Schools and Young Musicians
Encouraging creativity through collaborative composition and song writing
We have work extensively with primary and secondary schools and youth based organisations to co-create projects that explore new collaborative ways for young people to engage with sound. Projects may explore language through music making, use song writing to engage with a selected theme or curriculum topic, or explore new creative processes to encourage a new connection between a young player and their instrument.
Get in touch if you are interested in commissioning and co-creating a project for your school or organisation.
Examples of past some commissions:
Painters of Sound with National Orchestra for All
We recently worked with the National Orchestra for All on a co-created Arts Council funded project bringing creative composition and new experimental performance processes to the Summer 2016 - Spring 2017 programme 'Painters of Sound'. Bringing together musical and visual SoundsCreative connected artists to explore improvisation techniques, the young players from NOFA participated in a weekend course, collaborating with the Quest Ensemble to create a new piece of music inspired by the visual art of Somang Lee. This piece was then arranged/orchestrated by NOFA's composer in residence to perform again in the Spring performance at Ambika P3 alongside another new commission performed by Quest Ensemble and Somang Lee.
Sunland Express with Sunland School of the Arts, Mexico City
SoundsCreative's Founder and Creative Director Tara Franks has been working with the Sunland School of the Arts team since 2009 when together they launched their first song writing project in San Mateo (Sierra Nevada Schools) working with around 120 young students. Incorporating creative leader training sessions and a mentoring programme for musicians, as well as the song writing workshops, the project involved creating a song cycle with the students around a chosen theme. This project has continued to grow year on year and is now an integral part of Sunland's community work.
Sounds, Songs and Symbols
SoundsCreative has been commissioned to lead many song writing and creative whole school projects in a variety of Primary schools across London, Essex and Oxfordshire. since 2010.
Songs in Time
Collaborative song-writing workshops creating song cycles around a chosen curriculum theme.
Past project have been based around the following themes: Shakespeare's The Tempest, The Wind Garden (children's book), The Silk Road (children's book) and The City from the Sky (using the view from the roof top playground as the starting inspiration).
Celebrating Sound
Co-created bespoke projects that aim to bring alive the musical potential of a whole school community including workshops, interactive performances and parent involved performances taking place over a whole week (often linked to Arts week)
Beat it!
Percussion workshops using mixed percussion from djembes to anything we can find in the room!
Examples and a soundbite below...
and another past commission...
The Ark: A Positive Vision of a Low Carbon Future
In 2010 SoundsCreative's founder Tara was invited to be part of a team of Scientists and Artists to collaborate on a project across 10 Oxfordshire Primary schools. The Ark was imagined and coordinated by Oxford based organisation CIAO!
Bringing together a team of musicians (including Jack Ross and Heather Trusdall) , we worked with Willowcroft Primary School, Didcot, to lead a song writing project using the students subject knowledge of our world's changing climate as a stimulus to compose from. The whole project culminated in an exhibition/performance of the childrens' work on a newly built Ark situated outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
