Following their involvement in the success of Share Sound, our major digital inclusive ensembles project created during the pandemic, Norfolk Music Hub was keen to build on this positive experience by supporting music composition in schools.

They wanted to achieve this both with young people as composers and also supporting music teachers to become more confident at delivering co-creation in the classroom.

We designed Share Sound 2 with them to support both of these aims, as well as helping to raise the status and visibility of music in Norfolk secondary schools.

Four schools signed up for the project: Springwood High School at King’s Lynn, City of Norwich School, and Charter Academy and Caister Academy at Great Yarmouth.

For artistic delivery, Share Sound 2 became a strand in Create Yarmouth, our long-term orchestral strategy in the Great Yarmouth area, currently with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Five Concert Orchestra musicians came on board for Share Sound 2 and were joined by composer, James Redwood.

The project develops

Unlike many of our collaborative projects in which the creative process is quite intensive, we decided to take a more long-term approach to give time for work to evolve in each school.

Initial workshops were held in November 2022, which quickly generated the basis of two new pieces: Norfolk Rondo and Purcell Groove. Each school group would continue to develop their own material for these pieces over the following months, with James periodically checking in to support the teachers in their development of the work.

This culminated in a final round of workshops and a performance day in March 2023 at the Drill House, Great Yarmouth, when all the school groups joined with the artistic team and instrumental tutors from Norfolk Music Service to rehearse and perform the new music in a broader programme with pieces curated and arranged by James. Other young creatives from Great Yarmouth helped to film and photograph the final event, mentored by professional artists.

What worked and what we'd do differently

This was an ambitious project, and certainly there were some challenges along the way. Whilst the extended timescale did enable the work to evolve, the music teachers were not always able to engage with the project as easily as they had hoped because of unforeseen issues such as national strikes, changes to their school schedules and other events.

Ideally, we should have brought in the Music Service instrumentalists at an earlier point so they could have contributed more fully to the process and James’ arrangements of repertoire.

The number of parents and carers of the young participants who attended the performance was disappointing, partly because the relatively low level of music activity in the Great Yarmouth schools meant parents were less engaged. This was, of course, part of the motivation for this project as an important step in rebuilding a culture of music-making in those school communities. Having a good quality film from the performance will be another way to share it.

Involving the music teachers as performers alongside the orchestral musicians in the large inclusive ensemble enabled the students to see their teachers in a new light!

For several of the BBC Concert Orchestra musicians this was their first experience of a composition project with young people, and they found it very rewarding, giving them an appetite to do more work of this kind.

Share Sound 2 provided a valuable contribution to pathways for young musicians and formed another strategic component in the partnership between Orchestras Live and Norfolk Music Hub. I’m really looking forward to the next step on this shared journey.

Images: Wayne Pilgrim