HalléFor Youth
Concerts for Schools 2012
Record Breakers
Conducted by Andrew Gourlay
Presented by Tom Redmond
Part of Music Nation,
a London 2012 Festival project
The theme for this year’s concerts was ‘Record Breakers’ and examined which instruments set the limits in the modern symphony orchestra – who plays the longest, the shortest, the loudest, the softest, the highest and the lowest.
The programme featured music from Star Wars to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Ravel’s Bolero, taking the audience from Knightsbridge in London all the way to the Appian Way in Rome!
Everybody had the opportunity to join in with Steve Pickett and Terry Caffrey’s brand new song, ‘Chase down the Sun’, which was led by Stuart Overington, Co-Director of the Hallé Youth Training Choir and Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Children’s Choir. During each concert, one of four schools involved in the associated creative music project gave a performance of the music they had created with players from the Hallé.
Hallé for Youth is the name given to the annual series of schools’ concerts performed by the Hallé at The Bridgewater Hall. They are usually conducted by the current Assistant Conductor. The concerts have been performed since Barbirolli’s time but came into the form that they are now recognised today when the Hallé Education Department became fully established in 1989. Across the four concerts in the series, which usually take place in March, the Orchestra plays to many thousands of young people from Greater Manchester and the north west. Schools come from as far away as Wallasey in the west, Bradford in the east, Stoke-on-Trent in the south and Carlisle in the north. The focus of the concerts is on providing a live music experience for young people who, in most cases, have never heard a symphony orchestra before. Another key feature of Hallé for Youth is the opportunity to visit The Bridgewater Hall, one of the country’s finest concert halls. A recent development in the concerts, delivered through a partnership with the Film and TV course at Stockport College, is the inclusion of a large screen behind the Orchestra featuring live images of the presentation enabling all the children in the audience to see more easily the instruments of the orchestra, as well as other images appertaining to the theme and content of the programme.
The concert programme for Hallé for Youth blends music from the standard orchestral repertoire with film scores and more popular pieces with which the children may be familiar. In addition to the orchestral works, the programme also includes a song so that the whole audience can join in singing with the Hallé. The focus of the concert is mainly on Key Stage 2 (late primary school), although as many schools that regularly attend these concerts will say, there’s something for all ages here and, in the past, seven and eight year olds have attended alongside sixth formers. During the concert the young people learn about the four sections of the orchestra, what the different instruments of the orchestra sound like and where they are placed on the stage. The performance also covers the key elements of music, such as pitch (high and low), dynamics (loud and soft), and tempo (fast and slow). Whilst Hallé for Youth is not designed to cover all the areas of the National Curriculum for Music, the nature of the presentation and the musical content of the programme deals with most of the key points.
Music Nation
Music Nation is a nationwide weekend of live music events held across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012. Devised and led by the BBC, Music Nation is the first nationwide countdown event to the London 2012 Festival.
Built around classical and orchestral music, but also featuring jazz, folk and world music, Music Nation will see thousands of musicians and audiences enjoy world-class performances, community projects and workshops in venues and public places up and down the country. Music Nation is a partnership with the BBC, Arts Council England, the Association of British Orchestras (ABO), British Association of Concert Halls (BACH), Orchestras Live, Making Music, Conservatoires UK and Locog to celebrate the richness, diversity and excellence of Britain’s musical life.
BBC Radio 3, Music Nation’s principal media partner, is dedicating its weekend programming to Music Nation with additional programming across the weekend on Radio 1, 1xtra, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC local radio. For full details on all the events visit bbc.co.uk/musicnation
