Find out what we've been up to recently.

Voices of Bolsover has delivered a series of fantastic music-making sessions at Bramley Vale, Palterton and Duckmanton Primary Schools.

This year-long engagement involved working with residents from a collection of villages now known as the Cultural Corridor in Bolsover, Derbyshire.

We visited Doe Lea, Glapwell, and New Houghton, to work with participants of all ages in music-making workshops and interactive mini-concerts.

Recently, we worked with two adult writing groups and pupils from Palterton, Bramley Vale and Duckmanton primary schools, exploring their perceptions, hopes and dreams for their villages and communities.

Led by writer and poet Lynn Ludditt, poems were created with all groups, forming the basis for a musical culmination. Andy worked with the pupils and musicians to make new compositions that were presented to friends and family as all the schools came together to celebrate and share their wonderful work!

The project is a partnership with Music in The Round, music leader, Andy J Smith, The Bailey String Quartet, and The Consone Quartet.

Manchester Camerata made a memorable first visit to Darlington Hippodrome this week, bringing violinist Donald Grant and his folk band for a performance celebrating the music and stories of the Scottish Highlands, including Donald’s work The Night Overtook Us.

Donald worked with local musicians in a workshop to learn some of his favourite folk tunes to perform at the concert's opening. Our young musicians recruited by Durham Music Service were challenged to learn by ear and follow Donald’s direction in the performance – no mean feat on one workshop!

With the orchestra performing standing and the Hippodrome’s team lighting the stage beautifully, the audience loved seeing and feeling the vibrant musical energy from the stage, as the warmth of the music filled the winter’s night.

Our partners at South Asian Arts-uk (SAA-uk) have been working with schools in Leeds delivering workshops this term.

Students explored song and movement with the resource films and were excited to see the live performance with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) and SAA-uk at The Sikh Centre in Leeds. One school said the show was “a super musical and cultural experience for the children”.

We are excited that our Action Research project, Culture Sounds – A Space to Be(long), exploring the impact of arts activity for children and young people in the care system, is now in progress.

As a continuation of our work with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) in Derbyshire, we are working with Leicestershire Virtual School and Sinfonia Viva to deepen our understanding of the sector and the experiences of care-experienced young people.

We will explore holistic approaches to music-making together, and how UASC can build confidence and agency in this space. Our project is part of a Midlands-focused research initiative led by Arts Connect, The Mighty Creatives, and the University of Wolverhampton.

We had a fantastic day with LM tutors from across the county, as Music Leader, Raph Clarkson, led a creative exploration of resources in preparation for a series of projects taking place in SEND settings throughout 2025.

This is a legacy of Together Through Music Live in the summer, where Raph and Sinfonia Viva musicians spent time at Eresby School and Tulip Academy, to pilot inclusive music provision. Due to its success, plans are in place for this cohort of tutors to develop their skills in more schools across the county and to work with Raph and Sinfonia Viva, to adapt and refine the resources for each of the environments they are working in.