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The official newsletter of Coventry Music.
Follow us on Twitter and check out our website for all the latest news.
Included in this update:
We have had a lovely last half term of the year full of wonderful events, highlighting and showcasing all the great work our teachers and students have been doing over the year. It was brilliant to see so many children filling venues across the city with music and so many friends and family coming along to watch.
We have given children in schools, from our music groups and more; the chance to perform at prestigious events such as the Godiva Festival and the HMV Empire as well as come together for mass singing events and collaborative showcase events.
It has been a delight to watch. See below for our highlights
As we draw this academic year to a close it is time to start thinking of the next one, and sign up for September is now open. Current students have been automatically transferred so if you do not wish to continue please do get it touch. We have some exciting new groups starting this Autumn too. Visit our website to find out more and sign up.
Jazz Concert at Drapers' Hall
The Session Band joined up with the fantastic Jukebox Rhythm Orchestra to provide a night of dance classics at Drapers Hall.
The audience were treated to a wonderful night of dance floor fillers as our young performers delivered an exhilarating set including classics from Stevie Wonder and Abba.
Well done to the Session Band; no wonder the audience were left saying 'more of the same, please!'
Planet Blue Cantata
Congratulations to everyone involved in this years Planet Blue Cantata.
Children from 22 different schools spent the day at a singing workshop before performing the full Planet Blue cantata for parents, family and friends. Everyone involved sang beautifully and filled the Cathedral and Butterworth Hall with joyous music about our planet and climate change. The singers were accompanied by some talented percussionists, as well violinists from Barr's Hill, Sidney Stringer and Holbrooks Primary.
On the Monday, the Bluecoat School Gospel Choir sang a range of songs 'a cappella' with delicate harmonies, all arranged by the girls themselves. Having recently performed at the Houses of Parliament, Debbie in the choir commented, "Thanks for inviting us to perform at the event, it was amazing!"
There was great work from Hope Davis, a year 7 student, also from Bluecoat, who was a soloist in Planet Blue each night, leading all of the singers in 'I cannot change the world' and superb playing from Amber Nain (year 10, Coundon Court) who provided pre-concert entertainment on the Arts Centre Steinway piano in the shape of Chopin's 'Grande Valse Brillante'.
Well done to all the children, teachers and parents from All Saints C of E Primary, Earlsdon Primary, Holy Family Catholic Primary, Potters Green Primary, Ravensdale Primary, SS Peter and Paul Catholic Primary, Stivichall Primary, Stoke Heath Primary, Willenhall Primary, Hill Farm Primary, Keresley Grange Primary, Keresley Newland Primary, Longford Park Primary, St Johns C of E Primary, Cannon Park Primary, St Laurences C of E Primary, St Patricks Catholic Primary and Stoke Primary.
Summer Showcase
Coventry Music held the first summer showcase to be held since before Covid at the Warwick Arts Centre this June. It was a chance for all the groups to come together to show everyone what they have been working on throughout the last year. It enabled both parents and family, as well as the other groups to see the young talent perform live.
It was a lovely evening, with singing from both our junior and senior choirs, orchestral pieces from our string and wind groups and some more modern music from our guitar and ukulele groups.
The evening ended with a lovely performance of Sam Ryder's "Spaceman" played and sung by all the groups together.
Well done to everyone involved, including the group leaders, and the parents for bringing their children every week and supporting them at this event. Our talented children made us proud as usual and we can't wait to see what next year will bring. We have some exciting new groups starting next year. See below for how to sign up and more information about all our groups.
Godiva Festival 2023
Coventry Music took over the Next Stage on Sunday 2 July at Godiva Festival 2023.
With the support of our Hub partners, Creative Optimistic Visions, The Tin Music & Arts, Studio X, and Positive Youth Foundation, we had a variety of music performed by the best new young acts from Coventry.
Coventry Music's largest groups, the Community Wind Band followed by SoundLab-COV opened up the stage performing a wide range of traditional and contemporary repertoire.
Solo act Tabitha and alternative rock band Project Overload delivered energetic sets with great examples of original songwriting by young people.
DJ Callum brought his crowd-pleasing skills, whipping the audience up with breakdancing and singalong favourites.
Artists from Studio X's anti-knife crime project album, In These Towns, showcased performances from 3 artists that wrote original songs. NYOTTA, a former Positive Youth Foundation member and mentor, took to the stage performing a fantastic set of RnB and soul songs from her new EP. Listen to the full album: https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZdmovlLzsrhMhfsXTjfiO...
Young artists from Coventry Music's Youth Music funded project, Positive Choices, making their live debut, collaborating on each other's tracks and using the platform to share their life experiences.
Creative Optimistic Visions (COV) Fire in the Youth and Urban Arts mentors and artists closed the set with a fantastic set of lyrical flows and banging beats.
We also saw Sondr rocking the main stage of Godiva Festival, who were the U18 winners of Godiva calling and the Next Stage saw a Coventry Music takeover.
Joe Cook from Coventry Music said, "Well done kids. Serious amount of hard work went into this brilliant experience for the audience and young people. proper."
Orchestral Kickstart project final workshop
On Monday 3rd July a team of 11 tutors who have been working with students in several schools across the city supported around 100 young musicians at a workshop at Central Hall – focusing on students who have mainly began learning through funding from the Coventry Cultural Education Partnerships ‘Orchestral Kick Start’ programme.
The schools who took part were: Barr's Hill, Grace Academy, Sidney Stringer Academy, Stoke Park, West Coventry Academy, Coundon Court and Lyng Hall. The project ran across the entire academic year, with 10 music tutors originally delivering workshops and performances across 6 days, with "give it a go" opportunities on a range of instruments. This was followed up with tuition for those students interested in progressing on a particular instruments
The workshop day enabled the young musicians to experience playing as an orchestra for the first time, with the variety of sounds and music all around them, having to follow the lead of a conductor and start and stop as one cohesive unit.
The group finished the day with an informal sharing with performances of 2 specially written pieces by Coventry Music’s Barrie Johnson and a piece alongside electronics written by Jack McNeil. It was a wonderful experience for all those involved and we can’t wait to see future developments of Orchestral Instruments across the city.
Gig Night at the Empire
Coventry Music and The Tin Music & Arts end of summer showcase held at the HMV EMPIRE was a great celebration of all of the bands hard work throughout the past year. Bands covering all genres took to the main stage and performed at their best ever, with all members demonstrating their skills on their instruments and as a team. It was the highest attended Live Onstage event, with over 230 audience members attending to support the bands. A big thank you to all that joined the celebration and to the HMV EMPIRE venue for supporting live music from young home-grown talent.
Mason, Alex and Mark Patton were extremely proud of the confidence performing on the mainstage as individuals and as a team, and Mark said, " I was personally blown away with the confidence of all of the band members, especially singers who had the additional responsibility of introducing songs and engaging with the audience. I’m extremely proud of all of the Coventry Music staff, tutors, Hub partners and most importantly, the young people who I’ve worked with over the past year. The recent performance at the hmv Empire Coventry for my brain-child that is Live Onstage in partnership with The Tin Music and Arts was phenomenal. It demonstrated the outcomes of a 5 year programme with bands past and present performing on the main stage."
We are looking forward to starting back Live Onstage week commencing 18 September and working towards more performance opportunities.
We are still looking for a singer and bass guitarist for next year so if you are interested in joining for next September visit our website or email us as soon as possible.
Positive Choices Celebration Event at Drapers' Hall
Positive Choices is an after school creative music making programme run by Coventry Music funded by Youth Music and West Midlands Police. It has been running in four different schools across the city and this exciting program allows young people to explore creative music making and develop their skills in various musical elements, such as instrumentation, song-writing and music production.
It focuses on creating original material and encouraging collaborations between young people as well between different schools. Positive Choices proudly works in partnership with various local music and youth organisations such as Studio X, Media Mania, Soundlab-COV and The Tin Music and Arts.
On Friday 14th July we held an informal celebration event to recognise all the hard work the tutor staff and young people have put in over the duration of this project. The event showcased a range of music created throughout the programme from big group ensemble pieces, solo projects, live recordings and studio sessions.
Well done to everyone involved. Watch some of the videos made during the project on our YouTube Channel
Recital Evening
Our final event of the year was our Recital Evening on Tuesday 18th July which was to celebrate some of the Sir Charles Barratt Memorial Foundation award winners and also to enjoy music from some of our higher level players across the city. We were entertained by a wide variety of music played on violins, trumpet, cornet, flute and piano. It was a very successful evening with all of the players conquering their nerves and stepping out of their comfort zones to show off their skill and talent. We look forward to more events in the future to continue celebrating the success of our more advanced players as they continue to develop and improve.
Cllr Julia Lepoidevin attended the event and said: "I was really impressed by their talent and thought it was a lovely relaxing event."
Cllr Ram P Lakha OBE also enjoyed the evening; "I am so glad that I managed to attend. It was fantastic to see the efforts of the young students and the support from teachers to develop the skills. Although I do not understand the language of music but the music from various instruments was soothing to my taste 😊 and I loved it. Thank you for inviting me."
Cllr Peter Male said of the event; "It was fantastic to see such young people showcasing their musical talents in the fabulous setting of Drapers Hall. Performing solo, in front of an audience is a daunting challenge at any age. I particularly liked the piano piece by Libby Breadmore and trumpet solo by William Taylor, however, I extend my congratulations to all on a very enjoyable evening. Please invite me again next year!”
Exclusive music sessions for Home Education students a big success
Music sessions for students who are electively being home educated across the city, have taken place at Draper's Hall this term. The weekly sessions gave students lots of opportunities to engage musically as a group. The children performed on various instruments and in a variety of styles.
"The home Education music sessions at the hub were perfectly timed for my son’s new fascination with musical instruments. The staff were so accommodating, getting out the instruments he wanted to try and welcoming his engagement. The music sessions were so inclusive, and no matter anyone’s prior experience, Sharon involved us all in making music together using a variety of instruments over the weeks. We had a professional cellist playing alongside complete beginners, and it was really fun and gave a real sense of accomplishment each week. The sessions were a fabulous introduction to musicality for parents and children alike. Highly recommend." Parent feedback from Alice
Congratulations to Andreea Neculai of Caludon Castle and Naomi Menezes of Cardinal Wiseman
They both took part in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain ‘Inspire!’ programme at Warwick Arts Centre in January. The girls are both members of the String Ensemble and String Quartet and were nominated by the music hub to gain valuable orchestral experience with NYO. The also traveled to Blackpool in February to perform a 3-day ‘play the school’ event with NYO Inspire! and look forward to further activities in the summer as well.
Wow! Well done Year 3 at St Elizabeth’s
Year 3 have been busy playing their own part in an orchestral piece - reading notation, counting bars rest, playing as an ensemble. They have only played glockenspiels this half term and this was only the third time playing this piece. Look at the concentration on those faces!
They have mastered boomwhackers, used untuned percussion to learn to read rhythmic notation, and used glockenspiels to read treble clef notation and improvise.
With just a 30 minute lesson per week they also took part in our ‘Creature Cantata’ and performed at Coventry Cathedral.
They are confident singing in three parts and blow me away every single lesson. The work that I am challenging them with is way beyond their years, but they rise to the challenge every single week.
"Thank you year 3 for all of your hard work" from Mrs Vincent
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July saw Drapers' Hall become a successful Music Exam Centre
For 4 days Drapers' Hall saw a busy stream of excited and nervous young people coming to take their music exams. It is the first time for a long time that Coventry has had such a lovely location for students to take their exams and it was well received from everyone who attended. We will hopefully be able to continue this going forward.
We had children of all ages, taking exams from per-prep right up to grade 8 and on a full range of instruments, from piano to guitar and baritone. The building was full of beautiful sounds all day long and it was a pure delight to hear.
So many students achieved fantastic results across the 4 days, including several of our own students.
Many congratulations to the following successful young musicians who entered ABRSM examinations at Drapers' Hall:
- Jose Sarauz - piano Grade 1 (merit)
- Erika Binzari - piano Grade 1 (merit)
- Khristina Ramos - piano Grade 2 (pass)
- Andreea Binzari - piano Grade 4 (pass)
- Nimrita Panesar- violin Prep Test (passed with positive comments from the examiner)
- Swara Kiran - violin Prep Test Violin passed with positive comments from the examiner)
- Archishman Sarkar- piano Prep Test (passed with positive comments from the examiner)
- Kashmir Mormi - grade 1 performance exam on clarinet (distinction)
Evensong at Coventry Cathedral
Well done to the Bluecoat School Choir for singing Choral Evensong in Coventry Cathedral on 3 July. The 50-strong choir sang anthems by Pitoni and Gjeilo, canticles by Walmisley and a psalm chant by Peter Aston. Mr Stannard and Mr Boxall conducted. The choir then celebrated the end of a busy choral year with pizza at a restaurant in town.
Sign up for lessons for September
Now is the time to sign up for lessons for September.
All current students have been automatically re-enrolled for next year and notified. If you do not wish to continue next year please contact us as soon as possible to let us know. Direct Debits will start again in September and be spread across the next 12 months.
Any new students or those wishing to learn something new can sign up below.
We offer lessons at schools across the city during the school day and Monday-Wednesday evenings at Drapers' Hall, subject to availability. We offer a full range of instruments and at all levels.
Anyone who signs up before September will be eligible for a discount.
New groups starting this Autumn
As well as all our regular music groups at Drapers' Hall we will be starting 3 new groups this autumn. On Mondays there will be a Musical Theatre group for anyone interested in signing songs from the theatre and musicals. Tuesday will see the launch of a new folk group for all instruments and Wednesday we will be launching a beginner wind band for wind and brass players who would like to come and play with others at Drapers' Hall.
If you would be interested in joining any of these new groups or any of our groups then please register using the button below.
Current members have been automatically re-enrolled for 2023-24, please do let us know if you know longer wish to continue
September start dates
Lessons at Drapers' Hall and all our music groups will start back week beginning 18 September.
Some of our new groups may not start till slightly later in the autumn term, watch our website for more information
Reminder to return direct debits
If you are starting lessons this September or coming to one of our groups you need to ensure you have completed the payment details online or returned a signed Direct Debit. All payments are taken by monthly direct debit and delay in returning this may result in a delay in lessons/groups being able to start. Please contact us if you have any difficulties completing the forms at music@coventry.gov.uk
Because we all love a bit of Harry Styles, especially after his recent visit to Coventry then turn up the volume and have a sing along to this great summer track. "As it Was" - Harry Styles
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