quarterly newsletter of scotland s youth music initiative summer 2009y

quarterly newsletter of scotland s youth music initiative summer 2009y

A message from Head of Music, Ian Smith I am delighted to write this short editorial at a time when first indications from the recently appointed Culture Minister, Michael Russell MSP, underline the importance Scottish Government places on YMI and its significant development opportunities for Scotland s young people and their music. I am very proud of what we have achieved and positively look forward to many continuing years of YMI activity under Creative Scotland. Sadly we say goodbye to Caroline Winn, who joins the Hebrides Ensemble as General Manager and Anne Watson, who joins Tommy Smith s Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, also in a management role. It is encouraging that our own staff development matches our commitment to training needs in YMI and I wish them both every success. Ian Smith, Head of Music East Ayrshire Primary Schools Choir: Mike Scott Homecoming Xtravaganza! With support from the Youth Music Initiative, East Ayrshire Council s Homecoming Xtravaganza Concert took place at the beginning of April at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock. The concert involved the East Ayrshire Primary Schools Choir (Kilmarnock, Irvine Valley & Stewarton Area Choir), the Primary Schools String Orchestra, East Ayrshire Schools Concert Band and the Beats of Brazil along with a Primary Schools Samba Band, which was led by John and Marcia Dirkie of Beats of Brazil on the night. The programme included the première of a commissioned work Welcome Home! by Gavin Reid, a tribute to the life and work of Robert Burns. Broadly taking the form of a short song sequence, each song is a progressive narrative inspired by images of the life, dreams and works of Robert Burns. The piece was performed by the Primary Choir comprising of around 150 pupils from the Kilmarnock, Irvine Valley and Stewarton Area Choir along with 30 guest pupils from Ballytober and Culcrow Primary Schools in Northern Ireland and Krokemoa Skole, Sandefjord, Norway. Prior to the concert, these children spent a few days within East Ayrshire where a programme of cultural visits and activities was arranged for them including Burns House Museum, Mauchline and Dean Castle Country Park. The guest pupils had spent many hours rehearsing Welcome Home! before arriving in Scotland, learning to sing in the right dialect with the assistance of a CD which had been prepared for them. The choir received a much deserved standing ovation for their performance. East Ayrshire Schools Concert Band: Mike Scott Cover picture: East Ayrshire Schools Concert Band performing in East Ayrshire Council s Homecoming XtrAvaganza Concert on Wednesday 1 April 2009. Picture: Mike Scott East Ayrshire Primary Schools Choir: Mike Scott John Wilson, Links Officer in Arts and Education, spoke positively of the concert: Homecoming has provided a wonderful focus for our young singers and our guests from Northern Ireland and Norway to enjoy our rich heritage, experience the life and times of Robert Burns and to make new friends. The premiere performance of Welcome Home! was of course the highlight and was a musical experience, which I am sure, will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the young performers.

Youth Music Theatre Scotland: Great Expectations 07: Jennifer Birtles There s No Business Like Show Business! Youth Music Theatre (YMT) UK offers unique opportunities for young people to stage new music theatre. Every year over 2000 young people participate in YMT projects and our work in Scotland has grown substantially since 2006, thanks to three years of project funding to the amount of 118,954 from the Scottish Arts Council s Youth Music Initiative. Our four main programmes offer a progressive route through the company: 1. Music Theatre for All open-access non-residential programmes 2. The Studio 6-day residential summer courses 3. Productions, with auditioned companies 4. Practical training placements for young creative professionals. Some young people will be new to the company, learning skills in acting, singing, movement and improvisation for the first time, others will be developing talents in readiness for future careers. Underpinning the performance techniques is the ensemble experience, socialising and quality of coaching. Youth Music Theatre Scotland: Silver Bough 08: YMTUK It was the best week of my life, ever! Tiffy, 15 Ruth Granton, 16, has progressed through YMT. She says: In 2006, I took part in my first YMT Studio in Edinburgh. It was my first time with the company and I had no clue what I was in for, but by the end of the week the cast was totally involved and proud of the show, which included original music, a cast-devised plot and even some rapping! One of the best things about YMT is the socialising. As the summer courses are residential, cast and Directors are together almost all of the time which really helps to build strong relationships and makes the courses that bit better. Everyone leaves with a family of new friends and loads of great experiences. Youth Music Theatre Scotland: YMTUK The staff are all professionals, so it s a great chance to get to grips with the world of musical theatre. It s a great way of improving confidence, as everyone is very positive and happy to give constructive criticism. You also have the chance to ask the staff questions about working in the theatre industry, which is great if you are planning on taking drama or music further as a career. To be honest, I would recommend any involvement with YMT. It has improved my confidence so much, and I have made so many new friends. I have auditioned again every year since 2006 and have performed in Great Expectations twice and will be in A Winters Tale this summer. I have auditioned for music theatre training programmes around the UK and have been offered 4 places so now I just have to decide where to go! This summer YMT stages eight new productions including Peter Pan at Aberdeen International Youth Festival, and nine Studio courses including two in Edinburgh (20-25 July and 10-15 August). www.youthmusictheatreuk.org

Training and Events for your diary Sound and Music Summer School, The Purcell School of Music, Hertfordshire 16 22 August 2009 If you are aged between 12 and 18 and are into creating music, the Sound and Music Summer School may be for you. The residential workshop offers the opportunity to work with composers and musicians from a wide variety of musical traditions from classical, jazz and electronic. During the Summer School you will: Have composition sessions with leading composers and musicians Explore a number of different styles of composition and music-making Create your own piece of music Have a CD copy of your music recorded at the end of the week Meet lots of other young composers Bring your instrument and get the chance to perform Deadline for applications: Monday 25 May More information: www.soundandmusic.org, www.spnm.org.uk Colourstrings Teachers Course, Music Kindergarten 5-day course, Glasgow 12/13 & 18/19/20 September 2009 Music Kindergarten Foundation Course This course covers the Colourstrings Singing Rascals song books, child psychology, lesson planning, repertoire for babies through to 5 years, dance and movement ideas, principles of Kodály and the philosophy of Colourstrings. The course also includes daily Kodály tuition. For more information about this course and the Colourstrings approach, please contact: Email: colourstrings@aol.com Website: www.colourstrings.co.uk Music organisations sought for youth project 34 All: Stephen Hume Lyndsey Mackay from Glasgow Museums is looking for music organisations to get involved with a new project at the Art Gallery & Museum Kelvingrove. The Kelvingrove Project will take place in June/July 2009, and give young people aged 16-25 the chance to create music inspired by the exhibits. If you would like to get involved, please contact Lyndsey on tel: 0141 276 9351/9443 or e-mail: Lyndsey.Mackay@csglasgow.org News Snippets BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers Competition Now in its 11th year, the prestigious BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers Competition gives young composers aged 12 to 18 a chance to get their music heard by a wider audience. Enter your own, original piece of music no more than five minutes long to the BBC Proms judging panel, who ll choose the winning compositions, which are then performed at the Young Composers Concert during the BBC Proms season and broadcast worldwide on BBC Radio 3. Everyone who enters the Young Composers Competition can attend Inspire Day, a day of workshops that will challenge and inspire you to compose in new ways, in London on 14 August. Further information and entry form can be found on the website: www.bbc.co.uk/proms. The closing date for entries is 29 May 2009. Competition seeks young Highland musicians Nessmp3.com in association with Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is once again holding its talent competition for young musicians, Battle for Bella. They are looking for young bands and solo artists resident in the Highland region, who are aged between 14 and 25 and perform their own material. The competition will take place over a series of heats in venues around the Highlands between March-July 2009. Heat winners will go on to compete in further rounds leading up to a grand Final in July. The winners will be given a slot at the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in August 2009. To apply visit www.nessmp3.com/battle4bella/ apply.htm KEY FACTS The Scottish Brass Band Association s Youth Championships increased from 11 participating bands in 2007 to 21 in 2008 and a new age Novice Section was introduced for players aged 14 and under taking the number of age sections from three to four.

Make Some Noise! Last year the Youth Music Initiative awarded 5,000.00 to Live Music Now Scotland to deliver a series of workshops over six weeks at Donaldson s College, Linlithgow. Donaldson s College is Scotland s national residential and day school providing education and therapy for pupils who are deaf or have severe speech and language difficulties. A series of workshops were delivered by the musicians of Alba Brass (brass quintet) and Amici Winds (wind quintet). Amici Winds worked with a mixed age primary group to prepare a Christmas production The Little Angel by Caroline Hoile. With the support of the schools teachers and their specialist music teacher, Di McGuire, the children worked with Amici Winds on each of the pieces for their Christmas performance. Each week musicians and children alike saw their confidence and abilities grow. At the end of the project, Amici Pupil of Donaldson s School: Di McGuire Amici Winds and pupils from Donaldson s School: Di McGuire Winds commented: After completing this project, we realise now that one shouldn t ever under-estimate anyone s potential level of achievement Music is not just to be heard, it s to be seen, felt and experienced. Alba Brass and students from the upper school, prepared for a performance featuring the premier of a piece entitled Make Some Noise!, by trumpet player, Bede Williams. Make Some Noise! is a part fixed, part improvised piece for brass quintet, percussion and live electronics. The piece is split into two movements: Sounds in Nature ; and, Sounds in the City. Within these contexts, the students picked creatively from an array of percussion instruments, matching them to a sound from nature or the city. Paying close attention to the capabilities of each individual, a signing interpreter used experiment and dialogue to enable each pupil to be matched with a sound source they could receive, in many cases through the sense of vibration. In one student s case, a Nintendo Wii controller allowed participation in instant composition and live performance, using programmed pre-recorded sound samples from the relevant sound worlds. Without instruction the student was able to play the Wii through hand gestures, manipulating the sounds within the frequencies he was able to hear. Another student played with the beat of the brass quintet. As she discovered that she could feel the tuba, she was seated closer to it, resulting in her contribution to the natural pulse and direction of the music. The workshops culminated in a highly successful and rewarding performance from both groups to a huge audience made up of the school, parents and invited guests. Bede Williams remarked The music staff at Donaldson s recommendation to us was Don t decide what they can or can not hear for them. This became somewhat of a mantra over the project and engaging the imaginations of these young people through composition and sound was a meaningful and important event for Alba Brass and the students involved. Alba Brass is now expanding this groundbreaking programme internationally and has already visited two further countries with it, Abu Dhabi and Northern Ireland.

YMI the story continues In 2003 the Scottish Arts Council established the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) through funding from the Scottish Government. Six years on the Scottish Government is maintaining its annual investment of 10 million to place music at the heart of young people s lives and learning. The YMI has led to an explosion of music making opportunities across Scotland since its inception. This bold policy has provided a unique opportunity to lay the foundations for revolutionising youth music in Scotland. Scotland now has its first National Youth Music Strategy, with the aspiration of creating a music education framework among the best in the world. The focus of the strategy is about taking part. YMI aims to create opportunities to access music making. The Scottish Arts Council has responded to the Strategy s 18 action points and established three key aims for the work of the YMI; Provision of high quality music making programmes; Support the development of a cohesive national infrastructure for the youth music sector; Supporting and developing the workforce. For further information and to download the National Youth Music Strategy visit: www.scottisharts.org.uk/ymi Latest YMI Awards Independent Music Making is an umbrella set of funds trying to support young people making music in an unsupervised capacity. Demo Fund The demo fund is a newly established open fund designed to help provide young musicians with the opportunity to work with professional recording studios to produce a demo. The following studios were all awarded funding: Verden Studios Ltd 5,000 Thick Skinned Productions 5,000 The Green Door Studio Community Interest Company 4,900 Sub Station Studio 4,860 Watercolour Music Ltd 4,000 Chem19 Recording Ltd 5,000 Touring Pilot Greater Easterhouse Arts Company Towards the cost of piloting a new touring circuit for young bands and musicians with workshop and training opportunities 23,652 Other Funds Clore Performing Arts Awards - Only ONE more deadline for current programme Deadline: 16 September 2009 The Clore Performing Arts Awards fund performing arts education initiatives aimed at children and young people aged 0-18 across the UK. The Awards will fund education programmes that cover every aspect of the performing arts including opera, dance, music, musical theatre, the spoken word and theatre. Organisations must be either a registered charity or a limited company to apply and early years settings, primary, middle and secondary schools, sixth-form colleges, SEN schools, Pupil Referral Units and voluntary youth organisations are all eligible to apply. The Awards will fund project costs ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 and applications should be for a new project rather than for a repeat or extension of an existing project. To download criteria and an application please go to: www.cloreduffield.org.uk/page_sub. php?id=71&parent=35 Musicians Benevolent Fund - Young Talent Award 2009 The Young Talent Award offer musicians who are under 18 funding of up to 1000 towards the cost of buying an instrument, music lessons with a private teacher, fees or travel expenses to attend a Saturday music centre. They can also help musicians aged 18 and over with buying an instrument if they are going on to study at university or college. To find out more about the Young Talent Award and to apply visit: www.mbf.org.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 12 June 2009. KEY FACTS There has been 191 successful applications to the YMI small & large grant fund. 2.69million has been awarded with the total requests for funding reaching 7.1million For further information about YMI: Scottish Arts Council 12 Manor Place, Edinburgh EH3 7DD Telephone 0131 226 6051 Facsimile 0131 225 9833 Help Desk 0845 603 6000 (local rate) Typetalk prefix Help Desk number with 18001 E-mail help.desk@scottisharts.org.uk Website www.scottisharts.org.uk ISSN: 1756-2643 The next issue of y is out in August 2009. To subscribe email your address to: ymi@scottisharts.org.uk