’s needs. We believe it’s vitally important for our students to have a broad understanding of the impact music can have and the ways it can be used so opportunities like this one are really special. You can check out the project in more detail here!

   Our sixth form students will also be involved in a new project with Olympias Music Foundation, providing mentorship for young violin scholars. Chetham’s students will be working with the violinists to inspire and support them in their learning. This experience will be great not only for the scholars but also for our students as they can experience firsthand what it is like to work with and mentor young musicians. They will also gain useful skills and tools that they can take with them in their future professional development. Involving our students in Outreach projects is something we’re passionate about here and we can’t wait to continue celebrating the great work they do!

   Our regular Schools and Families Concerts are kicking off this year with ‘A Dinosaur Adventure’ where a baby dinosaur needs to be reunited with his mum. The musicians are the only ones around to help him, so they’ll need your help! After that, we’ll be going on a massive adventure with ‘Stoller Hall Goes to Space’. In a huge space rocket where we can explore planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies and even find some aliens! We’d love for you to join us, tickets can be found on our What’s On page or you can get in touch via the Get Involved page for more information.

3. Moving Forward

   15th January 2019 10:47 am Leave a Comment

   I think our Music in Residence project may be one of the most exciting projects we have been involved in. We’re really enjoying spending time and delivering workshops in our four schools and have loved meeting their wonderful students. It’s so interesting getting to understand more about how music operates in each setting. Now we’re starting to think even more about skill development and ideas for moving forward, the team here at Chets will be developing a list of helpful organisations and resources the schools can access as we move forward. There might be organisations or resources you know of which might be helpful to the schools taking part in the project. If you can share them with us, we can make them available in the secure project area for colleagues within the project to see. Once again, we must thank the Booth Charities for their support for this activity. The Phase 2 workshops have already commenced and it will be super busy between now and the end of March as we work with each school on their chosen theme. We can’t wait!

4. It’s the End of Term!

   14th December 2018 10:37 am Leave a Comment

   I can’t believe we are already at the end of another term, and what a term it has been! Violetta visited primary schools in Halton and Warrington (thanks, Accent Music Hub for all your support!), we have welcomed young people from the Music in Secondary Schools Trust and taken our students to London to visit them, we’ve explored the science of music in our schools and family concerts, our Junior Middle School Brass Ensemble have played for schools in Tameside, we have hosted the Greater Manchester String Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble and we’ve completed phase one of our Music in Residence projects in Salford. Phew! Been a busy one! But as ever, we’re so grateful to our colleagues in our local Music Education Hubs and all our partners who help us to make sure our projects go where they are needed.

   It’s been a big term at Chets – in case some of you don’t know yet, we have appointed Tom Redmond as our new Director of Music and we’re very much looking forward to working with him in the coming months and years. That’s not to say it won’t be sad to see Steve Threlfall finish in his current role as Director of Music. One of those times you feel happy and sad all at the same time!

   Next year there is loads to look out for. In March we are Voyaging Around the World in our schools and family concert, then in May One of our Shoes is Missing. Look out for our relaxed concert especially for SEND schools in June and we can’t wait to take the schools concerts to Cumbria in July. You can Come and Sing in February at our vocal weekend and join in all things saxophonic at the Sax Day in March. We’ll be in 4 Salford primary schools delivering CPD and creative workshops from January. You can always contact us if you want to get involved on joinin@chethams.com or keep you eye on the website.

   Have a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2019.

   Emma, Catherine and all the Outreach team at Chets