Manchester Inspirational Voices, members of Making Music, have won the BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year 2016 competition.
News
Post date: Monday, 12 December 2016 - 4:36pm
Post date: Friday, 9 December 2016 - 3:27pm
Early in 2017, ten member groups will be featured on BBC Radio 3's Saturday Breakfast show. Performing groups of all kinds (vocal and instrumental) are invited to submit recordings - of any style, genre and instrumentation - to Making Music. We'll then whittle down the entries to the top 20 for the BBC to select the final 10 pieces from.
Post date: Tuesday, 6 December 2016 - 2:56pm
The performance of my piece ‘Ukulele Fantasy’ by The Lincoln Ukulele Band is fast approaching. The band have been practising my piece with great dedication and it has been wonderful to hear it transform over the last few months.
The last rehearsal was one of great positivity, and it was great to see the band really enjoying the challenge of the music. The band has learnt to cope with complex rhythms and unusual notation, and have developed their ensemble skills, being required to align and overlap multiple parts carefully and to follow a conductor!
Post date: Tuesday, 6 December 2016 - 2:49pm
The Horsham Symphony Orchestra has had a fairly leisurely start to the Adopt a Composer project. We were fortunate enough that Adriano has been able to attend a few rehearsals over the last term and even to see us performing at our last concert. He is beginning to get to to know the character of the orchestra and get a feel for what we can (and can’t!) do.
Post date: Monday, 5 December 2016 - 12:49pm
When we (and other music advocacy organisations) are making the case for amateur music groups to those in power, being able to demonstrate their value to communities is vital – and we don’t yet have the hard evidence to do so.
This pilot project is looking at how and what data we need to collect to discover more about the difference your groups make to your local communities. Please help us gather this information by filling in the survey below so that we can better help you.
Post date: Friday, 25 November 2016 - 5:32pm
Over a year ago now, the government’s consultation on making the proposed EBacc a compulsory measure for secondary schools closed, and we are still waiting to hear their response.
The EBacc would see a school’s performance rated according the percentage of its pupils successfully achieving the proscribed GCSE subjects - which do not include any of the arts.
Post date: Tuesday, 15 November 2016 - 3:46pm
Corporate members Rayburn Tours outline 7 ways learning an instrument helps young people.
Post date: Monday, 7 November 2016 - 12:12pm
Our adopted composer, Chris Schlechte-Bond, had already been up to Macclesfield to meet the band. On that occasion he brought his alto saxophone and joined in our rehearsal. For his second visit, he agreed with our MD Julia Harding that he would run a workshop in the first half of our weekly rehearsal. Needless to say, we were fascinated to find out what he had in mind for us.
Post date: Tuesday, 1 November 2016 - 11:28am
It has been over a year since I first met the Thame Chamber Choir to discuss a new work as part of the Adopt a Composer scheme. Their first concert I attended was a programme of Purcell and his contemporaries interspersed with readings from Samuel Pepys’ diaries – the latter delivered with aplomb by Bruce Alexander. I was struck then by the skill of the choir and by the literary environment in which the concert took place.
Post date: Tuesday, 1 November 2016 - 11:12am
Visiting the choir a couple of times I was great to be able to build a rapport with the members, listen to them sing and understand and get to know their routine/space/rehearsals.
We decided on a date for the first workshop for a few weeks time to give space to think of how to approach the session and so both Mark, Strathendrick's music director and David, our project mentor, could attend. Their feedback and suggestions on my workshop ideas proved really useful in fine tuning my plans for the session and made me consider accessibility and focus.
