Peter Morris, Music Director of Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra and former Chair of Wolverhampton City Music Education Hub, tells us about the symphony orchestra working together with the city's youth orchestra, via the music hub.
Background
Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra (WSO) is a thriving group now celebrating its 50th anniversary. We have around 70 regular players and have always had a strong relationship with the city’s music service through the number of instrumental teachers who have played with the orchestra.
For some time, a few young players have been encouraged, particularly by their string teachers, to attend WSO rehearsals. Members from the Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra (WYO) have also joined in WSO’s annual open playdays, held at the local music school, where a major orchestral piece is rehearsed and performed.
The challenge
The city itself is relatively small and compact and it has therefore been possible to build strong musical connections between schools, the music service and music hub partners such as WSO. Ciaran O’Donnell (Head of the Wolverhampton Music Service) and I discussed ways in which this blossoming partnership could benefit, maintain and grow instrumental music in the city. We thought there was potential to increase the opportunities and experiences for young musicians as well as growing the reach and reputation of the orchestra. Greater collaboration might also make some inroads into the Covid-19 deficit which had affected many youth music groups in recent years. Supported by the WSO committee, it was decided that the two groups would play together on more occasions, although each group would retain its independent identity and programming.
What we did
Firstly, in 2022 young players were invited to participate in the performance of Kodaly’s Hary Janos in the WSO Summer Concert. A small group came along to try through a simplified version of the music. What a mistake! They really preferred to play the original orchestral parts and did so with such aplomb that they not only played Hary Janos in the concert, but also Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony. Having enjoyed this experience, they joined the orchestra in the following season and 11 young people will be taking part in the summer 2024 concert.
Our second collaboration was offering subsidised tickets to WSO concerts to families of students on the Music Service’s Elevate programme for gifted instrumentalists (young people already have free admission to WSO concerts). Many of these young people and their families had never heard a full symphony orchestra before and were excited to realise where their musical studies could lead them.
Members of the Youth Orchestra pose with Associate Conductor Tommaso Nista after a performance of Respighi’s The Fountains of Rome in March 2024
Our next joint venture was to encourage WSO and WYO members to attend each other's rehearsals. This gave the young members of WYO the confidence in tackling new repertoire. Now, excitement was slowly building up for our major, fourth collaborative venture: 'An Orchestral Adventure Through Time'.
‘An Orchestral Adventure through Time’ was a city-wide initiative to give every Year 7 pupil in Wolverhampton, including those attending special education schools, the opportunity to access an orchestral concert free of charge. The Music Service successfully gained Place Partnership Funding from Arts Council England (Wolverhampton is currently named as a City of Youth Culture priority place by the Arts Council). So, a project began which would meet the musical aims of both the city and the principal partners in the Cultural Education Partnership.
The result was that WSO and WYO joined forces to give two daytime concerts, with Rachel Leach as an excellent Presenter/Animateur. More than 2,500 pupils attended and heard music ranging from Vivaldi’s Spring to Slumdog Millionaire and How to Train Your Dragon. With more than 100 players on stage it was an impressive sight and sound! The former Civic Hall in Wolverhampton had recently been refurbished as The Halls and it made for an exciting venue. Most WSO members had never before performed with full stage lighting and other special effects. Feedback from the young people who attended and from all who took part was overwhelmingly positive too.
An Orchestral Adventure Through Time - Wolverhampton Music Service Schools' Concerts 2024
What we learned
WSO has enjoyed the enthusiasm of the young players and WYO has experienced a repertoire and a playing standard that would not otherwise have been available to them within the city. Their families and friends have increased ticket sales at WSO concerts and the subsidised tickets for families of Elevate pupils have also had an impact.
As far as the ‘An Orchestral Adventure through Time’ concerts are concerned, WSO members really appreciated the enthusiasm shown by the audiences and the young players. This energised adult players, some initially sceptical, who were unanimous in their enjoyment of the event. WSO is now more open to this kind of initiative and plans to continue the experience over the next two years are going ahead. There were, of course, some logistical complications along the way but they were dealt with by discussion and by close collaboration – another learning journey. The Music Service is very used to mounting complex activities and their lead in these matters has been hugely appreciated.
WSO has benefitted in very many ways from our collaboration with the Wolverhampton Music Service, in particular, the influx of younger members, and we are committed to ensuring this collaboration continues into the future.
Find out more about the Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra on their website and follow them on Facebook and X (Twitter)
Find out more about the Wolverhampton City Music Education Hub on their website
To find out more about working with young people, check out these Making Music resources:
As of September 2024, the Wolverhampton City Music Education Hub will become part of the Black Country Hub serving the constituent towns of Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell. Each Music Service will continue to be lead delivery partners in control over its own devolved budgets and can therefore continue to support ventures such as orchestral partnerships and music education collaborations. The financial input from the Arts Council via the enlarged hubs is expected to be unchanged.
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