Big Band Theory

Youngsters often see classical music as something for the old or rich, but a new BBC project is making it educational, engaging and accessible for all kinds of children, and teachers, says Wendy Jones...

Nicola Benedetti, celebrated violinist and former BBC Young Musician of the Year, has dropped in at Jessop Primary School in south London for the morning, rehearsing with 40 children. Now, a special performance based on the Storm Interlude from Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes is about to begin in front of the whole school.

There is absolute quiet as the music starts. Nicola plays a solo, then is joined by two Year 6 violinists, followed by pairs of other children. As the younger ones join in, the ‘storm’ crescendoes. Finally, the orchestra takes its bow and Nicola introduces herself, explaining what the job of a professional violinist entails, and how many hours she has to practise.

It’s not every day that a school orchestra gets to perform with an international recording star. But Nicola is an enthusiastic ambassador for Ten Pieces, a BBC project that aims to open up classical music to primary school children through focusing on 10 pieces of music, of which ‘Storm’ is one.

Nicola goes on to take a master class with a Year 6 group, and someone asks if the violin runs in her family. “Definitely not,” she replies. “My parents don’t play any instruments. They knew nothing about classical music. But I started with Suzuki and when I was 10, I auditioned for music school.” The subtext is clear: you don’t need to come from a privileged background. Classical music isn’t exclusive. If you work at it, it’s there for everyone.

Sound and vision

Jessop is one of over 8,000 schools taking part in the project, which started last term with nationwide cinema screenings of a film introducing the 10 pieces. A vast bank of online resources – from lesson plans to simple musical arrangements to filmed master classes – is helping schools develop their own creative responses to the pieces, whether through musical performance and composition or through dance, art and writing.

The BBC is running the project with help from its orchestras, on-air talent, and broadcast and online services. It has the backing of partners and celebrity ambassadors like Nicola in organising concerts and workshops around the country, and it culminates in the summer with a major event showcasing the work of children from across the UK.

A school such as Jessop is well placed to make the most of Ten Pieces. Its pupils all get at least three years experience of playing an instrument through support from the charity London Music Masters. But schools without an especially rich music environment are finding different ways to respond.

At Ravensfield Community Primary School in Tameside, Greater Manchester, class teacher Vicky Novak took Year 3 to the local Cineworld to see the Ten Pieces film. “The film gave the children the chance to get into the music,” she says. “It had recognisable celebrities, dramatisations and animations.”

The children chose to work on A Night on the Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky, creating their own pictorial versions of the story of the witches’ gathering. “We don’t have a lot of children who play musical instruments,” says Vicky. “So artwork was an easy way to access the music.” Music at Ravensfield is covered through a topic-based curriculum without discrete lessons. But the BBC project has provided a fresh focus on music – a subject that can get squeezed with the competing demands of the new curriculum.

Susanne Bell, a Youth Music Initiative tutor working across primary schools in Falkirk, says the project has opened children’s eyes – and ears – to classical music. “When I said ‘do you like classical music?’, the children didn’t have a clue what it was,” says Susanne. So, she played an extract from a film score and the penny dropped. They went off to find other examples of classical music – in television programmes or adverts – and were then introduced to Ten Pieces. “They really loved listening to the music,” she says. “They were moving around in their chairs, and couldn’t keep still.”

Susanne asked the children to make a chart of their favourite pieces and composers. Beethoven came out top with one child writing emphatically: “Beethoven is my favourite composer because his music is just so amazing! Also, Beethoven went deaf and he could still hear the sound of the song in his head. I thought that was impossible! But Beethoven could do it.”

Perfectly orchestrated

The project is also helping class teachers who weren’t as confident teaching music. Catherine Cybulska, at Denny Primary School near Falkirk, is one. She has been following up Susanne’s weekly music lesson by weaving the Ten Pieces theme into other parts of the curriculum. “I’m not a great musician, but I just love the way it’s inspiring the children,” says Catherine. “There isn’t one child who hasn’t engaged, and I’ve learnt enough that I feel I could do next year’s music classes myself.” Catherine and her pupils are now looking forward to a visit from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and an end-of-year concert when local schools will perform their own compositions inspired by Ten Pieces.

Similarly, in the Rother Valley in West Sussex, primary schools are working with the local secondary school towards their own summer concert. The secondary students have held workshops with the younger children and the primary schools’ music coordinator, Juliet Robinson, has run an after-school drop-in clinic with the secondary head of music to help primary teachers prepare.

Sarah Palmer, head of Camelsdale Primary, one of the schools involved, says the BBC project is very timely, with the new curriculum requiring children to evaluate music, including the work of the great composers, and create and perform music themselves.

“It’s a pity if children leave primary school not familiar with famous composers and some of their most notable works,” she says. “We hope that when they get to their teens, they will remember and instantly recognise these pieces of music, that they will have been inspired to like classical music and respond to it. Music is a key part of being a human being.”

All the teachers I spoke to described the project as ‘inspiring’, but none more so than John Dyson, head of Westbury School in Nottingham. His is a special school for 7-16-year-old boys with profound social, emotional and behavioural difficulties – and getting them to engage in music can be challenging. So when his peripatetic music specialist suggested involving all 63 pupils – both Key Stage 2 and the older boys – in a Ten Pieces-linked concert, John nearly choked on his breakfast.

But the music teacher rehearsed with small groups separately and brought them together for the concert. Westbury’s performance of Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King was a spectacular success and, says John, one of the most remarkable things in his 34-year teaching career. “Seeing all my children, and some of my staff, performing like that was frankly an emotional and staggering experience,” he explains. “One of the difficulties of a school like ours is convincing all the young people that they have a contribution to make. So getting them all to play together was quite something. I actually had to leave the hall because I was so stunned.”

The Ten Pieces Champions will be running many more Ten Pieces themed events nationwide. For updates and more information on BBC’s 10 Pieces click here.

5 orchestras

Five BBC Orchestras and the BBC Singers are involved, as well as celebrities such as Barney Harwood from Blue Peter.

200 champions

There are more than 200 Ten Pieces Champions supporting the initiative at a local level, including Music Education Hubs, Music Services and specialist music, dance and arts organisations.

7 experts

The project is also supported by seven classical music experts who have taken on the role of Ten Pieces Ambassadors.

10 pieces

The project will culminate in a major event in the summer of 2015, showcasing the work of children from the nations and regions, as well as the original 10 pieces.