FANTASTIC COMPOSING PROJECT COMPLETED…NOW WE NEED A FANTASTIC SCHOOL CHOIR!

In November, 2014, intrepid music students from Matravers secondary school spent the day at Avebury World Heritage site with composer, Karen Wimhurst and Stonehenge World Heritage Site Coordinator, Beth Thomas, with a brief to create music for a celebration of the unique sites in Wiltshire, to be presented to a VIP audience in May.  They spent a day on site, walking around the stones, finding out about the history of the people and the landscape, humming melodies and soaking up the atmosphere of the place.  They then spent a day back in school, working with the composer to create a song cycle reflecting the spiritual journey you make when entering the stone circle – throwing away your modern world  and listening to the earth.  The piece was commissioned and funded by the Wiltshire Music Hub in partnership with the World Heritage sites.

Composer Karen Wimhurst said:

‘I think together we’ve done a great job.  Both fulfilling the brief to come up with something engaging and interesting for primary schools to sing (yet still harmonically simple and practical for them to learn).  Overall, I think this is a unique, rich celebration of Avebury ……a great portrayal of experiencing the henge by all of the composers.’  

Now we are looking for a school, or group of schools who would be interested in learning the three songs in the song cycle to perform at the special event at Trowbridge County Hall on Wednesday, 20^th May.  The children would need to arrive at County Hall at 3.30pm for a rehearsal, and then stay until the event at 5 or 6pm (exact timings to be confirmed).  There will be a rehearsal slot available in school to teach the children the music initially, and teachers will be given backing tracks, musical scores and lyrics to practise with their children following the visit.   If your school has fantastic singers and you are interested in this opportunity and can be available on Wednesday, 20^th May after school, please contact Kate Courage on kate.courage@wiltshire.gov.uk to register your interest.