Tony Valberg (Norway) - Children and symphony orchestras in relational, musical meetings

Transcription

1 Tony Valberg (Norway) - Children and symphony orchestras in relational, musical meetings Ever since the 1920s, Norwegian orchestra companies have been working determinedly to reach children and youngsters with symphonic music. In his presentation, Valberg will tell about his experiences from this extensive work, rich in paradoxes, victories and disappointments. Special emphasis will be put on today s challenges and Valberg s experiences with chamber music concerts with babies as the target group. Valberg tells, exemplifies live and shows film. 1. Amanuensis Tony Valberg works at the University in Agder, Norway. He is currently finishing his PhD A relational musical aesthetics Children at the concerts by the orchestra companies. Besides his academic work, Valberg works as a musician and has performed numerous concerts with children as the target group. Most of these concerts were co-operations with Concerts Norway and the orchestra companies. Klaus Gjede YoungCare orchestra project When music is used as a tool for socially endangered children Using words and video managing director Klaus Gjede tells about the vast project that YoungCare has started in Denmark. Based on a co-operation with El Sistema from Venenzuela and 13 dedicated municipalities, ten orchestras are being built up all over the country. The project is financed through different funds. With a three year goal oriented effort YoungCare builds a network around the child using music as a tool to integrate the children in new networks which will meet their special needs. Resourceful adult volunteer amateur musicians will function as mentors with social needs as their focus. They will play in a YoungCare orchestra along with the children with the goal of creating a future for them on equal terms as other children (this will be done through social interaction and mutual tasks). The framework is a municipal co-operation using the already existing resources in the municipality, among others music schools which will provide the child s musical teaching. The regional orchestras have all volunteered as ambassadors. In the future they will meet with the children and provide human and musical experiences in the concert hall. Kaja and Niels Pihl Undergrundens (The Underground s) work with children s opera The music theatre works with opera for children. The approach is to create an active interest in art as experience of sympathetic insight. The idea is to let this interest grow and look for more knowledge. In the opera, efforts are made to further the work for those children (and educationists) who are captured. This work process largely takes its starting point in the children s age and stage of development i.e. each of our performances/shows is targeted at a relatively limited age group. The operas are usually new (in close co-operation between composer and dramatic critic) or adaptations of classical repertoires where the collage form is an important means (the children must experience the intensity of the moment the understanding of artistic

2 form and build-up comes later). Another important parameter is that the plays must be easily accessible to the target group while at the same time maintaining their integrity as works of art playing down is not allowed. This work has been developing over a period of approximately 45 years with an intense practical experience (about 200 performances a year and a repertoire of approximately 25 plays). Each new production has drawn on experiences from earlier productions with the purpose of exploring and improving the interaction between artistic and educational demands. For further information about the music theatre Underground go to our website: Ebbe Høyrup Presenting classical music and new orchestra music for children through school concerts Art meets the uninitiated recipient in a mix of strengths and weaknesses. From the positive effect which the real experience catalyses to the wall of prejudices which surround many art forms. The presentation of music is all about breaking down the fence between artist and audience and instead building a bridge between them. How does this apply to classical music and which considerations are made when one is to present it as concerts for school children? Among other things it is about mutual recognition between the world of art and teaching but also about basic means in presentation, preparation and practical planning. Ebbe Høyrup has been head of LMS Levende Musik i Skolen (Live music at School) for 19 years and has participated in the development and professionalisation of school concerts since the late 1980 s. Throughout the years he has been the driving force and initiator behind a number of initiatives, projects, conferences, networks, think tanks, publications, study trips etc for LMS and the environment generally. Apart from the Danish experiences he has worked closely with organisers in the Nordic countries on subjects such as development, exchange and professionalisation of the ways in which live music is presented to institutions, individuals and networks. This spring he will work closely with UNESCO on global development of the Arts Education concept and he is President of the international committee Young Audiences Committee under Jeunesses Musicales. Mads Bille Like Team Denmark just with singing For 27 years Mads Bille has conducted the Herning Church Boys Choir. He will tell about his work with establishing Den Jyske Sangskole (The Jutland Singing School) which is in charge of the daily teaching of the 150 children and youths who sing in Herning Church Boys Choir and Midt-Vest Girls Choir. The Singing School also has as its objective to further singing in Denmark. In the establishment of the talent environment at the Jutland Singing School, Mads Bille is inspired by Team Danmark s ability to set clear goals and developing talent all based on synergy between the elite and masses. This is also one of the leading ideas in establishing 7 Singing power centres, which Bille initiated and which will be established nationwide from 2012.

3 Connie Koch Rasmussen Max Music: A co-operation between educational and cultural institutions in Odense seeking to fill a public school with music. How do you make different musical institutions with different skills but with the same interest cooperate in strengthening music and show how music can build a bridge between people, strengthen co-operation and learning. How do you make a public school change its structure and emphasize music at the school on a daily basis? How does the daily experience with music influence a child s upbringing and how can it influence school culture? Senior Lecturer at the Teacher Education Programme in Odense (UCL) since School concert coordinator at Odense Symphony Orchestra since Graduated from the Institute of Musicology at Aarhus University in 1980 and since then music teacher at folk high schools, music schools, and high schools. Mogens Christensen Abstract Sometimes I think that we do not miss scholarly prose but scholarly poetry. Maybe there should be a parallel poetry for ambitious theory products a parallel poetry which says it all over again only differently and thus make the scientific language within the limits of its own functional system Niklas Luhmann Sigurd Barrett and Nikolaj Hansen With the serious presentation as its centre, Nicolaj Hansen and Sigurd Barret the men behind Sigurd & the Symphony Orchestra, Sigurd and the Big Band and Sigurd and the Opera on national Danish television will tell about creating and working on the TV-series Sigurd and the Symphony Orchestra. With a generation of children who basically knew nothing about classical music and with parents, who were just as ignorant and in many cases biased, presenting the great art to children and their parents on national television was a demanding task. In detail Sigurd and Nikolaj will account for some of the educational and musical considerations and choices behind the TV-series but also some overall observations on musical presentation. Their lecture will build on their concert with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra earlier in the day.

4 Sigurd and Nikolaj met each other at Aarhus University where they both were studying musicology. Here they started an intense academic partnership, which culminated in 1993, when they got top marks for their thesis The history of Russian rock. In 2000 they started working together again. For national Danish television they created the highly profiled music presentation series for children: Sigurd and the Symphony Orchestra, Sigurd and the Big Band and Sigurd and the Opera. Nationally, the programme Sigurd and the Symphony Orchestra has won numerous awards while in 2010 Sigurd and the Opera was nominated for the most prestigious award in children s television: Prix Jeunesse. With the TV-series as the starting point, Sigurd and Nikolaj have created numerous digital and printed publications which to a large extent are used for teaching in public schools and at music schools. Sigurd and Nikolaj have performed at several family and school concerts with Danish symphony orchestras. For the past ten years, Sigurd s annual Christmas concerts with the DR Symphony Orchestra have made a special impact and are considered a new classic among the programmes aired at Christmas on national Danish television. Three years ago they headed a development seminar for musicians at the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. The purpose was to make the classical music of the orchestra more accessible to children and youngsters. The symphony orchestra acknowledged their efforts by inviting Sigurd and Nikolaj to continue as sources of inspiration in shaping the musical content of Musikkens Hus (the concert hall) in Aalborg. In 2011 they arranged workshops and master classes for everyone with an interest in the presentation of classical music to children and youngsters in the region of Northern Jutland. Thomas Sandberg closing remarks and follow-up When performed live music is communication. How it is presented to the audience and by which awareness of presence is therefore extremely important. Classical musicians often play behind a screen - also known as the music rest. Sometimes it is their only focus during the entire concert. Not the audience or the musician next to them. What are they reading the uninitiated may think. The newspaper? A book? Or are they playing Word Feud on their Ipads? Rather strange behaviour, actually, because at the theatre the actors do not have their scripts in their hands. And how come they are all dressed up? Are they attending a wedding the following day? Or are they going to see the Queen and be presented with a medal? And why is it not allowed to applaud between movements if you feel like it?

5 And where is the fancy light to make things more cheerful? Or a VJ who creates great graphic designs to the music? Why do they not improvise once in a while or do something which is not planned? Why does everything have to be so up-tight? CV Thomas Sandberg is truly a man of many talents as the Danish newspaper, Berlingske, wrote after his alternative debut concert as percussion soloist at the Music Academy in Here he only played original performances using computers, jazz musicians and actors. Thomas has always romped about in the musical landscape with detours to theatre and dance. In Thomas mind there is no such thing as boxes and genres and he is always curiously looking for new dots on the musical map. He composes and develops software for his own multimedia performance concerts. Thomas has won multiple awards, amongst others The Danish Music Critics Prize 1998 (Musikanmelderringens Kunstnerpris), The Danish Composer Association Music Award 2000 (Dansk Komponisforenings Musikerpris 2000), TeaterET Music Theatre Prize 2005 (TeaterETs Musikdramatiske Pris), the Danish Arts Council 3-year Grant and most recently a Danish Music Award for Children s Jazz in Learn more about Thomas by visiting his website: